Why Invest in Silver Bullion?

It is often said that during troubling times people flock back to traditional values. In the financial world flocking back to traditional values means a return to the precious metals. In the highly volatile times we live in, traditionally strong currencies such as the U.S. dollar and the British Pound are quickly losing value. The pound has lost up to 30% of its value against other currencies like the yen in the last year. Likewise despite the USD at first being upheld at the crisis point by a rush into U.S. treasury bonds, this temporary upswing has now been reversed as fundamentals push down the USD against other currencies. As the United States attempts to print its way out of recession giving bankrupt banks vast amounts of tax payer money to attempt to stop a financial collapse even the average citizen fears what is about to come next. For history teaching us once those printing presses start rolling inflation and even hyper inflation is on the way. Unemployment and associated problems only increase the panic.

People want to move into something that will protect their underlying wealth, or even ensure they have something, anything that they can trade. Therefore they move into resources that will not lose value. Gold has been the traditional hedge in such times, but it does not take long for the price to be prohibitive as it is a rare resource. Most Gold is held by the large investors leaving little for the small investor to get at a reasonable price. There is however another precious metal that it more easily available to the small investor - it is silver, and currently it is relative cheap to Gold with a 1:70 ratio. This ratio is has no sensible explanation given that the ratio they are found in the earth is about 1:13.5. Should silver return to its God given ratio - those holding silver are likely to become very rich.

Silver has many qualities and properties that make it a very useful industrial commodity. For example silver paste is used in 90% of solar cells - and with many predicting and even demanding the move to renewable energy, the demand for solar panels is predicted to skyrocket. Thus the demand for silver paste is correspondingly over to increase. But if one takes a detail look at just how many industrial processes silver is involved in - its demand just as a commodity has the potential to skyrocket. But many are seeing the real increase in the price of silver will be the demand for it as an investment.

Silver is molded into bullion bars and coins. As such it forms an easily transportable form of wealth. Each bar is marked with its purity and weight and normally a makers mark. If you want to see how easily these items are traded one can check on eBay and see that bullion is highly tradable and convertible into cash.
As cash continues to lose its value, silver underlying value will increase in proportion. (For example if you had left your money in the bank last year you would have seen a low interest return (3%-5%) on which you would be required to pay tax. In truth by sitting your money in the bank you are losing value when inflation is factored in. If you had put the money into silver you could have seen a 56% increase in value) But where investors see the real increase in the demand for silver will be the demand to have something other than paper with which to trade, buy and sell. Once this process again becomes accepted to the general public the value of silver will only increase further.

The only way I see silver not exploding in value would be if some massive silver mine was discovered - I am mean massive in the sense of billions of ounces. This happened when the "new world" was discover in the 1500's, but I very much doubt with the world now explored there is another silver el Dorado not yet found. Currently silver mining production is about 600 million ounces most of which is currently used and "consumed" meaning any sizable move into silver as bullion will greatly increase its price. There simply isn't as much silver around as there once was.

The fundamental law of supply and demand is very well known. It is a law that is beginning to be applied to silver with people realizing it is a finite resource, it is precious.
Why invest in Silver bullion? To make money on an increasingly limited and in demand resource. By having physical possession of Silver in bullion form you know you actually have it, in precise quantity and quality and not just a paper promise.

 By Alastair Harris

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Why Silver Is So Important?

Silver is a very pretty gray white metal. It is quite soft and provides resistance from corrosion, and it does not oxidize easily. But, it can form a surface tarnish of silver sulfide. It is the best conductor of electricity among all the metals. It is considered as a precious metal along with gold and platinum. Since silver is a rare metal that also adds to its preciousness.

Everybody knows that Silver is used extensively in various forms of jewelry. Despite the shine and luster of the silver, it is relatively quite cheap metal as compared to others. It is easily accessible as well. Silver jewelry has a rare distinction of complimenting any skin tone with an equal ease. At one time, it can be elegant, and at the other time, it can be used casually.

Silver is considered as a precious metal. It is used extensively to make silverware. They can be made from sterling silver or standard silver. It is also used in photographic paper and film. The most common example of its usage is commercial photography. Silver is used heavily in the industrial sector. It is used by industries for industrial X-rays and graphic arts.

In the medical area also, silver has found its place. It is used by dentists for various purposes like tooth filling. It is used in the field of electronics due to its good conductivity of electricity. Also, it is used in batteries and connectors. It is used to make tableware and wrought plates. Some humidifier on the market uses silver to make rods which are used to eliminate bacteria.

