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 Replies: 17 / Views: 2,439 |
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New Member
United States
2 Posts |
I have thought about investing in silver for a few years and constantly find myself at the coin shop and ebay checking out silver Morgan dollars. Is this a good way to invest or should I look elsewhere? I do want it in my hands I would prefer smaller increments. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7123 Posts |
Welcome to the forum .
coins are one way to collect silver as an investment ,, bullion rounds and bars are another .
The only difference is if you choose the coins you purchase wisely then they have the added benefit of growing numismatically even as silver fluctuates in value .
Personally I do not collect coins as an investment although I know of many who do.
Metalman
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2600 Posts |
Re, I invest in both gold an silver. At first I purchased bullion but have moved much of that in to coins, now. I have aimed at buying high grade coins that have about the same collectors value as precious metal value. It is easier to do this with gold as high grade silver coins are usually well above melt in collectors value, but they do exist. I see it as a double investment opportunity. There are two possibilities to have growth.
Jim
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Moderator
 United States
6563 Posts |
I love foreign Commemorative coins that are 1oz silver. I normally try and get them at spot value if I can. Personally they are worth more to me then a simple silver round or bar. However the rounds and bars are a very easy way to invest...and sometimes very profitable to sell
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3233 Posts |
In a word, YES. However, if you're simply speculating on the silver market, then just concentrate on getting generic silver material (basically much of the latter 20th century silver coinage and some a bit earlier). If you like coins in general, you will start to gravitate to various series' and learn about them and might get really into buying the coins not just for their silver content.
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Member
United States
3242 Posts |
They said it all there no much more I can add but take your time do not fall for scams!
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Valued Member
United States
204 Posts |
I would recommend the American Silver Eagles (ASEs) as a good place to start if you are looking to invest in silver, as they also have some collector appeal and are usually only a little more than spot silver prices. I would advise, contrary to the common buzz, that this is the worst time to invest in silver as it is at a 20 year high. If you collect them for the enjoyment, the rewards still outweigh the cost however. Good luck and welcome to the forum!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
Regarding investing in silver/gold: if you haven't already, check the spot price trends since mid 2005 (when gold was ~ USD 425/oz), and make your own market interpretations. I observe this recent run coincides with the emerging trouble in the real estate/mortgage/banking markets--that was yet hidden from the MSM. I think it's a mini-bubble, and sometime there will be a top. Not too good if people buy a hundred oz AU at 800 and it falls to 400 and hovers there for 5 years. Read up on the Hunt brothers cornering the world silver market in the early 70s.
Coins strike me as a relatively poor way to invest in spot metals, when there are more liquid options. Imo, the best Numismatic investments are finding coins that have real collector value--and are as of yet underappreciated.
NB: Not investment advice
Edited by KurtS
12/10/2007 2:33 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
812 Posts |
One of the issues to consider if investing in precious metals is the current weakness of the American dollar.
Even if silver had remained unchanged in "value" for the last 12 months, the fact that silver is an international commodity and the American dollar is worth noticeably less than it was 12 months ago would result in an "increase" in the price of silver.
If the American dollar recovers, there will be some lowering of the price of silver. On the other hand ...
If making investing decisions were easy, I'd be retired.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5318 Posts |
quote:
One of the issues to consider if investing in precious metals is the current weakness of the American dollar.
Right--a lot of us are looking to hedge the dollar, as am I. However, a desire to do that creates a run on metals, where the $14.70/oz. current price vs. ~$7 in mid-05 just might reflect more than mere dollar deflation. I'm hardly an expert here, but I'm cautious after seeing the rise/fall of silver in the early '70s. Back when I was 10, I sold all my silver coin at $40/oz!  With that inexpert caveat in mind, I'll just say that if there's more market instability coming, I'll wager we'll see more panic runs into every possible or supposed hedge. The psychology and "top" of these runs are very hard to predict. Edited by KurtS
12/10/2007 5:11 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7123 Posts |
Silver alone or for that matter precious metals as a whole are no hedge against the falling dollar ,, diversification of assets is the only way to truely protect yourself in times of instability .
if you pay for silver today with a dollar (example) that has a real value of 91 cents ,, and sell two years from now for the same dollar that has a value of 86 cents what protection was there in the purchase ?
silver and Gold are already limited on the amounts which can be shipped,sold or otherwise converted in other countries where the currency maybe running higher than the dollar .
don't put all of your eggs in one basket !
