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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 26, 2026

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This is where my obsessive buying silver rounds and sitting on them pays off in spades, were I the sort of person who sells things once I've bought them...

Alas my collection is going to keep sitting in my closet for me to sporadically enjoy looking at. I'm actually pretty pissed off by the price jumps because it means everyday silver objects I'd have liked to buy for daily use are now so expensive that even I am passing them over (a standard silver spoon is now over £100...). Plus I have a list of gold jewelry pieces I wanted to commission but put off over the last few years that are now looking like they aren't gonna happen. Honestly this sucks and I hope the precious metal retail investors driving these prices up to stupid levels lose their shirts.

My father-in-law gave all his kids ~10k in precious metals for Christmas and I'm irrationally annoyed by this because if it was cash I'd use it for stuff with a baby on the way and round off the emergency fund but I don't want sell my small pirate treasure hoard that I'd probably never get around to building again.