Best Precious Metals to Buy in 2024

With fear of recession growing in some sectors of the economy, and with the UK, Japan, and Germany already falling into recession, many Americans are looking to protect and safeguard their finances. While the recent stock market highs have been a boon to many savers and investors, what happens when the boom turns to bust?

If the economy were to face another 2008-style crisis, with losses of more than 50%, trillions of dollars worth of wealth would be wiped out. How would you deal with those types of losses?

With the performance of precious metals in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, many people looked enviously at gold and silver, wondering why they hadn’t thought to buy gold and silver before the crisis. And with the significant gains of other precious metals in recent years, precious metals are front and center in many people’s minds.

If you’ve never followed precious metals before, however, it can seem daunting. And the question many people have is, which precious metals are the best ones to buy?

What Are Precious Metals?

Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metals that are found in the earth’s crust and that derive their (usually high) value due to their rarity and their use cases. Because of their rarity and their unique physical and chemical properties, they command higher prices than base metals.

Most people are familiar with gold and silver, but they often forget other precious metals, such as palladium, platinum, and rhodium. Each precious metal has its own unique advantages and disadvantages.

So which precious metals are the best to buy? Read on to find out.

How Can You Buy Precious Metals?

First, let’s talk about the various ways you can buy precious metals. Like most metals, precious metals can be purchased directly.

You can buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins directly for cash and have them delivered to your door. Rhodium coins and bars, although rare, are also available.

Coins and bars minted from the other platinum group metals, osmium, ruthenium, and iridium, exist, although they’re mostly just produced for curiosity rather than for investment purposes.

There are also exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that offer exposure to precious metals, although there are certain drawbacks to ETFs.

Certain precious metals, namely gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, are also eligible for acquisition by a precious metals IRA. That’s because these metals are specifically exempted from the IRS’ definition of collectibles for purposes of IRA investment.

For purposes of acquisition by an IRA account, federal law defines any metal or coin as being a collectible, with the exception of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. The specific exemption from the collectibles definition applies to gold, silver, and platinum American Eagle coins minted by the US Mint, as well as any gold, silver, platinum, or palladium bullion meeting minimum fineness requirements for futures contracts.

What this means in practice is that any gold coins or bars with a fineness of .995 or higher, silver coins or bars with a fineness of .999 or higher, platinum bullion with a fineness of .9995 or higher, or palladium bullion with a fineness of .9995 or higher are IRA-eligible.

Popular Precious Metals for Investors

With so many precious metals from which to choose, you might be wondering what the advantages and disadvantages of each are. Let’s go through the most popular precious metals in order of their importance.

1. Gold

If you ask most people what they think of when they think of precious metals, most likely they’re going to say gold. From Scrooge McDuck’s money bin to Mr. T’s gold chains, gold has an appeal that has lasted for millennia.

Gold’s ability to maintain its value and purchasing power over time is one reason the phrase “gold standard” has come into use. Gold is the standard by which other goods have been measured, and it maintains its value through both good times and bad.

That has led to gold becoming a popular safe haven asset, as it provides a store of value during times of economic turmoil. But gold can also provide asset growth.

During the 2008 financial crisis, for instance, the gold price grew 25% during the same period that markets fell over 50% (October 2007 to March 2009). And over the long term the gold price can even compete with growth rates of stock market indices.

With recent weakness in the US economy, more and more people have been looking to try to protect their wealth by buying gold. One way they’re doing that is by buying gold through a gold IRA.

A gold IRA is a tax-advantaged retirement account that allows you to purchase gold while still retaining all the same tax advantages as any other IRA account. Many people choose to fund their gold IRAs through rollovers or transfers of assets from 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA, or similar retirement accounts, allowing them to safeguard their existing retirement savings with gold.

2. Silver

Silver is used to playing second fiddle to gold, and is an often forgotten precious metal. It also doesn’t cost as much as gold, which makes it difficult to make headlines.

But silver can gain value quicker than gold percentagewise, particularly when safe haven demand picks up. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, for instance, while the gold price nearly tripled from its 2008 lows, the silver price more than quintupled.

