For those who want to diversify their silver bar holdings a bit, whether for aesthetic or investment reasons, the series of silver bars produced by Sunshine Minting, Inc. offers something of an alternative to the APMEX silver bars, yet can also be bought through APMEX. Some of the sizes and weights of Sunshine silver bars are much the same as APMEX bars, while others are a different size from their American Precious Metals Exchange equivalents.

Although it might seem that buying these bars through Sunshine Minting, Inc. would be a better choice than purchasing them through APMEX, it is basically impossible for there to be a deeper discount than is offered on this highly reputable and easy to use site. The premium above spot price is less than $2 per ounce, and you are unlikely to better that price regardless of what sources you try.

Sunshine silver bars are ordered through the APMEX website in exactly the same way as APMEX bars or the other brands of bars which the company offers. This also allows you to mix and match the different types of bars, depending on how you want to collect the available bullion bars. Or, alternatively, you can purchase just one variety and focus your diversification on different sizes of bars instead. The many options available are the advantage to APMEX as well as several other high quality gold and silver selling sites.

Regardless of where you eventually choose to buy Sunshine silver bars, much the same considerations apply to your purchases as apply to all other brands of silver bars you might choose to acquire. Silver bars are exceptionally easy to store by stacking, and since Sunshine silver bars arrive with their own plastic sheaths already in place, you will not need to buy any special storage equipment such as mint tubes unless you want to.

Always make certain that your shipment of Sunshine silver bars is insured. If you are using APMEX, the cost of insurance will be automatically included in your shipping, funded by the company’s insurance itself. If, however, you are buying from other sources, be sure to check their insurance policy, as you may need to buy the coverage for yourself.

You should also be aware that insurance bought from the USPS has a maximum amount of $5,000, so if you intend to buy more than this, make sure your source either covers the sum with their own insurance, or make two or more smaller purchases so that all of the bars you buy can be fully insured. For example, if you are planning to buy $7,000 worth of silver bars, it is generally a good idea to purchase on order of $5,000, then the additional $2,000 immediately after the first order has shipped.

Characteristics of Sunshine Silver Bars

Like other contemporary brands of silver bars, Sunshine silver bars are made with great skill and panache. They are not merely stores of value – they are also objects of shimmering beauty, crisply formed and decorated with very detailed images and symbols. They are composed of the nearest thing to pure silver as human technology is able to offer (with the exception of Canadian coins,), at .999 fineness.

Sunshine silver bars are all individually sheathed in plastic to protect them against everything from scrapes and scratches to tarnishing. This is a very pleasant feature of these bars from the collector’s point of view. The bars have a deep mirror finish in the same manner as other silver bars, echoing the finish applied to proof coins for the enjoyment of collectors. This adds nothing to their value, which is destined to remain slightly above the current spot price forever, but it does add to your pleasure when admiring your stock of silver bars, or showing them off to a visitor or fellow collector.

None of the Sunshine silver bars are listed as being IRA (investment retirement account) acceptable, so if you are planning to obtain them for this purpose, you should contact the seller to see what their current status is for this purpose, and possibly choose a different brand of silver bar if these are not currently accepted.

However, they still make excellent stores of value and a good speculative investment if you believe that the price of silver will rise sharply in the near future – which it very probably will. Sunshine silver bars come in several different sizes, which are described below.

1 Ounce Sunshine Silver Bars

The fractional silver bar has evidently gone the way of the dinosaur since the effort by William and Nelson Hunt – the famous “Hunt Brothers” – to monopolize the silver market entirely during the course of the 1970s. The prices of silver went so high that 1 gram silver bars were struck by Johnson Matthey – some of the tiniest “bars” ever to be produced, and remarkable curiosities because of that despite their low value today.

One troy ounce bars are the smallest which Sunshine produces. They are roughly the same size as the APMEX bars already discussed, but have very different imagery on them. The front of the bar bears a round badge at its top decorated with the spectacular image of a stooping bald eagle against the backdrop of a sunburst which represents the Sunshine company itself. The words “Silver Eagle” also appear in this area.

Below the badge, the silver bar bears the inscription “Sunshine Minting Inc. .999 Fine Silver One Troy Ounce”, and a space for a serial number. The back of the one ounce bar bears no words, but only a repetition of the sunburst motif of the firm.

5 Ounce and 10 Ounce Sunshine Silver Bars

The 5 ounce Sunshine silver bar bears a very close resemblance to the 1 ounce silver bar, with many design elements copied exactly on a larger sized bar. The badge, the eagle, the sunburst motif on both front and back, and most of the text are identical to the one ounce bar. The bars are larger and chunkier looking, though, at 2.42 inches by 1.41 inches by 1/3 inch (60.8 by 35.3 by 8.36 mm).

The front of the bar also specifies “Five Troy Ounces”. These bars are good for the larger bars in a beginning collection of silver, affordable but also fairly hefty. The 10 ounce Sunshine silver bars substitute the legend “Ten Troy Ounces” and are 3.6 inches by 2 inches by 0.27 inch (90 by 52 by 6.7 mm). They are actually thinner than their five ounce counterparts.

50 Ounce and 100 Ounce Sunshine Silver Bars

The Sunshine silver bar line is rounded out with 50 and 100 ounce silver bars. These are designed in almost precisely the same way as the small bars, except for size and the number of ounces written on the front of the bar. The 50 ounce bar measures 5 ¼ inches by 3 inches by 5/8 of an inch (131.3 by 76.4 by 15.47 mm), while the 100 ounce bar measures 5 1/5 inches by 3 1/8 inches by 1.22 inches (130 by 78.15 by 30.4 mm) – two good, solid investments in the more abundant of the world’s two main precious metals.

About the Sunshine Minting company

Sunshine Minting, Inc., the company which produces these silver bars, is located in Idaho and has roughly two hundred employees as of this writing. The firm is a well-established and distinguished one, which supplies the U.S. Mint with planchets (blank coins) for striking, including the five ounce planchets used for the new America the Beautiful silver quarters.

The company also produces bars, rounds, and even medallions, including very small orders for those willing to pay to commemorate an important event in their business or even their life. The products Sunshine Minting makes are struck to a very high standard – its choice by the U.S. Mint to provide planchets is a testament to the cutting edge technology it brings to the manufacture of precious metal productions – and are eagerly sought by collectors around the globe.

Sunshine Minting also offers vault storage for the silver of those who do not want to take physical possession of their metal reserve. However, the potential weaknesses of this system were demonstrated recently when Bernard von NotHaus, the founder of the “Free Marijuana Church”, disregarded warnings from the Treasury Department and continued to mint coins and print paper money that violated counterfeiting laws and led to his recent imprisonment.

During the investigation of NotHaus’ counterfeiting, a large amount of his dollar coins were seized from the Sunshine Minting vault, along with other silver whose ownership was uncertain. Although the silver not belonging to NotHaus will probably be returned in time, this is still an immense inconvenience to those who kept their silver at Sunshine Minting, and demonstrates how keeping your silver in a vault can expose you to the consequences of illegal behavior on the part of other people also using the vault – especially when it is difficult to tell where one person’s silver ends and the next begins.

Sunshine Minting, however, is a highly reputable company and produces some of America’s finest non-currency silver products. Since it was not mired in the NotHaus case due to the fact that it was not responsible for what its customer did with products it provided, the company is still going strong and supplying silver buyers with what they want – precious metal bars of proven purity and weight which serve to hedge against inflation and economic insecurity, and might provide a good investing opportunity if the price of silver rises abruptly in the near future.

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