Shire Silver Solutions

I just ordered the first shipment of silver source material to use for the first round of testing. With the price of silver in FRNs being near a year low at around $11/ounce, now is probably a great time to buy.

This morning I finally got around to doing the first round of testing, using copper as a cheaper analog to silver. While it does show that just using a hammer won't be enough, it does indicate that we're on the right track.

Hammer: AKA mini-sledge.
Hammer Results: The result of using the prototype die with the hammer.
Sledge: The sledge hammer.
Sledge Results: The results of using the sledge hammer on the prototype die.

Dave Ridley put up a video of the prototype die set we are looking at: Ridley Report on Shire Silver

Thanks to Ryan for making the die set!

We all had a great time at PorcFest. I handed out some brochures introducing the idea. I also gave a small presentation on it at the Alternatives Expo.

Because I log on to this site using an account with all permissions, I see everything. I see stuff that hasn't been approved yet. Thus I didn't notice that several of you have commented on things and the comments aren't showing up for everyone.

I have commenting set so that "regular" users can write comments, but they need to be approved before they can be seen by others. This is very useful in preventing spam, and creates a list of comments needing approval. However, I had forgotten, and hadn't been checking the approval list. This has been going on for months. Sorry.

To help with this, I have created a new role on the site. If you have this role, you can post comments without them needing to be approved. Everyone who had posted non-spam comments now has been assigned this role. So, post away!

This is just a friendly reminder that the Shire Silver Design Contest deadline is just over a month away. We haven't received as many submissions as we would like, and none of them so far meet the specified criteria. Please consider entering your own design.

Nevada, by the way, is known as the Silver State for a reason-its great mining industry produced the precious metal for the beautiful silver dollars minted at the fabled Carson City mint. These constitutional coins, include .775 ounces of silver, in accord with the Coinage Act of 1792. Today these coins, worth $1 in my father's day, have about $14 in silver. That is, the dollar is worth 1/14th of what it was, thanks to the counterfeiting Federal Reserve.

The Fed has again taken our country into a terrible crisis. Who else is talking about honest money that cannot be printed up at will by DC bureaucrats? My opponents in both parties are all some variety of print-and-spend Keynesians. Only we are telling the truth, about who is to blame for this recession, and how we can build real prosperity with sound money, no IRS, no deficit, and strict obedience to the Constitution. And, of course, no hyper-expensive, hyper-dangerous empire all around the globe.

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