Metalman
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Pillar of the Community
United States
986 Posts |
Yes. 90% "junk silver" coins are backed by the U.S. government regarding authenticity and silver content, so there's no problem there. Same with silver eagles. I would suggest silver eagles over bullion rounds, simply because there's a smaller buy/sell spread. The cheapest way to get 90% coins are Roosevelt dimes, but the morgans you mentioned will usually carry some sort of numismatic premium. |
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Valued Member
United States
439 Posts |
If you know what you're doing, sure.
Would have been a lot better for you if you'd done it a few years ago when you started thinking about it. Silver has shot up a lot since then.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
Coins are the ideal way to invest in silver especially if you're not in a rush to buy and expect to never be in a rush to sell. You can always try to buy coins that are worth as much for their numismatic value as their bullion value. If silver goes down the coin will retain most of its value. Even at very low silver prices you could have bought 40% silver which has substantial face value. As silver prices increase you can find dealer stock which hasn't been repriced recently and get it for less than silver value. You can trade good coins for more silver if prices drop and then trade the other way if it goes back up.
There's no cheaper way to buy silver than some coins. 35% nickels sell for a steep discount to face. While this might continue in the future there's a good possibility this discount would lessen or collapse in the event of a silver shortage.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
WELCOME. As to investing in anything try to remember the word liquidity. Anything you buy as an investment must be able to bet readily turned around. If for instance you buy an old car. Just how big is the market for them and where would you go to sell it. Same with Silver, Gold, etc. Just how easy and fast can you sell it if funs are required. If you have money in a savings account at a bank, you can get it whenever the bank is open. Some try it even it the bank is closed. If you have stocks in the stock market you must first sell the stocks to get your money. If no buyers, no money. If you have a mountain of Silver Bullion and no where to sell it, you have a nice pile of metal. As noted if thinking of investing, think liquidity first.
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Valued Member
United States
314 Posts |
Just Carl, Is correct about being to sell it or whatever. I have 1960 Cadillac eldorado convertible I been trying to sell for 5 years. Since your talking about silver and gold being very expensive. There are other metals to invest in besides those two you can sell or transfer in to gold and silver. This what I am doing in my spare time these days. 1. Copper pennies in USA from 1959 Thur 1981. There is wide scale effort on removing them from circulation. There are guys removing them from bank boxs of coins everyday to be hoarded like silver was in 1965 Thur 1970. There are people on ebay buying the 25 dollar boxes for like 50 bucks and paying 10 shipping. One guy invented an machine to cull the pre 1983 Thur 2007 zincs from boxs. Copper is 3 bucks per pound and they think it will maybe get to 5 bucks per pound someday soon. There is even an scrap metal dealer working with congress on getting them remove the ban on melting them down the us mint placed on melting down pennies and nickels in the USA. This may get nuts like with silver did years ago. This what I been doing I been buying 25 dollar boxes of pennies from local banks and making 25 dollar bricks of 1959 Thur 1981 copper pennies. I buy maybe 5 boxes per week. I need to go 5 boxes to get one 25 dollar box full of copper pennys. I dont pay overface for them like those guys on ebay. I buy my coins face value. There is endless supply of copper pennys out there since the us mint made maybe 7 billion coin per year from 1959 thru 1981. This the perfect time to get copper coins at face value. I may sell my copper and upgrade to silver coins since they are smaller. If us government gets rid of melt ban its going free for all like when they had removed silver coins in 1964 and caused the government to start making clad coins. I heard they had coin shortages in banks in the old days. Corporations are trying get the government get ban removed where they can make millions melting down copper pennies like they did silver years ago. In Canada they doing it also by removing all pre 1996 copper pennies and pre 1981 nickels almost pure nickel up there. On ebay they buying 100 dollar face box's of pre 1981 nickels for around 300 to 400 USA dollars. They even have Americans buying up boxes of Canada money and bringing into USA to melt it down over here. Its like an free for all with copper and nickel these days. I dont know how long this will last and would not pay over face on stuff. All my stuff I buy from banks. If had extra money I would go Canada and try to rent an u haul full of there coins at face value to bring into USA to melt them down. Its new market thats an free for all. Chevrolet454ss |
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Replies: 17 / Views: 2,439 |
Posted 12/10/2007 08:43 am
