If you have any interest in the economy – or just in the news in general – then you have probably heard about how many people are buying gold and silver today. Gold is more likely to make the news because of the evocative sound of the word, its long association with treasure, and its extreme cost. However, both precious metals are being purchased in immense quantities by people from all walks of life, and in all countries, as insurance – or a “hedge”, as it is officially known – against inflation and other monetary problems in the modern global economy.

Although gold is naturally an excellent store of value, its very expensiveness means that it is something you should invest in only if you have a lot of money. Silver, although less famous, has just as good properties as a store of value. Its price per ounce is lower but it is still a more concentrated and reliable form of wealth storage than basically any other metal than gold.

Silver has the extra advantage of having more liquidity than gold. To understand this, you just need to look at the values of the coins. A silver bullion coin is worth somewhere from $40 to $60 today, depending on how collectible it is. A gold bullion coin of the same weight is worth over $1,000. At first, this seems to make the gold coin more useful – until you think about buying a week’s groceries using your precious metal coin.

If you pull out a silver coin, you can probably pay for the groceries with one or two of them. Only a tiny fraction of the gold coin’s value is needed to buy the groceries, but you can’t hack it into miniscule fragments and expect to use those to make purchases with. Although this is a slightly simplified example, it shows that silver has greater liquidity – it is more convenient to actually use, rather than just to hoard, and would have a major advantage for everyday purchases if it ever became necessary to actually use your stock of coins to handle this situation.

Our website is designed to give you a good idea of what silver coins are currently available, what their properties are, and how to buy them. We also give you tips on what kind of purchasing decisions you should make, what methods of buying are most successful, what to watch out for and what constitutes a good opportunity. We talk about silver coins as well as silver rounds and bars, and even a few gold coins as well. Read on, and discover more about the exciting world of precious metals buying and the feeling of security it gives you and your family.

The Rise in Popularity of Bullion as an Investment

As the economy has become more global and the instability of local economies has increased dramatically, the desire for a reliable, solid store of value has risen in proportion. The fear in many minds is of rapid, destructive inflation, such as that which overtook Belarus early in 2011, when the Belarusian ruble plunged in value against the dollar and the Euro, causing a run on the stores, where people bought canned goods and appliances in a desperate attempt to convert their money into something of reliable, stable value as their life savings were wiped out by devaluation of the currency.

These were, of course, the desperate actions of people trapped in an already collapsing economy, with insufficient money to buy any silver or gold – if any were even available. Buying gold and silver while the economy is still standing is an act of prudence. It is possible that these reserves will never be needed, but if they are needed, it will be too late to buy them once the crisis has already started.

People have become increasingly economically aware over the past few decades, and the removal of the United States’ longstanding stricture against private citizens owning gold or silver currency has also been lifted, allowing members of one of the most affluent nations on Earth to buy these coins. This, in turn, has encouraged the governments of the world to strike an array of beautiful bullion coins to meet the market’s demand, creating the current situation, where many people prefer having the safety cushion of silver coins stored in their home or safe deposit box.

History of Precious Metals as an Investment

Precious metals have always been viewed as a way to store value. The Chinese, for example, held a deep distrust of banking institutions for centuries, and preferred to conceal their wealth in small hoards of gold and silver somewhere in the vicinity of their homes.

People of pre-paper money economies usually understood exactly how much precious metal coins were worth, and were always reluctant to exchange them for coins of lesser value. For example, United States 3-cent silver coins were struck precisely because a letter cost 3 cents to send at the time. Five cent pieces, or “half dimes” as they were often known, were made of silver, while one cent pieces were copper. Keenly aware of the inherent value of their silver coins, Americans were reluctant to hand over one five cent piece of silver and get two pieces of copper in exchange.

Precious metals are precious precisely because the supply of them is relatively limited, and because they do not decay as some other metals do when exposed to environmental factors. Some other metals are as potentially long lasting as silver, at least (though nothing can match the eternal indestructibility of gold), but they are also extremely common, so their value is close to nil.

Investing in silver is a timeless way of preserving your money’s value through any fluctuation of the economy, and now is a good time to expand your precious metals portfolio – or begin a new one in case you have not yet started to collect this hedge against inflation. With the possibilities offered by Internet sources of silver, and the detailed information that you can find on many kinds of coins on our site, there is no reason to delay any longer before beginning to invest in this highly useful precious metal.