How to Buy Silver Bars and Coins

While gold may make the headlines any time precious metals begin to rise in price, silver is often the better performer. Many investors have become aware of that in recent years, which is one reason silver demand has exploded tremendously during the recent economic uncertainty.

More and more investors are turning to silver to protect the value of their investments, build their wealth during times of financial turmoil, and protect their portfolios against the possibility of stock market crashes and economic crises. But many who are just becoming aware of precious metals and the role they can play in protecting their retirement savings may not fully understand how they can buy silver bars and coins to safeguard their wealth.

Did you know that you can roll over or transfer existing assets from tax-advantaged retirement accounts into an investment in physical silver coins and bars? Did you know that those rollovers and transfers can occur tax-free, allowing you to lock in gains from your existing investments and benefit from future gains in the silver price? And did you know that the process to do that can start with something as simple as a phone call to contact experts who have helped investors just like you protect their assets with silver?

Keep reading to find out how investing in physical silver coins and bars can benefit your retirement savings.

Why Invest in Silver?

If you’re not already familiar with the benefits of investing in silver, here are five of the top reasons to do so.

1. Tangible Asset

Silver is, first and foremost, a tangible asset. Whereas stocks are an investment in a part of a company, and bonds are a promise to pay, silver is something that you can hold in the palm of your hand. That makes it appealing to a great many investors.

Stocks can lose their value completely if companies go out of business. Bonds can become worthless if their issuers default. But silver can’t default or go out of business. It just sits there maintaining its value year in and year out.

2. Affordable

Silver is also affordable, especially when compared to gold. Many precious metals investors like to look at the gold to silver price ratio, or the relationship between gold prices and silver prices. Historically, this ratio has hovered between around 40:1 and 60:1 in recent decades. But currently that ratio is over 70:1, and it has been as high as over 100:1.

That indicates that silver is undervalued relative to gold, and that it could be a good opportunity to invest in silver. Because the gold to silver price ratio fluctuates but tends to return to historical averages, the ratio returning to a 50:1 or lower ratio would mean that investors could make big gains by investing in silver.

3. Practical for Small Purchases

Like gold, many investors buy silver to hedge against the possibility of a financial crisis or even a full collapse of the monetary system. And many of those investors hold at least some silver themselves to use as money in an emergency situation. Because silver is less valuable than gold, it is far more practical to use for smaller everyday purchases, and thus plays an important role for those protecting themselves against the possibility of financial collapse.

4. Silver Outperforms Gold

You wouldn’t know it from all the headlines that gold gets, but silver often outperforms gold, especially during precious metals bull markets. Gold has gained 23% so far this year, while silver has gained 44%. That isn’t unusual, as during the last bull market, silver gained 481% from November 2008 to September 2011, versus gold’s gain of 268%.

5. Possibility of Great Gains

Perhaps more importantly for potential silver investors, the upside potential for silver could be even greater than that for gold. Since half of silver demand comes from industry, industrial demand plays a great role in silver’s price moves. And because silver is playing a greater role in industry today, with demand for silver set to increase, the silver price could rise significantly in the coming years.

Silver is perhaps the most important metal used in the production of solar panels, and as demand for solar panels and green energy increases, silver’s industrial use will increase. Estimates for the growth and demand of solar energy show that it may triple or increase up to 20-fold by 2030. In either case, demand for silver should grow significantly over the next decade, which should benefit silver investors.

Buying Silver Coins

Silver coins have been minted for thousands of years, and have served as the backbone of everyday commerce from the Roman Empire to the Spanish Empire to the United States. But not all silver coins are good investments for every investor. Those investors looking to invest in silver through a silver IRA, for instance, will find that they aren’t allowed to invest in silver coins that are considered collectibles. They also are only allowed to invest in coins with a minimum fineness of .999, rendering many classic silver coins ineligible for IRA investing.

Thankfully, there are still dozens, if not hundreds, of IRA-eligible silver coins available on the market today. With so many different producers and designs to choose from, silver IRA investors can have their pick from many high-quality specimens. IRA-eligible silver coins are also available in a variety of different sizes and weights too, with most generally weighing between ½ ounce and 5 ounces.

Buying Silver Bars

Many investors who start out investing in silver may gravitate towards investing in silver bars. Silver bars are available in a wide range of sizes, from 1 gram to 1000 ounces. Some of the most popular sizes include those in the 5-ounce to 100-ounce range. They offer investors the ability to purchase large quantities of silver while still not being as expensive as gold. And because each bar is relatively affordable to purchase, it can make it easier to sell too when it comes time to take a distribution.

The largest silver bars are often purchased by silver users such as those involved in industrial use of silver. They’re looking to minimize cost per ounce and minimize transportation and storage costs. Most retail investors look to smaller bars, and with so many sizes to choose from, there’s a silver bar to serve every investor’s needs.

The Process of Buying Silver Coins and Bars

If you’re looking to buy silver coins and bars, an increasingly popular method of doing so is through a silver IRA. A silver IRA allows you to roll over or transfer assets from an existing tax-advantaged retirement account such as a 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA, or similar account into an investment in silver. Your silver IRA then maintains the same tax advantages as any other IRA account, but holds physical silver coins and bars that are stored at a depository. When you decide to take a distribution of IRA assets, such as a required minimum distribution (RMD), you can take it in silver or in cash.

All it takes to start the process of opening a silver IRA is a call to Goldco to learn more about how silver can benefit your goals. The experts at Goldco have helped thousands of investors just like you invest in silver over the years. They can help you through the entire process, from the time you decide to invest in silver to the time you purchase and deposit your silver.

If you have retirement assets that you want to protect against possible loss from a stock market crash or bond market collapse, don’t wait any longer to get the ball rolling. Call Goldco today to find out how an investment in silver can help secure your financial future.