Silver to Buy

Knowing what silver to buy is very important. One does not just buy any silver. The silver price is very important when it comes to buying silver.

For example, it is possible to buy silver that is very expensive. Numismatic coins and theme coins, for example, are the sorts of silver that is the most expensive. The main problem with buying silver so expensively is that it takes a long time to recoup the cost of the silver.

The quality of the silver is important also. Buying silver that is less than .999 percent fine or 100 percent silver is not a very good investment. Such silver you find in jewelry or in ornaments such as silverware. To buy sterling silver is very nice for silverware for the dinner table but it is not the best silver to buy for a future investment. It always pays to buy pure silver.

The best silver to buy is silver bullion in the form of silver rounds or bars. Preferably the largest you can afford. Ten and fifteen kilo silver bars are good as the premium is not so large, usually just a few percent depending on the dealer but as these are a bit harder to sell due to their size and you may not want large amounts of cash having some smaller, one kilo and less bars are a good idea too.

In addition it is a good idea to buy silver on a regular basis. This tends to even out any day to day fluctuations in the silver price and you can work out the average cost of your silver as you progress.

As well as the premium there are such costs involved as storage and transport. These have to be figured in the total cost of the silver. The total cost of all these is what you actually buy silver at.

If you can buy silver in reasonable quantities, where these costs are mitigated and the silver you buy is pure silver, or 99.5 percent and up (There is no such thing as pure 100 percent silver), with no extra costs, such as fancy packaging, then you can recoup very well on your investment at a later stage when the value of silver has increased, which, due to the shortage and current demand, is likely to occur in the not too distant future.

When it comes to investment into silver, it is important to know what silver to buy, how to buy it and when.

Buy Silver Dollars

If you would like to buy silver dollars it would be a good idea to find out as much about them as possible.

Silver dollars have been around since the 1790s and there are many different types. The most common silver dollars are the Morgan 1878-1921, the Peace 1921-1935, and the Silver Eagles from 1986 to present day.

Generally speaking The US Silver dollar contains around 90 percent of silver and about 10 percent of copper. Being a coin that could go through some use and silver being a somewhat soft metal, this gives the coin some durability and strength.

By weight the silver content is .7736 troy ounces but the last circulating silver dollar coins which were struck in the 1970s were only 40% silver to 60% nickel and copper. These can be bought from dealer in bags believe it or not. The quality is not of the best but the value of the silver is the main reason people buy these bags. In the 1980s the US Mint began manufacturing the Silver Eagle dollar coin with 100 percent silver and no added alloys, giving a full troy ounce in each coin. This coin, however, was not designed for circulation as the value of the silver content is much more valuable than the face value of the coin.

All the silver dollars ever minted were at the following mints:

Philadelphia 1793-present - Flowing Hair, Capped Bust, Sitting Liberty, Trade, Morgan, Peace, Eisenhower, Silver Eagle (no mint mark or 'P')
New Orleans 1846-1904 - Sitting Liberty, Morgan ('O' mint mark)
Carson City 1870-1893 - Sitting Liberty, Trade, Morgan ('CC' mint mark)
San Francisco 1859-1992 - Sitting Liberty, Trade, Morgan, Peace, Eisenhower, Silver Eagle ('S' mint mark)
Denver 1921-1934 - Morgan, Peace ('D' mint mark)
West Point 1995, 2001-present - Silver Eagle ('W' mint mark)

The most collectible silver dollars are still the Morgan 1878-1921, Peace 1921-1935, and Silver Eagles 1986-present with the Morgan still the most popular so if you want to buy silver dollars the Morgan would be the one to get.

Some of the most important date in silver coins that bring the best prices include:

Carson City 1889 and 1893
New Orleans 1893, 1895, and 1903
San Francisco 1893, 1894, and 1895
Philadelphia 1893, 1894, 1895, 1899, 1921 and 1928
West Point 1995

In fact, three of these coins that are especially difficult to find and are of high value are the 1893 'S', the 1895 'P' and the 1995 'W'. Of these, the 1895 'P' is rare enough to fetch well over an impressive eleven thousand US dollars in fine condition. A excellent quality condition 1893 'S', if you are ever fortunate enough to find one in your attic, is worth over $250,000.

But probably the most famous silver coin of all is the 1804 U.S. Silver Dollar. Not long ago at auction one was sold for over four million dollars. The most paid for a coin ever and, of course well over the face value and silver content of the coin.