Silver has the highest conductivity among metals and it is a good conductor of heat as well. The conductivity of silver is better than the copper, but copper is primarily used in wires for electricity conductivity because of its cheapness. It provides lower contact resistance of any other metal. Silver is also known as white metal because it has a high optical reflectivity. It also has the highest thermal conductivity in comparison to other metals.

Silver is considered to be stable in pure water and air. But, it has shown the signs of tarnishing if exposed to air or water that contains ozone. Many acids are available in the market. These acids can easily clean the black layer of the silver.

Standard silver is composed of 92% alloy and 8%copper. In many countries, it is mandatory to at least constitute 92% of fine silver in order to be marketable. Some of the markets sell their sterling silver with the help of a process known as flashing. A thin silver coating is provided on silver jewelry items through this process. This coating provides the required shiny finish to the silver jewelry. Britannia silver is composed of 95% of silver and 5% of copper. These variety of uses has made silver so important in our life.

 By Richard Z Hamlin

Silver can be a very good investing option. If you're looking for ways to invest in silver or gold, you can find them here http://www.moneysilvergold.net/

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Why Samsung Is Not Buying Silver

Cluff Gold, a gold mining concern focused on West African assets, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Samsung. Under the unusual agreement, the huge Seoul, South Korea based industrial company will be offering substantial funding to the mining concern to help develop its mining portfolio in the initial form of a $20 million unhedged loan facility.

This is the very first financing deal of its kind, where a non-mining concern has shown an interest in a mining company to help provide it with a reliable supply of bullion over the longer term.

For whatever reason, capital from outside the mining industry is now starting to become available to it.Interestingly, the well-known shorts in the mining shares could well be in trouble, although the fact that Samsung is buying into a gold miner highlights the fact that it is probably too late to do the same for silver.

Silver Miners are Spread Thin and at the Mercy of the Banks

Although a desperate need for consolidation exists in the silver mining sector, the capital to do so seems quite hard to come by since miners are typically viewed as risky borrowers by funding banks. This situation creates significant problems for the supply of silver going forward.

If a tech company announced a similar joint venture with a silver miner, it would very likely create an industrial panic and see the price of silver push sharply higher. This move could be large enough to break the global financial system, especially if the famously short bullion banks are not as hedged by offsetting transactions in the OTC sector as they claim to be.

Basically, the worldwide surge in investment demand for silver is competing with constant industrial demand for a metal that is universally believed to be vastly more ubiquitous than it is due to years of extreme price distortion.

Furthermore, silver's monetary history ties it to gold, even though they have different intrinsic values. Nevertheless, no central banks own silver in comparable quantities to their gold holdings.

Impact of the Samsung/Cluff Gold Deal

Overall, as noted by many, including the legendary gold mining CEO, Jim Sinclair,the story is a major game changer that demonstrates substantial international corporate investment in a monetary metal.

It also highlights the persistent under valuation in the sector, and the desire by industrial concerns to secure their long term supply of a precious metal.

Furthermore, the creative financing deal demonstrates the recognition of the facts that:

(1) Gold mines mine money,
(2) The supply of gold is dwindling and
(3) Gold plays an important role in the high tech industry, which is actually quite minimal compared with silver's broader industrial importance.

The deal also indicates that the precious metals bear market inflicted by widespread hedging of gold shares is now coming to a close. Just think about it, if Samsung or another large tech company tried to source silver in this way, it could very well trigger a spreading crisis.

Precious Metals in the Rehypothecation Era

The Samsung/Cluff Gold deal also comes in the era of rehypothecation, which involves a broker pledging as collateral for a bank loan the securities in customer margin accounts.

Basically, the rehypothecation of assets, which infinitely dilutes claims on real assets, can and will ultimately lead to total losses even for investors who thought that they had strong collateral backing.

Furthermore, the inventory of the world's credible assets is literally evaporating in absence of Cap Ex spending, which is also one of the reasons behind the ECB's seemingly endless lowering of its collateral requirements.

Why Buy Silver?

Within this investing and supply environment for silver, a substantial buying interest could well have a remarkable upwards impact on the price of silver for the following reasons:

(1) Not much silver left. This is the same reason that central banks are not buying silver. Basically, silver has been dis-hoarded and any major buyer would immediately induce a short covering panic that would end all panics.

