Is silver .999 still Silver no matter what ?

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Gidday All

Sorry if this newbie question is just a repeat, but I'm gonna ask anyways.

Just say in years to come, a few short years hopefully Silver does go sky high. Will it matter very much if a coin I buy today is such and such a year or make?

What I mean is that I am able to buy 1 oz coins of .999 silver today at varying prices, if I am looking long term on silver should I just buy as much as as cheap as now ?

Thanks
 
.999 silver will never be less than silver, it will always have a 'melt' value.

If there is ever a genuine shortage of silver people will be melting everything down they can get their hands on. In this case the prices would might equalise.

What you are seeing on the 1oz coins are varying premiums above the .999 price. If you are looking to sell your silver back into the coin market later then you'll likely get back some of the premiums on coins that you pay a premium for. For example you could probably flog off a 1oz kookaburra for higher than an indian buffalo round but a mint would pay you the same melt value on the two coins for the 1oz of silver content.

In theory as Silver goes higher the absolute premium should not go up very much (so the premium as a % will go down.)
 
As I have ALWAYS said...............

Bullion is best bang for your buck.

Coins have a certain market.

but Silver is Silver.............

Got some 2010 Silver Tigers.

But got more Silver Bullion.........................
 
Let me first qualify the follwing remarks in the context that... I'm a yellow-bellied, chicken.

I'm only in this lark for financial security & safety (sure it'd be nice to make a killing, but that's not my motivation for stacking).

When silver does go 'sky-high', I'm pretty sure all numismatic premiums on coins will seriously reduce. At that point I 'think' I won't be too bothered having made a significant windfall on investment.

However, when things go sky-high, I'm 100% certain we'll see the fakes, forgeries and scamsters coming out in a way will that make the Ebay HGE, German Silver and Fake Chinese Panda shysters look like a kindergarten lamington drive.

Minted coins (bullion or otherwise) are more difficult to fake than a forged bar (that's why they're called 'forgeries' instead of 'minteries' :) ). This should ensure a greater level of protection and confidence as the fakers ramp up. Also, by hedging your bets and having a spread of coin types you're less exposed if the bad guys do choose to start forging 1 type of coin and it gets a bad rep 'cough' panda 'cough'. Whether you want to charge an extra premium on your coins or just want to be able to sell your stack quicker is a great choice to be faced with when the crowd is scrambling for your silver...any silver.

Another adavantge of coins is if you choose to liquidate a bit of your stack before things do go 'sky-high' the premium is maintained by the market demand (and in some cases increases the premium over the base metal content)

Personally, I aim in $ terms to maintain a 50/50 split of coins and bullion in various weights upto 1kg (thank god for the Perth Mint 'hummer' :P )

Call me a chicken as much as you like, just don't call me late for dinner ;)
 
Coins Vs bars as I see it is thus. Bars = a play purely on the price of silver. Coins a play on silver price plus a collectors value. I stack only coins because it offers some resistance to a downside in silver prices as the collectors premium adds value.
 
Welcome to the joy of creating your own threads on the forum southerncross :)


Regards silver being silver in sky high scenarios.
Look, gold has already gone skyhigh ( in terms of what it has been a decade ago ), MOST gold coinage that was minted in the last 100 years is less than 0.999 Au, in fact only in the last (roughly) 25 yrs have they started minting 0.999 gold coins, but if you look at circulating gold coinage they are all usually up to 0.917 gold ( 22 ct ) with exception of European Ducats which are 23 3/4 ct ( 0.9860 Au) and they are all trading above spot - it is true that the mintages on these gold coins are LOWER than with most silver coins and that would have contributed to their price as well. But if you look at
other forms of gold, like nuggets or even DENTAL SCRAP, they are all trading +- 5% of spot.


Regards, such and such year and make and design and mintage.
All coins ( the ones made from Zinc included - they dont make those anymore but they did ! ) have
2 main sources where they derive their value from.

One is the INTRINSIC value i.e. how much of pure gold there is in em.

Two is the 'NUMISMATIC' value ( design, condition, mintage, mint, scarcity are the main ones )

With design, all other things being equal a gold coin from Monaco will cost more than one from Costa Rica, beauty of their crest or the ruler on the coin, or the 'prestige' of the country, or a coin ( all other things being equal again - so same weight,mintage,condition,mint,etc ) that features a 'cool' animal will be more sought after than an 'uncool' animal ( would you rather have a leopard or a cow on a coin ?!

Mintage, a coin that has a mintage of 300 000 ( 1990 Kooka for example ) costs more than another Kooka with a higher mintage.

Mint ( related with mintage #s) : Sovereigns were minted in the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, India and maybe a few other countries, so once again the rarer ones will cost more.