But for most of us, when we buy silver coins, we will have to be content with buying at the best possible silver coin prices we can afford and keeping them as a nest egg for a rainy day.

Buy Silver Bullion

Currently there is a shortage of silver in the world which makes this a good time to buy silver bullion.

Unlike gold, which is primarily used as stored value, silver is, for the most part, used in industry and photography. This means that, whereas gold is always around in one form or another, with silver there is a regular percentage of 'loss' of the worlds silver which does not find its way back into the silver market. The production of silver from the ground is falling yet the demand for silver is rising.

Most silver is produced as a by-product of mining gold, copper, zinc, or lead. Higher silver prices might not substantially promote the increase of silver mined each year. Consider, in 1980, when silver prices went up to $50/oz., less silver was mined than in 1979!

Current silver mines produce something on the order of 650 million ounces of silver each year. Just over 200 million ounces is recovered from recycling and around 100 million ounces come from investor or government sales. That's a total of just over 1000 million ounces. Of that total almost half is used by industry, about 20 percent by photography and almost 30 percent by jewelry. That leaves around 5 percent for silver bullion coins, bars and medallions. As the demand for industrial and photographic silver increases each year and the amount being dug out of the ground diminishes then the quantities left over for silver coins and bars is going to reduce and this will increase the demand for people to buy silver billion.

Interestingly, at the time of writing, one cannot now buy Silver Maples from the Canadian Mint or Silver Eagles from the US mint. Other mints are also starting to have difficulty supplying silver coins and this is now affecting dealers in silver also. The demand for silver is out stripping the supply.

This many not be readily seen, with the daily spot price of silver not reflecting the value and demand for silver in the real world.

Historically the price ratio of silver to gold has been 10 ounces of silver was equal to one ounce of gold, a 10:1 ratio in other words. Just recently, the ratio has been around 50:1. With the shortage of silver slowly becoming more apparent this ratio will eventually revert back to the historical levels. This means that silver is going to increase, proportionally more than gold. And that should pick up the ears of even the most laid back precious metal investor.

Of all the silver you can buy, silver coins, silver rounds, silver dollars, silver maples, silver bars, biscuits and so forth, silver bullion at spot price is perhaps the best silver you can buy. The larger the bars the better and the closer to spot price the better.

And if you can buy silver bullion without the hassle of transport and storage that is even better. Many dealers can arrange storage for you alleviating the issues with transport and security but you would need to check them out thoroughly.

In this day and age with the faltering economy and the decreasing value of the dollar, it is a wise fellow that sets out to buy silver bullion and put it away for a rainy day!

Buying Silver

The silver to buy is most important as the price of silver when buying silver affects the value of the investment.

You can pay a big premium when you are buying silver, or better, buy it at next to the spot price (the market price).

So the question is then, which silver to buy? Silver bullion, Silver coins, Silver rounds, silver bars or biscuits even.

Some people like buying silver eagles, or Canadian silver maples. These can be very expensive however. Theme silver coins are very expensive, up to three times the value of the silver content, which is rarely 24 karat or 100 percent pure silver. These are nice for collectors and people who enjoy a hobby collecting silver coins. Some investors collect or buy silver bars. This is a better buy of course, but you do have to buy large bars to offset the premium. Smaller bars and ‘biscuits” as the small pressed bars are called, again attract a very high premium and are therefore a poor investment.

Silver rounds, or the larger one kilo or over bars, are a better buy as you pay a smaller premium, so it does not take so long to recoup your loss for the premium you have paid. Of course paying spot price or as close to it as possible when you buy in silver is the optimum.

Silver ETFs do not qualify here at all as you are not actually buying silver, you are buying, instead, a promise on the value of the price of silver.

The very best way to buy silver is probably through something like goldmoney.com for example. Here you can buy silver at virtually spot price AND have it bought and stored for you in bank vaults in London or Switzerland, and have it insured and guarded. No transport or security risks and just a small storage fee means that your silver is safe and sound. The costs are much less as they are shared around with other silver and gold owners. But the silver, and gold, you own is completely yours. Much more convenient.

Information on opening a free account is available at goldmoney.com where you can buy silver now and have a solid silver investment for a rainy day.

And that certainly beats buying silver at a high premium.