There has been for some time a debate on the difference in value of paper money and precious metal money. Despite the fluctuation in the gold and silver market, the public’s appetite for precious metals has not slacked. Sales of American Silver Eagle bullion coins set a new high water mark last month and gold coin purchases in January reached the highest level in almost 19 months.

In speaking of the silver bullion coins produced by the U.S. mint renowned investor Jim Rogers said “You can’t get them. They sell out… Several mints have run out of coins…because everybody’s worried about the future of the world.”

“Gold has been up 12 years in a row which is extremely unusual for anything,” he stated.

The price of gold and silver, like almost everything else, are set in U.S. Dollars. Rogers is no admirer of the U.S. Dollar but owns them because other money, like the Japanese Yen, are breaking down.

The Yen has dropped to the lowest level in 2 1/2 years against the U.S. currency and has fallen against the euro as a consequence of the Bank of Japan’s energetic “easy-money” policy.

On the Dollar Mr. Rogers foresees, “There will be a lot more turmoil in the currency market… people will flee, they don’t know where to go so they go the U.S. Dollar, it’s the wrong place to go but they think it is a safe haven,” and finally “There is no such thing as a sound currency anymore.”

Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings has cautious council for investors and admonishes them not to part with their gold and silver coins. “There is no paper money in 2014 or 2015 that will be worth much of anything,” he warns.

The philosopher Voltaire perhaps said it best “Paper money eventually returns to it’s intrinsic value – zero.”

So if one listens to Jim Rogers, in weighing the value of paper money against precious metal money, gold and silver win the day.