Diversity will over the long term provide a hedge against inflation or deflation, so what is a good way to spread your holdings.

• Land, Real-estate - excellent investment.
• Bullion Silver, Gold, Platinum - Always have some on hand.
• Rare Coins - excellent investment.

Attendance records are broken at coin shows across the nation. Ask the dealers and they will tell you sales are good. Mail order and web sales are up higher than they have been in many years. The hard times were eased with an infusion of new collectors.

The summer of 1999 was by far the best in many years. But the summer of 2000 was by far the busiest ever. It is not just new collectors causing the rare coin market resurgence. Many old collectors are dusting off the old collection and finding holes in them old Whitman boards. The Mints new Quarter program has been the catalyst needed for the small insecure collector / investor to get started, some of the large investors remember getting burned by dealers with no integrity. Now even those players feel secure with PCGS and other slabbed coins.

With coins auctions boasting sales such as some very very rare coins coming into the market place. An example was Aug. 30, 1999 Bowers and Merena sold a Proof MS 68 1804 silver dollar for $4,140,000.00 and then in Oct. 19, 2000 Stacks also had a 1804 silver dollar, this one was only a Proof MS64, It sold for 1,840,000.00

The Gold Eagle proved to be a Hot item, as July came around the gold proof sold out. With a minting of 25,000, that shows interests in the market. Not to be out done the silver was about all sold in Aug. with a minting of 600,000

Also in Aug., a 1919-d Mercury dime sold at heritage's auction for 218,500.00 and we saw rare gold enter the market such as the Panama-Pacific Expo gold $50.00 pieces and the 1907 Saint Gaudens $20.00 High relief and California Assay office Gold $50.00 1855 Kellogg and co. and 1855 Wass, Molitor & Co. as well as a 1851 Humbert Assay pieces.

With the Stock market going through one of the worst bear markets in history some investors are having to sell their coin collection to cover losses compiled in declining stocks. This opens the door for real buying possibilities

Fun stuff "What do you like" Art, antiques, Old cars?

Stocks

The stock market has gone through one of the three worst bear markets since the Civil War. The worst market in history took place during the Great Depression of 1929-33. Gross domestic product fell from $103 billion to $55 billion in four years, corporations in the aggregate lost money in 1932, and the unemployment rate soared from 3 to 25%. The DJIA was the sole index in existence during the depression and it lost 89% of its value over four years. During 1973-74, the S&P 500, introduced in 1957, was becoming the standard market benchmark because it was more representative of the stock market than the DJIA with its 30 stocks. The S&P 500 dropped 48% and the NASDAQ Composite declined a more precipitous 60% during this two-year span as a severe recession took hold. Inflation shot up from 3% to 11%, but the unemployment rate held fairly steady at 6% during this recession before creeping up in later years.

The economy has been going through an economic miracle in the past 18 years with only one recession which has been accompanied by one of the strongest bull markets in history before the stock market peaked last March. The S&P 500 has declined 18% from its peak whereas the NASDAQ Composite has fallen 57% through the end of February and nearly as much as the 1973-74 decline when there were serious economic dislocations and political instability in the United States. This time around inflation is not a threat and thus far the economy has avoided recession.

The Federal Reserve in response to a sagging economy aggressively lowered interest rates twice in January by half a percentage point. Most investors are eager for the Fed to reduce rates further. However, the problem is not the cost or availability of money. The Fed Funds rate currently at 5.5% is actually a full point lower than when the current expansion started in 1991. It is the lack of confidence that is at the root of the economic problem. Right now, the propensity to spend is not there.

In conclusion, the stock market downturn which started nearly one-year ago is one of the three worst since the Civil War, but the economic underpinnings are far more positive in the current cycle than in the Great Depression and during 1973-74. The U.S. economy is going through the third most important commercial development in 500 years, the "information age." This phenomenon is pushing the economy ahead at a fast pace with high productivity gains and low inflation despite a near term interruption. The standard of living is going up for all Americans. As stated many times before, the stock market is nothing more and nothing less than a reflection of economic activity.