Is there any merit to holding physical silver?

[Kman]

Holding bullion precious metals in my mind is a nice insurance outside of the banking/currency system

For this purpose gold works very well, especially sovereigns and brits, no vat or cgt, compact and liquid - silver clearly inferior 

Silver may have further upside who knows, but if you're buying more as an investment and not an insurance policy then surely an etf or silver miners offer a much easier and profitable (miners) alternative to physical; I would also say the same about platinum and copper

Conclusion: Hold gold, paper everything else

Why am I wrong?

ps. I'm not including any type of numismatic piece and I don't buy a shtf scenario where we are going to be bartering for goods in silver

 

[amiddleton]

If a monetary collapse were to happen you could barter for goods with silver. Gold, well you would have to find someone who could make change...

[Elements]

I tried holding paper silver. I just can’t do it. With physical, you buy, the £s leave your account and yes maybe pay attention for a few days rueing the fact probably could have got another coin or two if only I’d waited until slapdown Tuesday.  But then you forget the price in £ and you see them as oz for the pile. With paper all I could do is be glued to the screen seeing £’s on a screen going up and down, getting no work done then panic sell on a tick down since it’s so volatile. I don’t do that with shares. Maybe miners as you suggest is the way to go

[KDave]

59 minutes ago, amiddleton said:

If a monetary collapse were to happen you could barter for goods with silver. Gold, well you would have to find someone who could make change...

I remember reading that in Argentina they used to take their gold hallmarked rings to the pawn shop, get USD and go do their shopping. Coins, bars, were more difficult to move (no hallmark, harder to verify, etc). 

What I am saying is, I don't buy this idea that after the collapse people will be using silver coins at the shops.  

[MrTT]

Physical gold & silver is the way 🤠

[KDave]

1 hour ago, Kman said:

Holding bullion precious metals in my mind is a nice insurance outside of the banking/currency system

For this purpose gold works very well, especially sovereigns and brits, no vat or cgt, compact and liquid - silver clearly inferior 

Silver may have further upside who knows, but if you're buying more as an investment and not an insurance policy then surely an etf or silver miners offer a much easier and profitable (miners) alternative to physical; I would also say the same about platinum and copper

Conclusion: Hold gold, paper everything else

Why am I wrong?

ps. I'm not including any type of numismatic piece and I don't buy a shtf scenario where we are going to be bartering for goods in silver

 

Agree 100%

The only thing I would consider is Silver Britannia for CGT free, but that would only happen if I had accumulated enough paper silver for it to be a concern, or had made gains and wanted to realise them below the threshold but continue to hold silver. 

Gold does the job infinitely better than silver. 

[Winchester]

1 hour ago, Kman said:

Holding bullion precious metals in my mind is a nice insurance outside of the banking/currency system

For this purpose gold works very well, especially sovereigns and brits, no vat or cgt, compact and liquid - silver clearly inferior 

Silver may have further upside who knows, but if you're buying more as an investment and not an insurance policy then surely an etf or silver miners offer a much easier and profitable (miners) alternative to physical; I would also say the same about platinum and copper

Conclusion: Hold gold, paper everything else

Why am I wrong?

ps. I'm not including any type of numismatic piece and I don't buy a shtf scenario where we are going to be bartering for goods in silver

 

A while back.........it occurred to me that I had quite a bit of money.  This was comforting.

Then it occurred to me that almost all of this money was just little numbers on a computer........and I thought, "What if some catastrophic event caused all those little numbers to vanish?"

So........call it SHTF or Crapocalypse........any number of potential disasters could bring a need to have some actual physical form of money........(not paper--all that would be reserved for butt wiping--as we have seen recently when stores suddenly ran out).

Actually, this Covid thing has the potential to bring on a worldwide disaster........or maybe the Chinese will release another on top of the Covid to finish us off? 

Any number of things could happen where my silver dimes, quarters and half dollars would come in handy for buying necessities.

As someone else here noted..........sellers making change for chunks of high-priced gold would be a problem.

So...........I'll continue stashing bits of silver like a chipmunk preparing for winter........and if winter never comes I'll have lots of shiny objects to look at..........which I enjoy immensely.

[Shinus73]

I buy physical silver as a savings vehicle, have been doing this for more than a decade now. All my spare cash goes into whatever silver I can pick up cheapest. 

Every now and then I sell off a lot at once and convert to gold, for the alternative pension.

Saving in silver is one of my hobbies, is also retail therapy and has given me much more financial security than I ever imagined possible before I started.

