With platinum currently trading at $762, it is certainly a metal that merits your consideration as you look for ways to invest in precious metals.

To be sure, there are so many ways to invest your money today. You could buy bullion, coins, gold scrap, and more. But of all the many precious metals to invest in, platinum wire merits special consideration right now.

Have you been completely satisfied with the investments you have made in precious metals? Do you think you have invested your money in the right metals? Do you feel like you could benefit from some new ideas and new strategies to realize more income from the bullion, gold scrap, platinum scrap, silver and other investments you have made?

While we were listening to talk radio last week, we heard someone call in and ask a timely question.

“Businesses all around me are closed and some will never reopen,” the caller said, “and I am wondering whether that will create an opportunity to buy their assets and inventory at low prices?”

Let’s say that you own precious metals and that you would like to borrow against their value. If that is your situation, don’t be apologetic about it. In the current economic climate, many people need to raise cash. Some of those people are business owners who would like to be able to pay their employees until business picks up. Other people are in a crunch and need to liquidate assets so they can pay their mortgages, their children’s college tuition, or meet other financial obligations.

Okay, everybody is worried right now about the state of our economy. And one thing you have to say about the current situation, bad as it is, is that those fears are based in reality. Small businesses are hurting. Some are closing, possibly for good. Individual investors have seen the value of their assets plummet – at least on paper. Kids who are graduating from college right now are having a terribly difficult time finding jobs. Plus, many of our institutions, ranging from universities to museums to theater companies, are wondering if they will ever bounce back.

We are about to enter one of the most uncertain economic periods in modern history – one that many analysts fear could rival the Great Depression.

We don’t like to write about the negatives, we really don’t. But if we want to formulate a strategy for retaining our investments’ value, we need to consider some of the bad things that could just happen in the wake of the current virus crisis:

We just discovered a fun set of online quizzes about metallurgy, metal trivia, and precious metals. It comes from FunTrivia.com, and it is great.

Here are some of the free trivia quizzes that we enjoyed the most. You can find them all on FunTrivia.com.

Get ready to learn and have fun too.

You’re someone who loves to invest in precious metals. But what have you been doing to keep yourself motivated about your investments while you’ve been logging time holed up at home?

Over the last few weeks on this blog, we’ve suggested some motivational ideas that will work, whether you invest in gold scrap, platinum scrap, palladium scrap, silver scrap, or something else. We’ve suggested, for example, that you inventory your precious metals holdings, review your 2019 tax strategies, or search your home for precious metals you might have overlooked.

Our phone rang a few days ago. A woman on the other end of the line asked a question that seems to be on the minds of many people just now . . .

“I’ve been furloughed from my job and I could use some cash,” she said. “Now would be a good time for me to sell some old items of jewelry, but I can’t find any gold refineries that buy from the public near me. Even those `We Buy Gold’ roadside stores in my area have shut down during the coronavirus crisis.”

People who invest in precious metals like to keep moving forward. They don’t sit around. They get out to the places where they like to look for precious metals and scrap, whether that means grabbing a metal detector and heading outdoors or driving to an estate sale to see if any treasures are waiting to be discovered.

Are you a little down in the dumps right about now? Well, we don’t blame you, but we would like to offer you a little bit of advice that applies to investing in precious metals . . .

Snap out of it and keep moving forward!

If you live in most parts of the country, you’re not supposed to leave your house, except to go to the food store or pharmacy. If that’s been your situation for more than a few days, chances are that you are itching to do something productive and energizing.

So we have a suggestion for you – and one that could be not only interesting but profitable . . .

We all just got a three-month extension for filing our Federal taxes. That’s right, instead of filing on April 15th, we now have until July 15th.

Now, you might say, “What’s the difference, I’m going to have to file and/or pay my taxes anyway, right?” But you have another option. You can take the extra time you’ve been given to take a deep breath and consider some ways to get more value and income from the precious metals and precious metal scrap you own. Whether you center your holdings in platinum scrap, gold scrap, or silver scrap, here are some issues worth considering now.

What is gold scrap, and why is it one of the best ways to invest in precious metals? In today’s post, we’ll explain.

There are different kinds of gold scrap. Let’s take a closer look.

Okay, you’re stuck at home during the current Coronavirus shelter-in-place period. Maybe you can’t take part in all your usual activities as someone who invests in silver scrap, gold scrap, platinum scrap and your other favorite investments. Go to an estate sale to look for jewelry, tableware and other items? Forget it, nobody is holding estate sales right now. Go to an antique mall to poke around? Forget it, the doors are locked.

If you like to hunt for old gold jewelry that’s worth recycling, chances are you have seen some items that match this description . . .

“It’s an old ring that’s just a piece of costume jewelry. It’s got a big fake stone in it that’s probably just made of glass. Why should I pay attention to it, when it’s probably worthless?”

As we write today’s post, we are in the midst of a near-epidemic of fear about the Coronavirus.

And this epidemic of fear is more troubling than earlier ones we remember, like the one that preceded the start of the year 2000. Why? Because unlike that false crisis, when conspiracy theorists were predicting that world currencies would crash, that airplanes would fall from the sky and that all the world’s computers would freeze, today’s crisis is based on bad things that are actually happening in the world.

What’s going on with gold prices? Here are two headlines we have seen in just the last week . . .

“Gold Prices Tumbling to Cover Margin Calls”

“Gold Prices to Surge as Coronavirus Crisis Boosts Stimulus Hopes”

But perhaps this headline is the most accurate of all . . .

A pretty good precious metal refinery might be good enough – or almost good enough – if they are recycling a batch of silver-plated tableware, candlesticks, or other fairly commonplace kinds of silver scrap for you. After all, if the refinery you are using let’s a troy ounce of silver go down the drain, which will cost you about $16.00 at today’s trading prices. Okay, that is bad, and the precious metals refinery you are using should never let any metal of yours slip away. But if you are having that refinery process, say, a few hundred pounds of silver scrap, maybe you can live with the loss of an ounce of silver.

We write a lot on this blog about platinum scrap. But what is platinum scrap, and why is it your best way to invest in platinum?

In today’s post, we’ll explain. Platinum scrap falls into several categories.