Your Opinion On Bullion Silver Eagles Vs Bars

Eagles have a bigger premium, but they hold their value better. You have a better chance of buying a fake when you buy bars. I'm not saying there aren't fake Eagles, but they're few and far between.

"Invest" means several different things. If you are looking to buy and sell to make a profit, short term, it is possible. It also carries risks, just as do stocks/bonds and Mutual Funds.

The one thing about gold and silver, in my opinion, that sets them apart from "paper" investments is that you always have the metal. Silver and gold have NEVER gone down to ZERO, but many, many stocks and bonds have.

As an investment, I would only buy paper gold or silver funds. The premiums, shipping, storage, and finding a buyer make paper a better option, IMO.

Silver Eagles can be allotted into your IRAs, no? Anyways, a beginner should look into Eagles just because they are easier to buy for the reason CPC24 gave.

If it's not in your hand/possession then you don't own it.

In my opinion, from buying silver since 2010, if you're not buying kilos you're doing it wrong, and even then I wouldn't recommend buying silver in the hopes it will go up in price because A)that's gambling plain and simple, and B) you don't want silver, you want dollars, so just play the stock market. Coins are nice and shiny and not a big deal to pull one out to show somebody a piece of your collection/hobby. People rebut that you can't split up a kilo.... yes you can you just have to cut it. Anyways, if you do happen to need to sell or you find that price you were aiming for, why wouldn't you sell all your silver, right? Don't get attached - and that's the trap people fall into with ounces - just because they are shiny shiny, you lose from the get-go, like a brand new car driven off the lot you're already in the hole.

Any good bullion house will take if off your hands so I can't understand that point. I would never ride around with a silver kilo to sell to someone on the street anyways (kijiji, c-list, classifieds...) The thing about coins is that they are "finite" in the sense that they are not generic, and each time a silver coin gets melted it's "gone" forever in that form.

I always stress the importance of A) the reason why you're buying precious metals, and B) the form in which you want that metal (mining stocks, paper silver ETF, generic ingot from steel mold, bar, coin, grain, wire, tube, sheet - they don't all have the same labor attached to them) because the form speaks to point A, the reason why you want the metal. I would go for bars, but if you can somehow acquire ingots near spot price, more power to you, just think about the next owner and if you believe they would know the silver purity and content, which is the number one reason people flock to the government issued bullion coin, simply because the common man cannot tell the difference between zinc and silver, brass and gold, silver and platinum, etc.

where I sell my bullion he pays spot or spot plus $1 for eagles and spot minus $1 for generic.

@Arrows: exactly -- the premium you pay for bullion Eagles helps with the resale (somewhat). They are easily one of the most liquid physical silver vehicles out there due to their reputation.

@Libertad: excellent points.

If you want physical silver in your house, my advice is to buy recognizable silver ingots/bars from reputable online dealers (e.g., SilverTowne bars from APMEX or JMBullion) when they ave sales for less than $1 over spot/oz.

And then take steps to protect said silver.

ASE have the slight advantage of collectors as well as folks just buying for the bullion value. Collecting a set gives you the added advantage of being able to sell a set all at once, too.