What Does The Future Hold For Silver?

There are many ways to calculate the value of a mine, cost of gold in it, etc. There's an ad I see on ccf, something about how to buy gold for $284 an oz. You can buy stock in a mine, and if you divide the total value of the stock and the amount of gold in the ground, it may figure out to that, but there's a lot of other expense getting it to where it can be sold as a gold bar.

Another calculation involves gold as a by-product. There are copper mines that make so much on the copper, even after mining expenses, that they get the gold and silver free.

Just remember the best definition of a gold mine: A hole in the ground with a liar on top.

Another little trick: Refiners pay for what you ask them to pay for. Dental gold, some white gold and other alloys contain other metal. If you pay for a gold assay, you get paid for your gold. If you clip off the white mountings, save them, non-yellow gold, and dental gold, and pay more for a four-metal assay (used to be $45 more), you also get paid for silver, platinum, and palladium (or maybe it was iridium). Even a tiny % can amount to hundreds of dollars the refinery would otherwise keep.

Another example is separating those Franklin Mint and other gold plated silver medals. A few hundred ounces of them can contain a half ounce of gold, for just a bit higher assay cost.

With the world the way it is I really feel that Silver 'junk US coins" are the way to go. I feel that the Silver/Gold value ratio is way off and Silver is still undervalued to gold. I have some old US silver coins and did buy some back in November and even though silver has risen in price did buy some more this past week. My thoughts are that if the economy/world etc improves even though I paid high (for now at least ) I still have the silver value and all will be well even though I could lose on my investment. On the other hand if things go really bad how it appears to me, at least I have easily recognizable silver, not big denominations (like gold coins) and I will have 'money' to buy what is needed. I guess I wouldn't do this with money that I need in the short term, but money that I don't need now but want to keep safe. Actually I 'made' over 600 on the small additional silver investment I made in Nov. Just wondering if anyone else has similar feelings? Food/water also very important with the way things are going.

Keep in mind that we were a contract-level account with a refinery that we started with when it was tiny. When we started, he would buy gold from the public, averaging an ounce a day. By 1980, less than contract lots (5000 oz silver or 100 oz gold) just got dropped off and paid when they had time to process it. Not nearly as much fun as when I'd show up with a couple thousand dollars in gold at 10pm, and we'd eat pizza while he refined it and did the assay, but more profitable.

So the first step I'd recommend is to have an outlet for what you plan to buy. With gp silver, that means a refiner who will do a multi-metal assay and a quantity they'll work with you on. Buy just silver or just gold, and your possible outlets expand tremendously.

As for your other question, let's take 200 oz silver for .5 oz gold. That's 1/400 oz gold per ounce of silver, or less than .1 gram per oz round. Keep in mind, FM is top quality, and even they have most likely gone to lighter coatings to reduce costs.

Net suggestion, stick to 999, 925, 900, and 800 silver, don't pay extra for GP, and if you get extra when you sell, fine.

That makes much sense Biggfredd, to not pay to much for the gold plating 1 oz silver coins, but of course the guys who sell, try an get a substantial bit more for a 1 oz due to the gold obviously. Hey, I love the look of gold, so just on appearance factor, and knowing that silver is there, seems good to me, the only way I would buy anything plated....

I also like 24k only, an steer away from the 14k to 22k, an I am sure many smart folk however with shops an etc., buy up the less pure stuff, melt it down, remove the other metals, and re pour as pure gold, is this a correct assumption?

I do like those 22k South African coins, the Krugerrands....

GX great info, I will only look for pre 1990 coins now, if I get any silver plated....

July 4 - $42.17
October 1 - $47.19
December 31 - $54.25

I admit to gold plating a few things here and there. In fact, I have a standing buy order for damaged .999 gold rounds because I use them for anodes (instead of stainless steel) but that's a different story.

Coins... normally when I see actual coins gold plated I wince.. yeah like many I think to myself- that's a bad case of PMD. There's been a few cases when I've done it though. A friend of mine who is a collector came over with his son. He had given him a 1967 Specimen set. The coins in the case had taken on some ugly toning so the boy had taken it on himself to use the salt/tinfoil/vinegar trick researched from the internet to remove the toning. If you've ever seen this, it looks awful, no lustre is left, the surfaces are mottled... UGH . Worse, they'll generally continue to just plain corrode and rot. Now normally I'd throw them in the melt bin for these common dates. The kid however was heartbroken that he'd damaged a set of coins his Dad had given him. So we tossed the silver into my polisher and then I treated and subsequently gold plated them.

We both explained the set as it was is now destroyed and that what he had now was the difference between a fresh rose and a dried rose. While the fresh rose is red and beautiful and smells nice, by carefully drying and preserving it, you can still see a little of it's former beauty. Not nearly the same as it was, but preserved nonetheless. A unique lesson with a flashy reminder.

Occasionally I've gold plated silver bullion bars and rounds when people have asked, but I never saw the point to it myself. I have four bricks of copper that I nickel and then gold plated. I actually use them as feet for a shoe bench. Salt on winter boots doesn't affect the gold plating. Stopped that whole rusting issue.

50 was broken last month, sorry you missed it.

Well I mean break it and hold it, that was what I'd call a false breakout.