Physical Silver: How & Where to Buy Silver
This physical silver guide explains how to buy silver, where to buy it and what the best silver investments are for virtually all silver investors. The guide will also provide immediately actionable recommendations for making a first physical silver purchase, whether silver coins, rounds or silver bullion bars. If you’ve been holding off on buying physical silver because it seems too complex, relax. Buying silver is much more simple than investment forums and precious metals dealers make it out to be. We will spell it out for you. There are really just a few simple steps.
In this guide, we will provide a description of the physical silver products most often chosen by experienced investors, as reported by one of the largest and more reputable online silver dealers. We will also discuss silver investment pricing in a simple, easy to understand manner so that you can determine how to get the best possible price, as well as how to avoid getting ripped off or scammed by unscrupulous silver dealers.
Get the Best Price When Buying Silver: Compare Premiums
There is only one way to get the best price for silver and that is to compare dealer prices. Silver is generally priced as a premium over the current spot silver price. The easiest way to understand how much you are paying is to look at the current silver price per ounce as it trades on the major exchanges, then compare that to what you are paying for an ounce of physical silver under consideration for purchase. The difference is the premium over spot that a dealer is charging.
Reputable silver dealers will tell you right up front how much premium over spot you are paying. They will also tell you how much they are currently paying customers who are selling the same product back to them. Depending on the product in question, you can pay anywhere from less than a $1.00 over spot, to many times that for more rare or in-demand products, or coins with a particular numismatic (collector’s) value. Of course, like most things, higher volume purchases can occur with a much lower markup or premium. Further, if you pay with a credit card, you can expect to pay more as well.
In some cases, a lower premium over spot may come at a different kind of cost. Poor service, slow delivery, incomplete or incorrect orders and other types of hassles (or loss) may be the cost of doing business with a less trusted or less reputable dealer or individual. Convenience, confidence, service and selection should all be factors in what you are willing to pay.
Like any other commodity, you will likely pay more for a local silver dealer, but you may avoid shipping charges or develop a relationship with that dealer. Ultimately, market conditions will dictate the general price trend and how much you pay. However, like cars, computers and other goods and services, each dealer has different costs and target margins. Some prefer high volume and lower margins while others may charge a heavy premium, especially for a lower quantity purchase.
The Best Silver to Buy: Silver Coins, Bullion Bars & Rounds
The most popular physical silver products bought by experienced investors can guide the first-time physical silver buyer well. While there are many subjective factors that determine the best silver for you, our intent here is to keep things simple so that you can get started quickly. Generally, the best silver to buy is that which gets you the most pure silver for your dollar. To achieve this, you must minimize the premium that you will pay over spot silver prices, regardless of how or where you purchase your silver.
Our first physical silver buying tip: Keep it simple! Stick with basic silver coins, rounds and bullion bars! When it comes time to cash in on your silver investment you want to be holding the most common, liquid, easy to understand silver products. If you are buying silver because you believe silver prices are set to surge due to supply shortages, skyrocketing inflation or the continued debasement of the U.S. dollar, then what you are looking for is simply ounces of pure silver at the best price. Don’t worry though, you can still buy beautiful coins and rounds that are fun to accumulate and still achieve your investment objective, without overpaying or acquiring an encyclopedia of knowledge.
Listed in this guide are specific physical silver products that most silver investors own. We believe that there is no need to make things complicated. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but it is a good starting point for a new silver investor that would like to get started quickly.
Silver Coins
Silver coins are produced by the mints of sovereign nations. Government issued silver coins command the greatest confidence amongst silver investors and are quite liquid for this reason. Silver coins are always a great place to start. Due to their popularity and the confidence they invoke, silver coins get a higher premium price over spot than silver bullion or privately minted silver rounds, but they make a very good starting point for the novice silver buyer.
Brilliant, Uncirculated Condition (BU) silver coins provide a high level of confidence and security for the first-time silver buyer and will likely command a higher premium when selling than more generic silver rounds. The most popular silver coins include American Silver Eagles and Canadian Silver Maple Leafs, at 99.99% purity. Silver coins minted by governments around the world and popular with collectors include Austrian Silver Philharmonics, Chinese Silver Pandas, Australian Silver Kukaburras and Mexican Silver Libertads. Get detail and pricing on American Silver Eagles and the many advantages to owning them here:
The beautiful Silver Eagle is the most recognized and trusted silver bullion investment and gets the highest bid prices for silver bullion in North America. Buy tubes of 20 Silver Eagles to minimize premiums and to receive the best prices. Silver Eagles can be purchased individually, or in mint tubes of 20 coins, which will generally reduce the cost.
Silver Bullion Bars
Silver bullion bars allow you to buy pure, physical silver in a format that can be conveniently stacked in a safe. For the first-time silver buyer, we suggest narrowing your choices to keep things simple. Common sizes for retail silver investors include 1 oz, 10 oz, 1 kilogram (32.15 oz) and 100 oz troy bars. Trustworthy brands for silver bars include Johnson Matthey, Engelhard and Sunshine Minting. When buying silver bullion bars, buy better known brands or bars offered by well-known dealers. There is little reason from an investment perspective to buy lesser known bullion bars. You can frequently find good deals on secondary 10 oz silver bars, but the 1 oz. bars are much easier to sell for obvious reasons.
Silver Rounds
Silver rounds are also a a good way to buy silver at a lower cost. It is only minimally more complicated, provided you purchase rounds from a well-known mint and a trusted dealer. Silver rounds are issued by a myriad of private mints and look like coins, but they are not legal tender. Rounds come with a wide variety of designs, each unique to the mints that produce them. Think of rounds as a hybrid between coins and bars. Their purity is .999 fine silver and they can be found in weights ranging from 1 troy oz. to 100 troy ounces. Rounds, like bars, provide more silver for your investment dollar. 1 troy ounce rounds are the most common, but 5 oz. rounds may be more convenient for some. Trustworthy, well-known brands include Sunshine Minting, U.S. Assay, A-Mark, Silvertowne, Engelhard and Johnson Matthey. There are countless other mints that produce generic silver rounds, many that are no longer in existence. The premiums on silver rounds should be small since they have little in the way of numismatic or collectors value.
