What is Money?
Historically many things throughout time have been used as money. Which include beads, shells, stones, tobacco, wheat, livestock, gold, silver and currency. But what makes money? Not everything is money, some is currency.


What is Currency?
It is a unit of monetary exchange that can be used in trade for all goods and services. It is made up of the following important key elements. It acts as a circulating medium of exchange – which is an intermediary used in trade to avoid the inconvenience of a peer barter system. It’s a unit of account – which is a standard monetary unit of measurement of value and costs on all goods, services and assets…

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Sound money should be the only acceptable means of payment or credit used during these insane times when all major countries are fighting to survive with “record setting” government debts. Governments must all revert back to a sound money system to regain fiscal control over their spending habits or face losing everything.

Money – The Beginning
In the distant past, man used bartering and trading as acceptable forms of payment for goods and services. Many items traded included sea shells, salt, tobacco, herd animals, beaded belts, gem stones and gold. This worked well at the time, however there needed to be a better more convenient way to make transactions.
Coins became the first answer to make the exchange of goods and services more convenient. In 600 B.C. the first minted coins appeared, they were minted from an alloy called electrum. This was a combination of gold and silver. Each coin had a specific weight of 4.7 grams and acted as a medium of exchange, division of payment and was also capable of maintaining its value. From the time coins were first minted they gained popularity becoming the best form of money all the way into modern times.

What is Sound Money
In 400 B.C. Aristotle defined what sound money was and what characteristics were necessary to insure sound money. He said that sound money must incorporate all 7 of the following properties…

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For those just starting out investing or thinking about investing in precious metals you should be aware of the IRS guidelines on reportable sales to the IRS from a precious metals dealer. So let’s just get to it. Here is what I have found out about precious metals and taxes.

First off, currently if you buy precious metals from a dealer within the United States they are not required to report sales transactions to the IRS. When purchasing physical gold or silver in bullion, bars, coins, or rounds. These are the most common forms of gold and silver bought for investing purposes. However when you go back to any dealer to sell your precious metals, there are certain types of transactions that are required by US law to be reported back to the IRS. This means the dealer will be sending you an IRS form 1099-B reporting the sale of your transaction and a copy of that 1099-B will go to the Internal Revenue Service....

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In the earliest of times trading and bartering were used in the exchange of goods and services. The trading of such items as herd animals, sea shells, salt, tobacco, gold, gemstones and other similar items were commonly used by man before actual currency was invented.

Currency – The Beginning

The first currency ever used, was in coin form and dates back to 600 B.C. by then King Croesus of Lydia in Asia Minor. At that time Lydia was located in what is now present day Turkey. These coins were minted from a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver called electrum. And each coin had a specific weight of 4.7 grams. These coins functioned as a medium of exchange, unit of payment and were capable of preserving value...

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