So thats it in a nutshell.
Of course, as in all things in life, time will tell which form ( bars,1966 50 C, kookas, maples, 1kg perth mint coins, etc, etc ) of silver investing will prove to have been the most 'profitable'.

But if starting out, than start accumulating the lowest premium over spot paid coinage, and over time, you will start to expand and broaden what you are buying and will become your own 'expert'.

Personally, i have never owned a Kook ( too expensive, and not that cool of an animal :p ) but than again, im kinda tight.
:)
 
Thankyou all for your reply's and opinions, I really do appreciate them.


I guess in my own mind I am comparing Silver to Gold, and in my own mind Silver is just Silver IE in the long run despite the pretty picture the content is the main thing.

Say Silver reaches todays gold value in five years, will the picture on a coin really matter? Or will it be the weight of the coin that really matters?

An Oz is an Oz Right? or Wrong ?

I am a virgin to all this so your opinions are a great help. I have been buying Pamp Suisse OZ's and find that I can purchase them for around the same price on e-bay that I can from local bullion companys when freight etc is taken into account.

It seems that there is also a premium attached to these bars that is around the same for coins. is this the case? and if so are they as good an investment as coins?

Will the same premium carry over in years to come? Is the same premium still in evidence for historic gold coins and bars with the recent price rise?

Sorry if the questions are amateur but that is where I am at the moment.
 
Hiya southerncross,

I have bought 2x 1oz Pamp bars a while ago. I think the premium on them is 'high' but I got them because I like the look of them. For the same reason I do have a few single silver and gold coins ( may favourite is an unc Canberra 1927 Florin..totally stunning). Everything else is 'stack', mostly bars but happy to include kooks, eagles, libertads and any other coin I like the look of. Stacking is all about looking to the future but I think it is important to also enjoy it along the way.

I even bought one 1oz silver Andean Cat early on. I paid a very high premium at the time (all up 50 bucks). I'm still not impressed with the design but soon after release this particular coin quicly became very contraversal and so the novelty of it attracted me. Buying, selling and trading silver sounds like hard work but in fact it is very enjoyable and as you watch your stack grow it becomes really satisfying.

Anyways, welcome to stacking and enjoy.
 
Silver is silver is silver. However, I find myself constantly trawling feebay for PAMP 'bargains' (with some good wins lately) coz I just love 'em!
 
Depends on your goals.

If its a blind investment then yes any .999 will do.

You'll know pretty quickly what suits you if you get into it. I love coins but have a decent number of bars too. Your tastes will shift and your stack will evolve to reflect your personality.
 
My theory is that coins will be the better overall investment over bars, but it is also possible that at various times, bars will have the advantage over coins. Consider that if silver goes very high and most bars and coins are melted for scrap. The remaining bars and coins should gain some numismatic value. And since there are far more coins collectors than bar collectors, the coins should gain an additional premium advantage. But, as others have posted, will you really care who was right in this debate? We will all be winners.
 
Clawhammer said:
Minted coins (bullion or otherwise) are more difficult to fake than a forged bar (that's why they're called 'forgeries' instead of 'minteries' :) ). This should ensure a greater level of protection and confidence as the fakers ramp up. Also, by hedging your bets and having a spread of coin types you're less exposed if the bad guys do choose to start forging 1 type of coin and it gets a bad rep 'cough' panda 'cough'. Whether you want to charge an extra premium on your coins or just want to be able to sell your stack quicker is a great choice to be faced with when the crowd is scrambling for your silver...any silver.

Another adavantge of coins is if you choose to liquidate a bit of your stack before things do go 'sky-high' the premium is maintained by the market demand (and in some cases increases the premium over the base metal content)
Click to expand...

Excellent perspective Claw, I wonder how many fake bars there are out there ? If the Chinese can produce a near perfect fake coin they can easily fake a Scotsdale Stacker or a Suisse whatever. Just too easy for them !
 
Silver is silver is silver...

BUT

if you have a roll of 20 maple leafs sitting next to a roll of misc 999 rounds like Happy Anniversary 1976, which one would you pick ? when dealing with people I think there will always be some preference or pickiness. Of course the refiner's crucible has the final say, and to it, silver is silver no matter what form its in
 
southerncross said:
Gidday All

Sorry if this newbie question is just a repeat, but I'm gonna ask anyways.

Just say in years to come, a few short years hopefully Silver does go sky high. Will it matter very much if a coin I buy today is such and such a year or make?

What I mean is that I am able to buy 1 oz coins of .999 silver today at varying prices, if I am looking long term on silver should I just buy as much as as cheap as now ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Buy a bit of both coins and bars.

Generally it won't matter what year your coins is. With exception of really old mintage 15-20 years old coins (kook or lunar), or lunar (especially Tiger and Dragon, get as much as you can).

I always recommend people to allocate 70-80% of their holding in Bars! The rest in coins. Maybe 2-5% in rounds.
 
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