Silver is the common mans gold. This is because it is much more affordable and usually tracks the progress of gold fairly closely. One could obtain many ounces of silver for what it would equal in a just a few ounces of gold. In history where gold was the commodity of the rich, silver was used for most common trades as currency since it could be used for smaller more defined purchases. Today it is used as an industrial metal feeding photography, automobile, and electronics industries in addition to jewelry. Silver is a hyper conductor of electricity, extremely reflective, corrosion resistant and has a decent hardness to it as a metal. Even with all this demand silver is not usually mined exclusively. Of the world's silver most is a byproduct of mining other metals ie. copper or gold. Much of the mined silver goes to feed the before mentioned industries annually. Add that to the investor demand and you have a huge amount of silver required every year. The other thing is although Silver is more available than gold, most of it is non-salvageable when alloyed with other metals and is lost forever in our consumer products. All this being said silver is a wise investment over the long term due to these factors as the demand increases and supply decreases. The current price in gold is many times lower than it has been historically thus, silver is a wise investment for you and your family.
Silver types:
Just as with gold there are many private and public mints available to get your metal from. Now with silver investment bullion you want to make sure it is .999 fine 99.9% in purity. There is however one alternative to this and that is 90% silver coins. They call it junk silver which is basically older coins that have a 90% continuity of silver. It is very easy to calculate the value of junk silver and that is by taking the coin(s) and weighting them, multiply that weight by the current spot price and then multiplying that number by .9 and you will have a very close estimate of it's value. There are many coins that are 90% but a good rule of thumb for American coins is if it was minted prior to 1964 it is 90% silver. There are a few exceptions but generally this is a good rule to keep. Further, I know a few friends that invest in sterling which is 92.5 or jewelry grade silver you can do this if you like however you will usually pay a premium for sterling cause 99% of the time it is in jewelry form and you will have to pay for the cost of craftsmanship.
American Silver Eagle:
America the Beautiful silver coin:
This coin contains an even 5 troy ounces of .999 fine silver. This coin started it's mintage in 2010 under the U.S. Treasury Department and is scheduled at least until 2021. The intention with these coins is to create a coins more intended for collectors which the backs will show different images of important landmarks, works, or historically significant places in U.S. history. These are a newer coin and little information on them is available but considering this is a new coin set may be worth getting one or two for 2010 to have as an original year of the coin for numismatic reasons.
Canadian Silver Maple leaf:
The silver maple leaf is considered to be of the highest purity silver coins in mintage with a fineness of .9999 or 99.99% pure. It has been in mintage since 1988-present with a few special years mintage commemorating things such as the 2010 Winter Olympic Games (2009 coins). There are also privy marked editions as well as anniversary sets and is worth looking into for numismatic collectors. For Bullion Bulls, understanding the highest purity of coins is most significant. Also, the legal tender value of the coin is 5 dollars Canadian making it the highest redeemable legal tender silver coin in existence.
Chinese Silver Panda:
Australian Kookaburra:
Silver Britannia coins:
Austrian Silver Philharmonic:
In mintage since 2008, the Philharmonic is a .999 fine coin. Another welcomed addition to any collector although does not change in appearance as due other investment silver coins. It's legal tender is stamped in Euros at 1.5 and emblem design shows instruments of the famous Vienna Philharmonic orchestra. Mintage varies by demand per year.
Mexican Libertad:
The Libertad is sold in many different sizes 1/20 oz troy to 1 kilogram weights. In mintage since 1982 is of the "older" mintage of modern silver coins. The Libertad has only been offered in more than the 1 troy oz size since 1991. The design has only changed once since 1982, and is still considered an investment grade silver coin with a purity of .999 fine. Mintage limits of these coins is set purely by demand but for some reason are not as well known in the community of investment grade silver coins.
Russian George the Victorious:
Private Mints:
There are a number of private mints that produce high quality silver coins and bars. Try to stay in the more well known mints and you should be fine ie. Academy, Englehard, Sunshine etc. (Sunshine mint is actually where the U.S. government buys there silver for the "America the Beautiful" coins). These private mints don't usually have as high of a premium per oz as the government mints and therefore can be a more cost effective way to buy your silver. However, these private mints are less recognizable so try to stay with established mints and do some homework on the mints themselves before purchasing. There are many websites out there that rate these sites or check the links on my sites to see a few of these under one roof. Make sure when buying, if online, that the shipper will have insurance on your shipment and that it is signature required for obvious reasons.
