Silver Bullion

When referring to "silver Bullion", "bullion" means "uncoined bars or
ingots". But practically speaking, bullion refers to the physical metal
itself.

When referring to "numismatic silver", "Numismatic" refers to another
form of precious metal, that which is "coined". Numismatic is a term
that generally refers to money. However, practically speaking,
numismatic describes rare coins that generally cost much more than
bullion products.

Here are four of the most popular forms of silver bullion you can buy:

1. 100 oz. silver bars -- There are two "hallmark" brands,
Johnson-Matthey, and Englehard. Each of these are the names of refiners,
and their bars cost a little more, and also have a smaller spread,
meaning that they cost less to buy and sell. Some other kinds of silver
bars may be cheaper to buy, but you will receive less when you go to
sell them back.

The non-hallmarked bars are generally "odd-weight", and can weigh from
about 90.56 oz. to 105.62 oz. It is harder to sell those bars because
extra math is required each time to figure out the price, and it slows
down the transaction process when handling many bars.

A good way to test the authenticity of the silver bullion 100 oz. bars
is the "ring" test. Put a silver bullion bar on glass, or hold it by
string, and bang it with a wooden stick. If it "rings", it's silver. If
it "thuds", it's probably filled with lead.

Unfortunately, this test does not work with 1000 oz. bars, as they are
too heavy.

2. 1000 oz. bars are known as "good delivery" COMEX silver bullion bars.
They are odd-weight, usually within 10% of the weight of 1000 oz., and
stamped with the exact weight.

3. 1 oz. silver "rounds" -- these are one ounce pieces of silver that
look like coins, but they were not coined by a government, but rather,
they are made by a private mint.

4. 90% silver coin dated 1964 or earlier, also known as "junk silver".
This is sold by the "bag" and each bag consists of $1000 of coins as
denominated on the face of the coins, thus, 10,000 dimes, or 4000
quarters, or 2000 halves make up a "bag". Each bag contains roughly 715
ounces of silver. Each $1 of coins (2 halves, 4 quarters, or 10 dimes)
contain .715 oz. of silver. Sometimes, this form of silver is cheaper
than silver bullion. Technically speaking, this silver is known as
"numismatic" since it is in coin form. However, they say it has no
"numismatic" value, or no rare coin value, since the coins have
generally already been searched through for all the rare coins.

I always recommend that people start with investing in silver bullion.
Take delivery, and store it yourself in a safe.

Then, after you invest in silver bullion, consider silver stocks. Stocks
can help you gain leverage to rising silver prices. To learn more about
silver bullion and silver stocks, you can sign up to my free email report.

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