In this episode of the Money Metals Midweek Memo, host Mike Maharrey opened with a story from his childhood about a quarter superglued to a school cafeteria floor.
In the 1980s, a quarter could actually buy something. If it had been minted before 1965, it would have contained 90 percent silver. Today, the melt value of a pre-1965 quarter is about $14.60. That old prank becomes a powerful metaphor in a world where silver and gold have surged.
Maharrey connected that memory to a recent headline out of Macau. A luxury hotel that opened in 2006 tore up its lobby floor, which had been embedded with 1 kilogram of gold bars as part of a decorative golden pathway. The hotel’s parent company liquidated 79 kilograms of gold and pocketed $12.8 million. Management described the sale as a way to strengthen its financial position and invest if suitable opportunities that arise.
That decision raised a deeper question. When should you sell your gold and silver?
The Macau Gold Sale and the Fiat Question
Macau, a former Portuguese colony handed over to China in 1999, operates as a special administrative region similar to Hong Kong. It is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal, though Beijing has pushed the region to diversify. The Grand Emperor closed its casino last fall and is renovating the lobby, which gave executives a reason to remove the gold.
Still, Maharrey questioned the logic. The company did not cite debt repayment or specific capital expenditures. Instead, it suggested the gold sale would provide flexibility for future investments. To Maharrey, the gold was the investment.
A MarketWatch reporter pressed him on whether the transaction was conducted in Hong Kong currency and whether he was implying that the Hong Kong currency is devalued. His answer was yes. He broadened the argument to all fiat currencies. Whether US currency, Hong Kong currency, or the yuan, governments are inflating and devaluing their money.
Gold’s price is not simply rising. In many cases, currencies are losing purchasing power relative to gold. In some countries, gold’s gains measured in local currency have been even more dramatic than in US currency. Central banks understand this dynamic. That is why gold buying has surged globally. Physical gold demand reached record levels last year, almost everywhere except the United States, with much of the buying driven by Asia, including China, Japan, and India.
The Debt Black Hole and $6000 Gold
Maharrey pointed to a recent forecast from CIBC, the Canadian bank, which raised its gold price projection to $6000 this year. Analysts there argued that US Treasuries are no longer viewed as risk-free and that Western economies face near record debt to GDP ratios. Governments are more likely to inflate than constrain their way out of these obligations.
The Federal Reserve openly targets 2 percent annual inflation. That means a planned reduction in purchasing power every single year. Over five years, that compounds to more than 10 percent erosion in the US currency’s value. Against that backdrop, holding long-term savings in fiat currency becomes a losing strategy.
Maharrey described this environment as a global debt black hole. Governments need inflation to sustain borrowing. Fiat systems were designed to allow money creation without constraint. Gold, by contrast, cannot be printed. That scarcity is precisely why central banks are accumulating it and why mainstream analysts now speak openly about $6000 gold.
So When Should You Actually Sell
Maharrey made it clear that he is not arguing that you should never sell gold or silver. The key is why you are selling and what you are doing with the proceeds.
Selling makes sense when you are converting metal into something tangible or productive. If you sell silver to fund long-delayed home repairs, you are transforming stored value into improved property. If you liquidate an ounce of gold to take a meaningful vacation, you are exchanging stored purchasing power for life experience. If you rebalance your portfolio with a specific strategy in mind, that is a deliberate financial decision.
Selling also makes sense when it strengthens your balance sheet. Paying down high-interest debt or covering a necessary expense can justify converting metal into cash.
What does not make sense, in Maharrey’s view, is selling simply because the price has gone up and then sitting on depreciating fiat currency. Converting gold or silver into cash with no defined purpose exposes you to the very inflation risk that metals are meant to hedge. If you sell and immediately spend, you preserve value. If you sell and hold cash for two years, you likely lose purchasing power.
Corrections will happen in bull markets. Both gold and silver will pull back at times. But the broader fundamentals remain intact. Central bank buying, de-dollarization trends, and massive sovereign debt loads are not disappearing anytime soon.
Silver, the Lombardi Trophy, and an $80 Price
The episode closed with a look at Silver’s performance through the lens of the Lombardi Trophy. Produced each year by Tiffany and Company, the Super Bowl trophy is made of sterling silver, which is 92.5 percent silver by weight. It stands 20.75 inches tall and weighs 7 pounds, or 3175 grams.
Using a silver price of $76.50 per ounce on game day, which equated to about $2.46 per gram, Maharrey calculated a melt value of roughly $7810.50. One year earlier, when the Philadelphia Eagles hoisted the trophy, its melt value was just over $2990.
Silver recently moved back above $80 per ounce after pulling back from a spike to $120. With prices still roughly $40 below that peak and some analysts projecting $100 silver in the near future, Maharrey suggested that the current correction could present an opportunity.
His core message was direct.
Sell with intention, not emotion. Sell when you are converting metal into something real. Do not sell simply to trade enduring money for depreciating currency.
In a world of 2 percent inflation targets and expanding debt, gold and silver remain tools for preserving purchasing power, not assets to abandon at the first sign of a price surge.
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