Unlike the gold price, the silver price has traditionally been driven by industrial demand. Once upon a time it was photographic film that helped drive the silver price. Today there’s no one industry that dominates silver usage, but there is one industry whose silver demand is growing.

Silver is a vital component in the production of solar panels, and with growing demand for solar energy, demand for silver from the solar industry is rising. While projections for the future can be difficult to make, if silver demand from the solar industry continues to rise, it could put upward pressure on the silver price.

Like gold, silver can also be purchased through a silver IRA. While silver doesn’t have quite the same reputation as a safe haven as gold does, given its potential for greater gains than gold, silver could be an interesting choice to safeguard against loss during times of financial turmoil.

3. Platinum

Platinum is probably the third best known precious metal, one which most people use on a daily basis even if they don’t know it. Platinum is best known for its use in automotive catalytic converters, which accounts for about half of platinum use today.

Platinum at times has been more expensive than gold, although that’s no longer the case today, as platinum is less than half the value of gold right now. But that could change abruptly.

Nearly three-quarters of platinum production takes place in South Africa, with second-place producer Russia only making up 10% of production. Given the sanctions against Russia and the potential for disruption in South Africa, platinum supply could eventually find itself in a pinch. If that were to happen, platinum prices could start rising again.

Platinum coins and bars aren’t produced in nearly the same quantities as gold and silver, but they’re still relatively available. And, like gold and silver, most of these platinum coins and bars can be acquired with a precious metals IRA.

4. Palladium

Palladium is, like platinum, best known for its use in catalytic converters. And like platinum, its production is very concentrated, with Russia and South Africa each responsible for about 40% of annual palladium production.

Supply disruptions and fears of disruptions have pushed the palladium price higher in the past, with the all-time high of nearly $3,500 per ounce in 2022 being far higher than even gold’s all-time high price.

But the palladium price is now trading around $950 an ounce, highlighting the volatility of palladium prices. Still, with supply from Russia and South Africa being potentially tenuous, there is great potential for the palladium price to shoot up once again.

Palladium bars and coins are, like platinum, not produced in great numbers, but they’re out there. And because most of them are produced to at least .9995 fineness, they’re normally IRA-eligible.

5. Rhodium

Believe it or not, but rhodium is more than twice as expensive as gold. And at one point, rhodium reached nearly $30,000 an ounce in 2021.

While the price may have fallen significantly since then, there’s still a potential for future hikes, due once again to the fact that South Africa is the world’s dominant producer, accounting for over 80% of world rhodium production.

Rhodium coins and bars are difficult to find, however, and they’re not IRA-eligible. For most people, the easiest way to gain exposure to rhodium markets is through exchange-traded funds.

6. Platinum Group Metals

Pop quiz: what is the world’s most valuable precious metal? No, it’s not gold, and it’s not even rhodium. It’s iridium, worth about $5,000 an ounce.

If you’ve never heard of iridium, or fellow platinum group metals osmium and ruthenium, you’re not alone. They’re thinly traded and, outside of industrial usage, not of much interest to most people.

That isn’t to say that they couldn’t suddenly become much more valuable, or of much more interest for investment purposes. But right now the markets for those metals aren’t well developed, which is why more popular precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium remain the most sought after.

Which Precious Metal Is Right for You?

Precious metals can play numerous roles, from safe haven to inflation hedge to speculative asset. The way you choose to use your precious metals is up to you.

While gold and silver are tried and true performers, palladium and rhodium have certainly seen their share of gains in the past. Might they start climbing once again?

No matter which precious metals you buy, at the end of the day the best precious metals for you are the ones that meet your needs best. Take time to think about what your goals are, what your risk appetite is, and what your timeline looks like.

With over a decade of experience and over $2 billion in precious metals placements, Goldco has helped thousands of Americans buy precious metals. The more than 5,000 5-star reviews we’ve received from our satisfied customers attest to our commitment to customer service and quality precious metals products.

If you’re looking to start buying precious metals, give the knowledgeable and experienced representatives at Goldco a call today.