Obviously, coins and other collectibles all are a little bit more expensive than just buying raw blocks of silver. That is because the sellers of those collectibles expect you to understand the value that comes from the fact that it’s a coin, that it has a pattern on it, that it has been handmade, et cetera. They will ask you to pay for the fact that the coin is unique. If you are not interested in that, you’ll be much better off, and it will be a much decision financially to invest in regular silver.
On the other hand, if you don’t have a huge amount of money to invest, and if you just want to kind of play around with the idea of buying and selling silver, then collectibles may be a good idea for you. This is a good start that will get you on the right track when it comes to dealing with silver. If you buy junk silver, you will not spend much money, and you’ll still be able to learn from experience and by practice what it takes to be successful when trading silver.
That knowledge alone makes it worthwhile to you to invest in junk silver so if you just have a couple hundred dollars to work with, then I encourage you to do this. If you’re in the US then you may already come across a lot of junk silver every day in the coins you have when buying goods and services. Check the dates and start to keep any old silver coins minted prior to 1965. Today, you rarely see these pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver coins in circulation because although these coins are legal tender, their actual and true value is substantially higher than the coins’ face value but since they are out there, keep your eyes open for them and you could start a silver collection with no actual investment capital.
As we know that there are different types of investors and different kinds of silver would meet their needs. Basically, there are two types of silver investments: The first and traditional one is to buy an amount of material silver which is sold in different shapes. The second, more abstract way, is buying shares, funds, accounts and certificates.
Material silver can be bought in bigger or smaller pieces, bars, coins, jewelry, in different states of pureness, and even in abstract shares and funds. Let’s take a look:
Bars:
According to standard, silver bars are made of 99.9 percent pure silver, or 0.999 fine silver. There are different sizes and weights, from less than one ounce (oz) up to 1000 oz. The most common sizes offered on the market are one kilogram, one ounce (31.1 g), ten ounces (311 g), and five grams. Silver bars are sold from specialized traders, or in some countries over bank counters.
Coins:
Coins can be bought either as original coins such as old U.S. half dollars, quarter dollars and dimes, which until 1964 were made of 90 percent silver, or 22.5 g silver per dollar. Many countries used silver coins in the first half of the last century. However, since the 1960’s, minting silver into circulating “real money” coins isn’t tenable for governments because of its important value increase during last century, so silver has been almost completely substituted by other alloys.
The second types of silver coins are the bullion coins minted out of 99.9 percent silver bars as a raw material. Different countries minted collectible silver coins in different years between 1988 and 2009: Canada, Mexico, China, America, Australia, Great Britain, Austria and Russia. The standard bullion coin weighs 1 ounce, with different degrees of purity, although there are some varieties of sizes available.
Apart from the governmental coin minting, there are also numerous privately minted silver coins, called rounds. It is common for these rounds to have a fixed weight of 1 ounce, and a purity of 99.9% and to be issued by different kind of companies all over the world.
The great difference between coins and bars is that in order to determine the value of a silver coin, apart from its physical value given by weight and pureness there must be considered the numismatic or collector’s value of a coin. Age, rareness, and provenance can determine the value of a silver coin just as much as its weight. So, the market value can be higher than the physical factors – an advantage which can easily turn into a problem because there are fewer buyers so it could be harder to sell and convert to money.