Silver Deal of the Day

Monday, June 14, 2010, is Flag Day and APMEX has a special offer to help you show your true colors. APMEX has recently acquired an allotment of 1 ounce .999 Fine American Flag Silver Bars. These bars are a great way to show your patriotism while at the same time saving big $$$ on silver. Between now and Tuesday, June 15, 2010, at 9:00 a.m. (CST), or while supplies last, purchase these American Flag Silver Bars for only $0.69 per ounce over spot in any quantity.
Buy Silver Bullion 1 oz Silver Bars

Learning Corner: Silver in Other Languages

Language		Language		Language		Language
Afrikaans:	Silwer	Finnish:	Hopea	Latin	Argentum	Scottish Gaelic:	Airgead
Albanian:	Argjendi	French:	Argent	Latvian:	Sudrabs	Serbian:	Сребро
Amharic:	ብር	Friulian:	Arint	Limburgian:	Zèlver	Serbo-Croatian:	Srebro
Arabic:	فضة	Galician:	Prata	Lithuanian:	Sidabras	Sicilian:	Argentu
Armenian:	Արծաթ	Gan:	銀	Lojban:	rijno	Slovak:	Striebro
Asturian:	Plata	Georgian:	ვერცხლი	Low Saxon:	Sülver	Slovenian:	Srebro
Azeri:	Gümüş	German:	Silber	Luxembourgish:	Sëlwer	Spanish:	Plata
Basque:	Zilar	Greek:	Άργυρος	Malay:	Perak	Swahili:	Agenti
Belarusian:	Серабро	Guarani:	Itatĩ	Malayalam:	വെള്ളി	Swedish:	Silver
Bengali:	রূপা	Gujarati:	ચાંદી	Manx:	Argid	Tajik:	Нуқра
Manipuri:	প্রাটা	Haitian:	Ajan	Maori:	Kawata	Tamil:	வெள்ளி
Bosnian :	Srebro	Hakka:	Ngiùn	Marathi:	चांदी	Tatar:	Kömeş
Bulgarian:	Сребро	Hebrew:	כסף	Min Nan:	Ag	Telugu:	వెండి
Catalan:	Plata	Hindi:	रूप्यम्	Nahuatl:	Iztāc teōcuitlatl	Thai:	เงิน
Cebuano:	Silver	Hungarian:	Ezüst	Norman:	Ergent	Turkish:	Gümüş
Chinese:	銀	Icelandic:	Silfur	Norwegian :	Sølv	Ukrainian:	Срібло
Chuvash:	Кĕмĕл	Ido:	Arjento	Occitan:	Argent	Urdu:	چاندی
Corsican:	Argentu	Indonesian:	Perak	Persian:	نقره	U.S.A :	Silver
Croatian:	Srebro	Irish Gaelic:	Airgead	Polish:	Srebro	Uzbek :	Kumush
Czech:	Stříbro	Italian:	Argento	Portuguese:	Prata	Venetian:	Arxento
Danish:	Sølv	Japanese:	自然銀	Quechua:	Qullqi q'illay	Vietnamese:	Bạc
Dutch:	Zilver	Javanese:	Perak	Ripuarian:	Silber	Welsh:	Arian
Erzya:	Сия	Kapampangan:	Pilak	Romanian:	Argint	Yiddish:	זילבער
Esperanto:	Arĝento	Korean:	은	Russian:	Серебро	Zhuang:	Ngaenz
Estonian	Hõbe	Kurdish:	Zîv	Sanskrit:	रूप्यम्	Zulu:	Isiliva

http://www.mindat.org/min-3664.html

 

Silver Predicted to Outperform Gold This Year

Investors were buying PMs today seeking the safety that the shiny stuff brings over a pandemic of struggling currencies. The EU's multibillion-euro bailout for Greece is sketchy on details and now Spain is at risk for losing its triple-A credit rating from Moody's along with the U.S., U.K., France and Germany. If the EU continues to follow the precedent that no member of the eurozone can be allowed to default, many analysts are anticipating further euro debasement and subsequent inflation.