(2) Silver miners are spread thin. The supply of silver is largely a byproduct of the mining of other metals because the primary silver producers are still viewed as risky. They also often have trouble finding funding for their mining operations and exploration activities.

(3) Strategic threat. No one wants to be the one that blows the silver market sky high with large purchases, so gradual accumulation often seems a more prudent investment strategy in the relatively thin silver market.

Although Samsung may not be buying silver - yet - this innovative deal with Cluff Gold indicates that conditions are favorable for more "finance for supply" transactions of this type over the years to come.

By Jeffrey Lewis

For more articles like this, and to stay updated on the most important economic, financial, political and market events related to silver and precious metals, visit http://www.silver-coin-investor.com

With silver, most people either don't know how to get started or live in constant fear of the volatility. Check out our Free Silver Investing Guide and E-Course to find out if silver is right for you.

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Future Silver Prices - How High Will Silver Go?

Over the last few years, there has been a huge amount of interest in the precious-metals sector, as many weary investors have looked for somewhere safe to place their money. Both gold and silver have increased sharply in value over this period, with gold having risen to levels that many investors now seem unable to reach. Silver on the other hand is a lot cheaper, making it a more viable option for many investors. And although silver has risen sharply alongside gold, many precious-metal investors are now speculating that the white metal may still have some way to go.

Can Silver Reach $800 Dollars?

In the early 1930s, silver was at a low of around 25 cents an ounce. It was difficult to trade, and near impossible to buy between 1934 and 1963 because of a government imposed trading ban on the metal. But by the early 1980s, silver had reached a high of around $50 dollars an ounce. In just under 50 years, silver had risen around 200 times in value. Based on the bull market that started in the 1930s, and that lasted through to the early 1980s, and taking about ten years ago when silver was last at its market bottom of around $4 dollars, silver would need to rise to around $800 dollars to equal its last bull market.

Can Silver Reach $2500 Dollars?

The monetary base back in the early 1980s was estimated to be at around $140 billion dollars (according to government information) when extracted silver for the same period was estimated to be at around three billion ounces. Taking silver's old high of the early 1980s which was around $50 dollars, and comparing it with the two trillion dollar monetary base of today, silver would need to rise to around $2500 dollars to equal that of the monetary base back in the early 1980s. These figures are based on the philosophy that the amount of extracted silver that exists today for investment, is far less than that what existed back in the early 1980s.

Can Silver Reach $4500 Dollars or More?

Although silver is a precious-metal, is has always played second fiddle to that of gold, where gold has always been (and still is) sought after by central banks, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and investors alike. Silver has never really been taken seriously, although when certain elements of the market are analyzed, the white metal may have a lot better future than gold.

Over the years, unlike gold much of the extracted silver that has existed for investment purposes does not exist anymore. Due to silver's highly appealing uses within the industrial sector, a large majority of the white metal has been used up in disposable products like computers, mobile phones, televisions and batteries etc. Silver has also been used for many years within the car industries and machinery industries.

Taking into account that probably around 95% of the previously extracted silver does not exist anymore, due to being discarded over the years along with the disposable electronics that regularly get thrown away, and the rising costs of extracting the remaining amount of discovered silver. It would now not be unreasonable to think, that silver has even a little higher to go than previous thought.

If the US dollar was to collapse, which it could easily do, due to the increasing burden of an out of control national debt that now hovers around the 14 trillion dollar mark, together with an increasing amount of weekly runs on the printing presses that are devaluing the dollar everyday. Then the now reserve currency of the world, would have very little appeal to it.

It could be concluded, that gold would become almost impossible to obtain, as the present diminishing supplies would be quickly snapped up by governments around the world. At the same time a total trading ban could easily be reintroduced on the metal. This would leave silver to be a viable investment option. When considering the present-day turmoil, and remembering that during the 1930s silver bull run the dollar actually lost almost 70% of its value, the price of silver could easily reach new highs that have never been seen before!

