In truth, nobody will know except in hindsight.
For gold, you are buying what the banks buy. Look at the graph of gold in the last 20 years. It is a winner. It is still going up but did stagnate for a period of years. You have to take that into account when buying and whether you are someone who can just buy it, put it aside and watch the paint dry.
For silver, a more volatile metal play, you are buying a demonetised metal trading mostly as an industrial commodity, currently weighted in the solar and electrical manufacturing, which also has a dying boomer investment cohort who remembered it as money back in the 50s and early 60s, shilled it a decade ago, as well as a bunch of GenXers who swallowed the line. While it has held a status as a “precious metal” it is barely that in reality.
But, it also has potential to trade again as a precious metal due to its history as a monetary metal, a history of wild fluctuation in price, as well as mostly being a byproduct, with some major primary silver mines coming to the end of their lives at this price anyway. There is no clear sense to me how enthusiasm might arise again other than through a widespread adoption in China, India, maybe Africa. I don’t see demand of the kind we want generated in Anglo-European countries or western allies in Asia, though that may depend on the product and what happens in the digital token world.
If governments clamp down on gold either directly or indirectly through taxation, silver should benefit.
An interesting thing - when you look at nominal inflation in price of a US silver dollar in the early 20th century and melt value now, I’ve seen calculations where the real value is similar back then and now (a dollar then = melt value of about $14 USD now)
You have a 100oz bar which is nice to own. Early on I bought mostly bars and Perth Mint. It’s a good foundation.