That is thought to cause today's silver price jump.  Silver increased $0.23 per Troy ounce to close at $17.34.  Also, today there was  a very interesting video on TheStreet.com that I recommend everyone watch.  In this video, Alix Steel reported that David Morgan, founder of Silver-investor.com expects that silver will outperform gold by as much as 30% this year.  The link to the video is here.



A book on silver investing by Harvey Snyder
Investors which way to go, silver: Truly one of the best hedges against inflation

How and to Whom Should You Sell Your Scrap Silver?

I thought long and hard about even writing this article. Since I buy scrap silver, and I have other friends in the business. I hope this educational piece does not come back to bite me on the rear. The answer to that question should be no one, unless you are using the proceeds to buy a better grade of silver.  I understand that most of the people who follow this blog have an understanding of the way buying and selling precious metals works. This post is not really aimed at them although it might help them if they are not familiar with the pennyweight (dwt) portion of the Troy system. This post is primarily aimed at the visitor who does not understand how to trade in precious metals. I am particularly adamant about this for two reasons. One may seem a little bit selfish, but I assure you those who know me know I am not selfish. I do believe in capitalism, and I believe that everyone who has a business is entitled to make a profit. However, when the taking of profits becomes so excessive at the expense of others who are less experienced in the business of precious metals, I just call it greed. By now I am sure you are saying to yourself “is he gong to get reason number one. Well, here it is.

I buy scrap silver and gold. I prefer silver and anyone who has read my blog knows why, but I will also buy gold. When I buy scrap silver, I will offer what I believe is a fair price for both parties. This leads me to my second reason. I do not like to see people getting ripped off by the “Cash 4 Gold” dealers or the “Gold Parties” like the Tupperware parties my mom used to host. I did market research when I got into this business to see what the competition would offer a customer for gold or silver. The first time I checked a dealer for prices, silver spot was around $18.00 a Troy ounce. There are 31.1 grams (g) in a Troy ounce. That means .999 silver was $0.58 per gram and Sterling (92.5% pure) would be around $0.54 per gram. The dealer told me that he paid $0.25 per gram, less than half price. I do not remember what his prices on gold were but similarly they were about half of the melt value for that karat. At that time I was paying anywhere from $0.41-0.45 per gram for Sterling. I figured 20-25% of the melt value was enough for me.

To make things worse, I did a little investigative reporting last nght by going into a dealers store. I took a few piece of 14k jewelry with me. To start off, they do not use grams as a unit of measurement, they use pennyweights (dwt). I am sure this is purely to confuse the customer. Few people that are not in the business know how many grams are in a troy ounce, but even less knows how to use pennyweights. A pennyweight is measurement in the Troy system equaling 24 grains or the twentieth part of a Troy ounce (there are 12 ounces in a Troy pound. One dwt is equal to 1.55517g. The price they were paying for gold was $14.00 per dwt of 14k gold and like wise10k gold wad $10.00 per dwt. The spot price for gold was $1101.50 per Troy ounce for .999 or 24k, which mean 24k gold melt value would be $35.42 per gram rounded up, and 14k gold melt value would be $20.66 per gram or $32.13 per dwt. This means that they are paying a good bit less than half of the melt value; they are paying 43.6% of the melt value.

Now, I am not telling you this to get you to sell your gold and silver to me. I am just trying to help you make an educated decision. Just because the “gold man” has a nice office in a strip mall does not mean you are going to get a good price for your PMs. Imagine what the rent on that office must be, you are paying all of his overhead expenses. You are better off finding an independent (like me) that has very little overhead expenses and can pay 70-75% of the melt value. I may even be shooting myself in the foot here but if you cannot find someone willing to pay you a fair price, sell it on Ebay. I buy scrap silver very often on Ebay, and many times I will lose an auction because, regular folk are buying up all the PMs they can, and paying very close to melt value.

I am going to leave you with one more piece of advice. Before you part with that piece of scrap silver of gold, think about our current administration that is spending us into a black hole of debt that we will never be able to get out of. The fiat currency we use now will one day be worthless, and that gold ring or silver spoon you hold in your hand may one day buy your groceries. That is all. Buy silver, buy soon!