By Philip Albert Edmonds-Hunt

Philip Albert Edmonds-Hunt is from the County of Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. He has travelled most of Europe, and he has lived in Spain on more than one occasion. Philip has also travelled much of the USA and now lives and works as a Freelance Writer and English Teacher in Mexico. He is the owner of "The Oxford Quill," a small but reliable business offering a range of services such as, "Professional Article Writing, Proofreading, and Website Design." Philip's business also offers an extensive selection of professionally written e-books. If you are interested in finding out more about how to invest in silver, check out: https://sites.google.com/site/theoxfordquill/in

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Reasons Why Silver Prices Will Rise in the Future

Silver prices have been steadily increasing over the past few years. The price of silver has increased about 84% in 2010 and then up another 20% in 2011. According to analysts, the value of precious metals will continue to rise in the future. If you are planning on investing on coins, then you must do it now before the prices get too high. The longer you wait, the smaller the profits you get from investing in silver. If you don't believe that the price of silver will only continue to rise in the future, read this list of some of the reasons why the price of silver is continuously rising.

Reasons Why Silver Prices Are Rising

For decades, central banks have been selling their reserves of silver in order to meet excess demand. This has kept silver prices low for many years but it also made mining unprofitable. As a result, there is now a shortage of the mined capacity of silver developing over the next two to four years.

Most of the mined silver is consumed for industrial purposes. Therefore, most of the mined silver is consumed quickly instead of being stored. Silver is a previous metal that has a store value quality similar to gold, but it is used as an industrial metal. This gives it a useful value in growing industries such as chemicals, computers, and cell phones.

Since World War II, the United States government has sold over 5 billion ounces of this precious metal. The U.S. government currently has no reported silver in storage.

The above-ground available stores of gold have by 600% since 1980, while the above-ground available stores of silver have decreased by 90% since 1980.

Silver prices are also rising because starting and operating a mine costs a lot of money. A significant silver mine needs requires about ten million dollars (in some cases it might need 100 million dollars) in capital to get started. It takes about 3 to 5 years for a single silver mine to produce a significant amount of silver.

Most of the mined silver did not come from silver mines. It is found while mining for other minerals like zinc, lead, copper, and gold. Therefore, silver is not the focus of new investments in the mining sector. Only 30% of mined silver comes from silver mines. They are very few because there are few places that can sustain silver mining.

Silver has hundreds of industrial uses in today's modern economy. IT is used in water filtration, wound care, health care, solar power, mirrored glass, DVDs, cell phones, smart phones, tablet computers, and computers. It is also used as a catalyst for chemical reactions in order to produce products such as plastics.

Silver is the preferred metal by the average investor when the prices of gold are more than $1000 per ounce. When gold prices become higher, silver becomes a good substitute for investment for gold because of its lower cost and its similar qualities.

China, one of the world's significant producers of silver, has limited its silver exports and ended the tax rebates that they give to silver exporters.

By Jennifer Edelman

To find more about silver prices, you can visit us at gold prices

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Tips on Buying Silver: The "Poor Man's Gold"

A prominent silver analyst recently stated that he thinks that at its current price, silver is the most undervalued commodity in history, but here are some things prospective silver investors might not know.

Buying and Storing Physical Silver

You can buy silver bullion bars and coins from many qualified dealers both in the U. S. and abroad. By "qualified" we mean dealers who offer defined buyback programs and secured storage options along with your purchases. Two popular dealers are American Precious Metals Exchange and KITCO in Canada. Both feature great selections, competitive pricing, quick delivery (if you choose), and excellent buyback policies, along with secure storage options. Bullion silver bars and coins are.9999 pure silver and trade at modest premiums to their intrinsic (or melt) values. You can also purchase what is known as "junk" silver, which means United States silver coins minted prior to 1965 (1970 for the Kennedy Half Dollar). Junk silver coins contain 90% silver and 10% copper, and are generally sold in random denominations in different sized "bags." Premiums over melt value can vary greatly among dealers, so you should shop carefully. Some dealers also offer uncirculated US silver coins, but these coins have numismatic value and so are universally sold at higher premiums over their intrinsic value.

Advantages/Disadvantages of Silver over Gold

Many anticipate a collapse of the dollar as the U.S. unit of currency at some future point. Fiat currencies (those based only upon faith) have never stood the test of time, and history is replete with almost 4,000 examples of failed fiat currencies. If and when the dollar ultimately fails there will almost certainly be a period during which silver and gold coins will be used as currency. Silver coins will have more utility than gold as a replacement currency, but gold can be more easily stored. It is not possible to predict the relative future values of gold and silver, but holding some of both metals is probably a wise policy.

