Liberty Silver Rounds
Silver rounds – non-monetary discs of 99.9% pure silver sold by private companies, which are often made in the same 1 troy ounce size as the official bullion coins – are a good investment for those who are savvy in the monetary safety that accumulation of precious metals can provide to ordinary people, and the more affluent as well. Silver rounds are attractive and valuable, but generally have a very narrow premium, or price in excess of the current silver spot price. The value of your Liberty Silver Rounds will therefore rise and fall in tune with the vagaries of the silver market.
You can purchase Liberty Silver Rounds from many reputable online sources, including APMEX, the American Precious Metals Exchange, which produces their own excellent line of Liberty Silver Rounds in several different sizes. Remember that the primary function of silver rounds of any kind is to hedge against inflation. It is only very rarely that a silver round acquires any collectible value, and these rare exceptions to the rule are basically impossible to predict in advance.
Mixing purchases of silver rounds and ordinary silver bullion coins is another strategy you may want to pursue, storing value and giving you some profit potential from buying and selling to other collectors at the same time.
Properties of Liberty Silver Rounds
Liberty Silver Rounds are not the product of a single firm, but are rather produced by a number of different companies who want to cash in on the bullion hunger of the general public. There are a few traits which are found in all Liberty Silver Rounds, the most obvious being the use of the figure of Liberty as the main effigy on the obverse. Another is that most are made with the 99.9% pure silver which marks both bullion coins and bullion rounds.
The size of the Liberty Silver Rounds varies considerably as well. Half ounce and one troy ounce Liberty rounds are very common, and are very popular as well, since they are within the fiscal reach of most people, yet also have enough value to make them a worthwhile purchase. There are also smaller rounds, ¼ ounce or even 1/10 ounce, for those who have less than ordinary resources but still want to make arrangements to protect their future against inflation.
For those who have more money available for larger purchases, some Liberty Silver Rounds are available in 5 ounce sizes to make accumulation of a good stock of silver-backed value quicker and easier.
History of Liberty Silver Rounds
Liberty has been a popular emblem for coinage in the United States since the days of the Revolution. The “Spirit of ’76” has lived on, however dilute at times, in the American heart, and this familiar allegorical figure evokes those exciting days for the early Colonies, when a future of the colonist’s own shaping awaited, and the continent lay before them as yet untamed. Countless coins have borne the effigy of Liberty, who has appeared in many styles and many guises.
During the two centuries and more of the United States’ existence, Liberty has appeared perhaps more frequently than any other theme, with the possible exception of the bald eagle. At times, she has appeared as a winsome young woman with a rather buxom figure, while at other times she has appeared as a steely-faced, tight-lipped female of advanced years more reminiscent of the artist’s stereotypical mother in law than an embodiment of freedom.
Some images of Liberty have shown only her head or bust, generally in profile, while others show the whole figure – sometimes seated on a large stone, with an American shield leaning against it and an olive branch or other emblem in Liberty’s hand, sometimes standing or walking. Liberty is shown with a variety of headgear, or even none at all, while her body is usually clad in flowing robes whose sweeping lines add to the elegance of the design. The reverse of Liberty coins has been even more diverse.
These, of course, are all official, government issued coin designs, since like all modern governments, the United States Treasury holds a rigorously enforced monopoly on the issue of coinage. In recent years, however, the advance of general prosperity, as well as a growing awareness of that prosperity’s limits and fragility, have prompted ordinary people to purchase silver and, in some cases, gold.
This is both a rational and emotional decision – the desire for security impels these purchases, while rational appreciation of the wisdom of purchasing a precious metal which will not decline in value with the vagaries of inflation. In effect, silver and gold are stores of value, far more than is the case with paper money, useful though paper money may be. Other goods could serve this purpose as well – for example, a mint condition automobile will always be very valuable regardless of how the value of paper money used to buy it changes.
The 1980s saw the beginning of widespread silver coin sales, as the United States government sold off much of its stock of silver to obtain other rare materials needed for their nuclear weaponry, and other governments, seeing how profitable the silver sales were, imitated the “Land of the Free”. The Hunt silver Ponzi scheme, which drove up the silver price immensely for a few months in 1980 to a level which has not yet been equaled again.
Silver rounds appeared in this period as well – one ounce, or other sizes, of bullion “coins” issued by private corporations. Rounds are not legal tender, and bear no monetary denomination. However, they are made in a very similar manner to coins, and often imitate the emblems of the official coinage. They are often of an equal quality to coins, in terms of fineness (99.9% pure silver) and artistic skill. However, their price includes very little premium. Their value is just slightly above the spot price of silver, so their main purpose is as bullion, storing monetary worth and hedging against inflation.