 

[Pete]

Over-simplistic I know but if you buy 1,000 paper ounces at spot then years later it is still only 1,000 ounces at spot.
You hope of course that spot has risen and beaten inflation.

If you buy 1,000 physical silver coins you are not only hoping for a rise in spot but also a rise in the value of the collectible coins.
Had you bought 100 each of the Queens Beasts 2oz silver upon release you would be entitled to be very smug selling the Lion and Griffin today for example.
Let's not even mention the 2019 Britannia privy pig ...

[Wampum]

It's a great hobby, and with Silver as a collector you can amass a greater variety, for the same cost as 1 oz Gold,

Plus you can't Twat a burglar with a sock full of paper.  

[silenceissilver]

Silver makes the safe much heavier and  thus more difficult to carry away for burglars.

 

[mrrick]

silver bars make great door stops 

[Robda1986]

Physical is more of a 🐩 to sell than paper but there is an infinite amount of paper silver unlike physical you also stand a chance of premium skyrocketing I've seen a 1oz ginger sell on ebay for over £50 5oz tombstone selling for £210 you won't get that with paper all you can hope is that someone else will buy paper off of you 

[StackemHigh]

Silver is a collection (Lunars, Kooks and Libs etc) only metal for me now. Small selection of Gold collections and stack of bullion sovereigns and elephants etc.

Not a complex plan!

[HawkHybrid]

2 hours ago, Witcher said:

What?  You only have paper silver and no 1 oz coins/rounds?  Ok then, I will gladly trade you a loaf of bread for as little as 1/4 oz of gold.

 

when zimbabwe had their currency collapse in 2008 they panned gold and traded droplets of gold for

loaves of bread.(they weighed it on precision scales)

gold is dividable and fungible, being priced high doesn't change this.

 

HH

[Stacktastic]

On 02/02/2021 at 20:59, Kman said:

Holding bullion precious metals in my mind is a nice insurance outside of the banking/currency system

Rightly or wrongly I sold a load of physical silver last week - mostly the Britannias and 30 x proofs. 
Great to hold it certainly, especially as collectible coins, but i changed my tune on the brits for now. 
I will buy if spot goes below £16 though. I still own queen beasts & some stacker bars & will hold them for the long haul. 

A few reasons for this: 

- storage is a pain & a security risk - hard to hide. 
- they can get milk spots, even if when you get them they are spotless - which is a value risk.
- the silver price has just not stood up when you need it the most (£10 last year for example). 
- If the world economy is that bad & people are paying with silver, you will most likely be in a war zone or under threat of some sort. 
- The silver price spikes dont last long so managing to advertise, sell & post the item takes time & can easily be missed. 

- Paper silver & mining stocks are dependent on the stock index price, so this is a risk.
- Buying in when it collapses & hits a reasonable bottom (ie £10 an ounce) would be a good strategy. 
- Paper silver is liquid - buy on slumps & sell immediately or in stages when it spike to highs
- Mining stocks have a lot more upside - just look at the GDXJ in the last high.
We saw this in miniature last week with 30% rises purely down to a £10 increase in spot. 
- Mining stocks are businesses and can also loose value or go out of business. 

I think the fear thats spread by people like Mike Mlony is very simplistic as its a one situation outlook & there are many factors at play. 
Not to mention the ups and downs in the silver price. Thinking it will just go to £200 and stay there is a bit naive. £30-40 maybe, but it will come back down at times.

I just dont see this whole economy collapse thing personally, it might get tough, but it should transition to something else. 
There are other ways to hedge against inflation (oil for example) & not everything gets expensive.
so you just cut down on what costs the most or improvise. I made my own bio fuel in the last down turn (for example). 50p a litre. 

The main thing to remember here is the UK is not Zimbabwe or Argentina for that matter.
Its a secret banking behemoth that has ties with Europe, USA & a banking spider webs all over the world from the collonial areas. 
The main threat would be maybe from the up and coming countries like China, but that would be a long way off I would say. 
Plenty of time to accumulate other assets, especially if asteroid mining become a thing as gold will loose a lot of value. 

I think platinum has the most upside as an investment - annoyed I sold my plat 1oz now, but its quite choppy. 
Gold as a hedge as I think its a bit over priced, but over time will be ideal in a down turn as a 'what if' fund or piece of mind. 

