Episode Details

United Patriot Coin's Chad Burge and Clay join host John on State of the Second for a plain-spoken primer on buying gold and silver. The company was started by brothers Scott and Glenn Hynen, farmers in the agriculture industry in Kansas who had bought precious metals for years and made the same mistakes a lot of first-time buyers make. They built an education-first company around helping customers avoid those pitfalls instead of leading with whatever they want to sell. Chad runs the business as general manager. Clay handles the metals as numismatist and Director of E-Commerce, and he has been in the market for about 30 years.

The conversation walks a complete beginner through the whole process. The most popular entry product is the Patriot Pack, which starts around a $200 price point and includes divisible one-ounce silver rounds, one-gram silver bars, and a one-gram piece of gold in a small carry bag. It was designed for an affordable entry and for a bartering situation, since the pieces break into smaller amounts. The guests explain that smaller pieces carry a higher premium because they are harder to make, walk through how orders ship (mailed to your billing address after fraud verification, FedEx with a signature over a certain dollar amount), where to store metals (a gun safe works for most people), and confirm there are no reporting requirements for a purchase. They frame precious metals as a savings account and a mid-to-long-term wealth-preservation tool, not a buy-today-sell-tomorrow play, and tie it back to firearms: you protect your family with guns and your wealth with gold and silver.

The soapbox segment turns serious. Chad warns about a tech support scam that turns into a gold scam, where a pop-up tells the victim to call a fake Microsoft or official-sounding company, then a caller posing as the Department of Treasury or FTC convinces them their accounts are compromised and they need to convert their money into gold and hand it over for safekeeping. Victims, often the elderly, have met scammers in person or sent gold by third-party carrier, sometimes under threat of arrest. The takeaway is blunt: no government official will ever ask you to hand over gold, silver, or money. United Patriot Coin has put processes in place to question suspicious orders, has saved some customers, and runs fraud-prevention software that checks IP and address mismatches on every order. The two also share what they saw at the GOALS show in Knoxville and where to find them: unitedpatriotcoin.com, the Patriot Dispatch newsletter, and their phone line.

Questions this episode answers

How do I get started buying gold and silver as a complete beginner?

United Patriot Coin runs as an education-first company, so the guidance is to start small with an affordable entry product rather than buying whatever a dealer wants to sell. The most popular starting point is the Patriot Pack, an entry-level kit built for first-time buyers.

What is the Patriot Pack and what comes in it?

The Patriot Pack is United Patriot Coin's most popular entry product, starting around a $200 price point. It includes divisible one-ounce silver rounds, one-gram silver bars, and a one-gram piece of gold in a small carry bag, designed for an affordable entry and for bartering since the pieces break into smaller amounts.

Which is easier to move in a barter situation, gold or silver, and why do small pieces cost more?

Smaller, divisible pieces are easier to use for bartering because they break down into smaller amounts. Those smaller pieces carry a higher premium because they are harder to make.

When is the best time to buy precious metals and how much should I hold?

The guests frame precious metals as a savings account and a mid-to-long-term wealth-preservation tool, not a buy-today-sell-tomorrow play, so the focus is holding for the long term rather than timing a quick flip.

How doe