The Suns of Liberty Mint was founded by Green Beret Veteran and Valor Award recipient David Breger. His goal was to create world class output volume of silver at some of the lowest prices in the industry, and provide silver in fractional forms, that would allow the public to buy basic everyday things without overpaying. In 2011 Breger discovered the benefits of silver bullion in fractional sizes for better divisibility. Obviously it is not to the buyer's advantage to pay for a loaf of bread with a 1 oz. silver coin or stamp (currently worth $16.46 USD per oz.)
Gold and even platinum have many options for fractional increments due to their high value. As Breger discovered the lack of available fractional silver products on the market, he determined he would have to produce the supply himself.
Breger started operations out of his apartment and neighbor's garage, with only $1000 USD start-up capitol and a mission. Over the next six years he studied and worked relentlessly, experimented, engineered, invented, and broke deals with refiners and other interested parties.
In 2012, having no experience with a punch press, and a strong determination to smith fractional silver, Breger stenciled, sheared, and stamped 15,000 separate silver pieces by hand. As a wire wrapper silversmith of jewelry myself, I can imagine how extremely strenuous and tedious that process must have been. Breger quickly realized he needed a press.
Once he started his search for a press, he quickly found a cheap one he could afford and purchased it. Unfortunately for Breger, the press he purchased did not work. As he disassembled it to attempt a repair, he realized the press had a similar design to a belt fed machine gun, which he already had aptitude for. After Breger made this connection, he was able to understand the cycle of operation of the broken press, and successfully repaired and reassembled it.
Finally the Suns of Liberty Mint was able to mass produce fractional silver at a fairly fast pace. That was just the catalyst Breger needed to propel his mint forward. It wasn't long before he purchased a much bigger second press (that was also broken at time of sale and Breger had to repair), and moved his mint to a more appropriate warehouse space. Today the Suns of Liberty Mint factory is located in Mount Holly Springs, PA, and has produced at least hundreds of thousands of silver pieces.
In 2016, SOLM had to shut down production indefinitely as Breger's supply source of affordable quality silver became depleted. Breger has yet to find an alternative supply source and it is uncertain if SOLM will produce silver bullion ever again. The official silver pieces coined by SOLM have since become rare collectibles, and are coveted by everyone I know that has heard about or possessed them thus far.
I was able to acquire the 2 pieces pictured during @anarchaforko from my friend @kennyskitchen. A big thank you to him, as I am proud to own silver from a mint with such a great story, positive message, and design symbolism (@Kennyskitchen DOES NOT have additional SOLM silver to distribute so please DO NOT send him any inquiries about it). JM Bullion currently happens to have some obviously out of print SOLM 1/10 oz. fractional pieces for purchase if you are interested. At $8.90 over spot per oz. however, I feel they are overpriced, and buying them at that price in bulk defeats the purpose of their liquid functionality. Buying a few for collecting or gifts I feel can still be justified though. Here is the link: https://www.jmbullion.com/1-10-oz-standard-solm-silver-square/
I am currently unable to find direct information about the intended meaning behing the slogan and symbolism, but it seems pretty self explanitory. I will leave it to you to decide for yourself what it means to you. Personally, the SOLM slogan printed on the 1 oz. silver coin impacted me in a much more profound way than expected.
I will be doing a follow up post in the coming days about why silver is currently the absolute best precious metal investment in the world (better than gold, platinum, and palladium), but for now I will leave you with a few basic hard facts:
Silver is/has:
The best thermal AND electrical conductor
The best reflector of light
An antibacterial used in an array of widely used medical bandages among many other products
Utilized in tools, equipment, and/or parts in nearly every industry that won't work without silver
Is SEVERELY UNDERVALUED for many reasons, including cooperative government price fixing to keep the price low for industry.
A much lower percentage of recycled scrap than gold to meet demand every year
Currently an extremely affordable investment for pretty much everyone
An outstanding alternative trade tool since almost everybody wants it or would at least accept it as payment
It is also worth noting that at a point in 1980, silver was worth $114 an ounce. That was almost 40 years ago! Put all these facts in perspective and imagine where the silver price could land in the next 5 or 10 years. Its a fairly safe bet to say that silver has a lot more room to grow than fall. Stay tuned...
This is not investment advise. You should always do your own research and come to your own investment conclusions and decisions. TRUST IN YOURSELF!
I hope you like my Earth Suns tie dye background. This is one from the first batch of tie dyes I ever made. The 1oz. coin represents the Earth and the 0.25 oz. coin represents the moon orbiting it. This is actually almost perfectly scaled as the moon is about 1/4 the size of the Earth. Beautiful! Blessings everyone!
Some fiat currency may look cool, but will never hold value as effectively as silver.
Suns of Liberty Mint's official website: https://www.sunsoflibertymint.com/
