The Fortin Family Blog

February 23, 2026

Rebuilding an Office Body

and

Silver and Gold on the Move Again

Greetings from the Fortin Venice Florida condo and welcome to the first edition of the Fortin Family Blog! It is great to be back in the blogger's seat after taking some much needed time off.

So what is the Fortin Family Blog all about?

Simply said, the Fortin Family Blog will be a sharing of personal highlights and interests that are entirely on a non-numismatic basis. The Daily Blog 2.0 is now being published by Darrell Low and Matt Mayers and I have no desire to interfere with their efforts to take the Gerry Fortin Rare Coins business to new heights. Rather, I'd like to maintain contact with the former Daily Blog readership via a platform that focuses on what I am current exploring in terms of new pursuits, hobbies, and of course, the Raymond, Maine back acreage park developments along with Fortin family activities. Perspectives of the current gold and silver market will also be shared given that I'm staying very close to those topics in light of what appears to be chaotic geopolitical developments.

Today's debut of the Fortin Family Blog will focus on two topics. Therefore let's move forward with these ramblings.

Rebuilding an Office Body

Operating GFRC from 2014 through early 2026 required a huge amount of effort and commitment that most collectors could not come to understand. The daily discipline of client correspondence along with processing coins through photography, image editing, COIN database loading, and description generation translated into long hours sitting in a desk chair at a laptop. Prior to launching GFRC, my daily routine was quite similar in that much time was spent in a Fairchild Semiconductor office working at a laptop or attending meetings. The commonality is sitting with a hunched posture at a desk. Over decades, that situation translated into spinal deformities resulting in lower back pain. The constant typing or mouse usage also overworked hand tendons resulting in inflammation in my joints. Though not explicitly discussed in the Daily Blog, as I don't wish to complain about health matters, operating GFRC was taking too much of a toll on my body starting around 2023. Lower back pains were starting to appear and grow more serious during 2024. By late 2024, it was becoming clear that the office work had to be dramatically reduced to mitigate the ever increasing lower back pain. Health beyond the age of 70 became an overriding reason to sell the Gerry Fortin core Liberty Seated Dime collection as the final act before dismantling or selling the GFRC business. Daily Blog readers have witness how 2025 brought about the necessary steps to free myself of the ongoing office setting.

Now that the GFRC business has been successfully transferred to Darrell and Matt, my focus immediately shifted to dealing with the lower back pain issue. I had seen a Venice doctor during early 2025 to confirm that indeed, there was some compression in several lower discs and my back was slowly rounding due to core and upper body muscle loss. Let's remember that turning 70 translates into a slow natural body degradation if counter acting steps are not taken. The muscle loss and lower back issues would only accelerate if I did not get serious about weight and strengthening exercising and staying active, especially while in Florida for the winter months.

Starting last week, I've spent hours watching YouTube videos on aging, muscle loss, and spinal deformities. Let's just say that I've become my own doctor or therapist in the process of what had been happening to my body during all these years of office work. I learned that spinal deformities can be reversed by increasing muscle mass in the right areas. Armed with that conclusion, I then turned to AI Copilot for help in designing the appropriate exercises for rebuilding my upper back, shoulder, and arm strength as a first step. Next came specific exercises to strengthen the core muscles. All that was left at that point was execution and turning my GFRC discipline into a personal body rebuilding initiative.

Luckily, our Auburn Lakes Condo HOA made a decision to replace the antique exercise equipment in the clubhouse in lieu of modern exercise machinery during December. The centerpiece of the new exercise equipment is the Hoist V4 weight training system that I've begun to utilize during the past two weeks. Every other day at noon time, or so, you will find me in the clubhouse exercise room working out on the Hoist V4. On top of the exercise room activity, I am now walking twice per day and averaging 14,000 steps across 2+ hours. This is not casual walking, rather moving along at a quick pace in the morning with Diane, and a second solo session in the afternoon. For example, instead of driving the Porsche to the nearby Publix supermarket, I am now walking to the store and carrying the groceries back for a nice to/from one hour walking session.

Furthermore, to counteract the inflammation in my fingers, I've instituted daily grip improvement exercises as designed by AI Copilot.

My near term goal is to bring about relief of nagging lower back pains and increasing strength prior to returning to Maine in mid-April. Once at the Maine homestead, the Hoist V-4 exercises must be translated to an old Macy workout gym in the homestead utility room. If they cannot be effectively duplicated, I will probably remove the Macy exercise machine and purchase my own Hoist V4 as a strong and healthy body is priceless in the grand scheme of life.

Silver and Gold on the Move Again

As today's debut Fortin Family Blog edition is being composed, gold has rallied back to $5217/oz while silver is trading at $87. The sharp "crash" in the precious metal sector is now behind us. The "crash" was a manipulation event that removed excess speculation from the precious metals markets in both the US/England and in China. In the west, the major bullions banks, and supposedly the Federal Reserve, held short trading positions that were becoming unbearable as the metals continue to run higher. In China, a new "long only" silver ETF was being heavily subscribed by the Chinese citizenry as their sole option for participating in the silver price rally other than purchasing physical. That new ETF became excessively over bought and was one of the primary reasons that a substantial silver pricing gap emerged between the China silver price and that of the COMEX and LBMA. The "crash" on January 30th was necessary to clear out the accrued over speculation allowing price discovery to operate normally again. The "crash" also allowed the major bullion players with short positions to exit their shorts at much lower prices.

Fundamentally, the geopolitical environment that was present prior to January 30th still remains today and continues to be bullish for all the precious metals. I hope that Daily Blog readers listened to my advice and ignore the sharp price drop. Here we are several weeks later returning to those price levels in a more orderly manner now that excesses have been removed.

Wrapping Up The Blog

Thank you so much for reading through the debut edition of the Fortin Family Blog! This blog will be published when there is a need to communicate towards maintaining awareness of what the Fortin family is up to in the coming months. I hoped that you've enjoyed this first edition.

Be well!