Alleged Silver Price Manipulation

Many traders believe silver prices have been artificially suppressed by major money center banks acting in collusion with the Federal Reserve since 2008. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) began investigating charges made by traders against JPMorgan Chase in 2008 after the bank acquired large silver short positions as part of its acquisition of Bear Stearns, and separate federal lawsuits were filed against JPMorgan Chase and HSBC (a large foreign bank) in October, 2010, charging silver market manipulation. The suits alleged that the banks illegally manipulated silver prices by periodically "flooding the market" with sell orders to suppress market rallies. The suits were dismissed in 2011 on grounds that unless and until the CFTC completed its investigation the Courts had no basis for any findings against the Banks. The CFTC investigation remains unresolved today, five years after it began, and as of this date JPMorgan Chase still holds short positions representing over 20% of the entire Comex silver market. Veteran traders believe price suppression continues, but remain confident that demand will ultimately overwhelm the Banks' short positions, and that silver prices will then dramatically spike to their true market values.

Summary

There are many alternatives for buying silver, and decisions to enter the silver market deserve careful thought, planning, and preparation. We hope you will find this information useful if you are contemplating an investment in silver.

By Steve A McCurdy

Steve McCurdy specializes in investing in precious metals and is a survivalist. You can check his latest website at Gold Silver and Survival, and also read his article Buying Silver.

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Buying Silver Coins Has Proven To Be An Excellent Investment Strategy

There are three fundamental reasons why investors are buying silver coins: for a future growth investment, for a hedge against inflation, and/or to survive an economic collapse of the current government. Currently, some investors are purchasing silver coins because they believe the price of silver is going to increase in the near future according to supply and demand principles. This article will cover these fundamentals, and give scenarios of past and present situations in which investments in silver coins was or can be an excellent investment strategy.

In past precious metal bull markets, silver has outperformed gold by tripling in price when gold only doubled, and in some instances silver quadrupled in price while gold only doubled. One of the biggest factors for these occurrences is silver's numerous industrial applications which far outnumber gold's industrial uses. Since 1990, silver production of up has fallen well short of industrial demand. In fact, in 2001 silver production fell 117.5 million ounces short of industrial demand, and the demand for silver needed to produce currency raise the shortage to 142.5 million ounces. It is believed that more gold is currently stored in vaults than the total amount of the world's above ground silver supply. This is most likely the reason why in 1998 Warren Buffett purchased 129.7 million ounces of silver.

Most Financial Investors will advise the purchase of junk silver coins over premium silver coins. Although premium silver coins may be more aesthetically pleasing, they will not hold up in value during an economic collapse of a current government. The amount of silver content the coin possesses will far outweigh the coin's rarity or beauty when trying to barter for goods or services. Take for example, the economic collapse of the banking system in Argentina and Paraguay in 2002. The citizens that converted their Pesos and Guarani for gold and silver coins protected themselves when the banks closed, and even after banks reopened clients were limited to the amount of money that could be withdrawn.

An investor buying silver coins will need to follow some basic guidelines. A safe investment would be purchasing Morgan Silver, Roosevelt dimes, or 1964 Kennedy half-dollars. Just as important as what you buy is who you buy from. Whether it be your local coin shop or over the Internet, the investor should research how trustworthy the business or dealer has been in the past. Ask other investors for recommendations and gather feedback from previous customers are both good ideas before doing business.

U.S. coins minted before 1964 contain 90% silver content, and because they were circulated as a legal tender they're no longer in mint condition and are referred to as junk coins. Although they may be worthless to collectors, investors see only profit. A Roosevelt dime that was originally worth 10¢ would today have a melt value of $2.20 because it contains approximately 0.07234 ounces of silver.

A collector will pay $18.00 or $19.00 for a Morgan silver dollar, but they contain 0.77343 ounces of silver. If melted down, they would be worth $24.00 to $25.00 to an investor at today's prices. Typical dealers sell $1000 bags face-value of junk silver coins which will cost the investor $12 to $13,000 at today's prices. But at online auction sites and investor can find dealers selling smaller quantities, and some dealers even offer free shipping. Putting in a bid just above spot value on several lots will often land an investor a few winning bids.

Some strategists predict that silver could climb as high as $150 an ounce, and for an investor buying silver coins at today's spot-prices this could mean as much as a 328% return on their investment.

By Nathan M Lee

To find out more about investing in silver, silver coins, and junk silver please read Nathan Lee's article series at: http://coinsworthmoney.org/. Learn timely and instructive information on silver and silver coin investing before making your short and/or long term investment decisions.

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