- easy to store / hide especially if going through customs. 
- does not mark or degrade & is not magnetic. 
- is too expensive - I would prefer to buy around the £1000 mark personally, but price is largely relative to demand isnt it?
Fundamentals point towards a decent increase in the next few years, but its relative to the dollar, so of course its more expensive than it has been. 
- Not an industrial commodity and has a lot of history as a currency so is uber credible especially sovereigns. 
- credible as a trade or barter item especially in the east. 

I dont have any answers this is just my opinion.

[dwreck]

I think holding any useful physical commodity is better than holding paper that you can't legally write on.

[Stacktastic]

18 minutes ago, dwreck said:

I think holding any useful physical commodity is better than holding paper that you can't legally write on.

I wanted to get a 5kg copper bar last year and its already quite a bit more expensive. 
Great door stop - one for each room,.  when they were £85. 

I think that paper silver is good for trading when you know the market sell off times and recovery. 
Especially in a crash - Not long term - no way. I treat a lot of my silver miners the same way. 
Take profits or cash out, if the price rally.

Nice having the physical in person as a longer term hedge - defo. 

[sixgun]

i bought physical silver b/c i am convinced it will appreciate and appreciate much more than gold. 
Funnily enough it has.
i have shares, warrants and options in mining stock. These have been a bumpy ride but i hold for the longer term and keep adding to. i concentrate on miners with a decent amount of silver (just like Eric Sprott).
If you want to trade silver i would recommend silver ETF's. i have used SLV and i still have SLV stock and options but i have become increasingly wary of this ETF and anyone who is invested in it or is thinking about this, should do their own research. If you want to hold a silver fund for the longer term, personally i have PSLV.

As for bartering with silver coins in a Mad Max type financial collapse - i don't think this will happen but who knows, when the UK crashes it will be a complete blood bath of a sh it show. Stock up on food and make sure you have access to water. 

[Stacktastic]

26 minutes ago, sixgun said:

As for bartering with silver coins in a Mad Max type financial collapse - i don't think this will happen

The conspiracy king has called it so I can sleep easier at night now. Thanks
Cant go wrong with Sprott, especially MAG, Pan Am & First Majestic. 

Also royalties deal in physical, but dont have the risk of owning the mines. Wheaton etc. 

I think Sprott have an ETF or a trust thats actually backed by physical gold dont they?

[Winchester]

5 hours ago, Witcher said:

What?  You only have paper silver and no 1 oz coins/rounds?  Ok then, I will gladly trade you a loaf of bread for as little as 1/4 oz of gold.

That would be like being stuck in a McDonald's with nothing but thousand dollar bills.

I guess I'll be doing just fine with my silver dimes, quarters and half-dollar coins.

[Winchester]

28 minutes ago, Witcher said:

 for $1000 you would be able to buy a Big Mac. 
That was the point. 

No.  This was about life after the SHTF.

The point was that McDonald's wouldn't have change for your thousand dollar bill.

And, of course, McDonald's would not be open.

The nice farmer with a chicken for sale would not have change for a ten ounce silver ingot in a SHTF situation.

But he'd take a small silver coin.  It's quick and easy and you get to eat.

 

 

[Bigmarc]

Money is a relative thing.

Some people can afford to spend one and a half grand on a coin in one hit and some can't. Every body has to start somewhere. The price of one ounce of gold is pretty much my whole years budget, spend that, then what do I do? 

During the first lockdown I kept buying pre-decimal coins, they averaged about £12 per ounce. At current spot price I very nearly have enough for my first one ounce gold. 

I feel it's a mental thing. Mentally feeling your winning. The whole process of dealing with metals is very raw basic and down to earth, it's good for the soul. Also my missus invest so much money in plastic from the Amazon man that my stack makes me feel like we are secure.

Oh and I need a couple of pieces to give my family safe passage through the zombie apocalypse 🤨

[dwreck]

Eventually i dont think we will have very many products or anything to buy if they keep giving fiat out for free then what will be the value of a currency that's free and no incentive to work?

[Kman]

1 hour ago, Bigmarc said:

The price of one ounce of gold is pretty much my whole years budget, spend that, then what do I do? 

I guess it depends what your goal is, If it's to save money by putting it into bullion vs splurging sure buy some silver but don't fool yourself you're investing, you're saving

There's nothing wrong with saving but my goal isn't to save it's to be wealthier

Currency into bullion + hold = life changing wealth eventually? no I doubt that very much, not at 1oz of gold a year

To increase your wealth you need the time and dedication to learn, then take that knowledge along with at least some appetite for risk = wealth

The more knowledge you have the less risk

I think we all like to trick ourselves that we can do something simple, be lazy, still be being smart - that may work out but it will be more luck that judgement