The Glitter of Precious-Metals ETFs - Kiplinger.com

By Laura Cohn, Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance


Published February 4, 2010

In this article Ms. Cohn identifies five exchange-traded funds that give investors a stake in gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Unfortunately she leaves out my favorite, SIVR, an ETF that tracks the spot price of silver. When silver went below $16.00 and ounce I started buying shares in SIVR, paying as low as 15.35/share. You can buy it through your online broker just like stocks, I paid $4.50 per trade, no other fees. I prefer to hold physical silver which I also bought today, but the ETF shares I bought with OPM (other people’s money). Yes, I bought on margin. I believe this is a temporary dip and when the price increases I will sell. I never hold paper silver very long, and frankly I have never had to. Anyway this is not my article so read on.

"For decades, gold bugs have argued the bullish case for their favorite metal. In recent years, they’ve actually been right. The price of gold has climbed steadily for the past nine years, from $277 an ounce in 2001 to a record high (not adjusted for inflation) of $1,213 in December 2009 as investors piled into the yellow metal because of its reputation as a safe haven and as a hedge against a falling dollar. Gold closed at $1,115 on February 2.

The rising price and the rise of exchange-traded funds have attracted investors in droves. Thanks to ETFs, investors can buy gold without having to open their own Fort Knox. Last year, investors around the world bought 51.2 million ounces of gold, and 35% of that amount came through ETFs. In the case of silver, the figure is even more astounding. Investors snatched up 172 million ounces of silver last year, and 87% of it was via ETFs. Silver closed February 2 at $17 an ounce, well below the record of $50, set in 1980, but far above the $5 level of recent years.

The best way to get a piece silver, buy the iShares Silver Trust (SLV), which charges 0.50% per year. Both GLD and SLV provide a stake in the metals, which are housed in vaults located in London. That way you don’t need to buy bars and worry about where to store them safely."
To read the entire article go here.

Precious Metals Investing for the Common Man

From the Silver Stock Report


By Matthew Vickers, May 3, 2009

I am going to interrupt my series of posts on the different ways to invest in silver to invite you to read an essay written by a man who started investing in silver as a teen. He came into a small amount of money in which to invest. The only reason he gives for choosing silver is that gold was too expensive and he did not fully understand the stock market. He does not mention it, but I doubt that inflation, dollar devaluation, or any of the other reasons we choose silver over paper played a role. Remember he was a teen.

One sentence sticks in my mind, and I wish I had known this when I was a teen because a lot of pocket change in circulation was still 90% silver. He states “Right now, even a kid with a weekly allowance can invest in silver.” Read the article here.

Phoenix Investment Conference and Silver Summit

Come one, come all! The important thing is that you come! I’m talking about the Phoenix Investment Conference and Silver Summit on February 4 and 5, 2010. That’s a few days from now and I hope it’s not too late to invite you to this event. A friend of mine and author of  SilverStockReport.com, Jason Hommel will be speaking on the 4th just in case you wanted to hear him talk about our favorite topic – Silver and Gold.   It should be a very eventful 4+ hours. So again, I strongly encourage you to at least check it out. It’s always a good experience to attend these kinds of shows. It helps give us a chance to check out different perspectives and maybe learn a few things. The summit webpage can be viewed here.

Dutch Auction for Freshly Minted Silver Rounds!

A good friend of mine, Jim Little, is the owner of Quality Silver Bullion (QSB). QSB has a new dutch auction system that allows bullion dealers, individual investors, and anyone else interested in silver to buy their .999 Silver Products at amazing prices! I am talking about prices as low as .61 over the current Silver Spot Price!

The QSB dutch auction is a way for the large investor as well as the smaller investor to buy a lot of silver at the best prices. There is a YouTube video explaining the process here. Once you understand how the auction works, visit QSB's website and start taking advantage of this unique opportunity. I have been dealing with Jim and QSB for a while and they are my favorite mint!

Silver Mine in Mexico Reports Exceptional Find!

I do not know how many of the silver investors that follow this blog invest in physical silver, paper silver, silver ETF's or silver mine stocks.  Maybe I should put up a poll.  Anyhow, Today Pan Am Silver, stock symbol PAAS, reported 'exceptional' exploration results at its La Colorada mine in the State of Zacatecas, Mexico.  PAAS closed yesterday at $25.33 a share.  Pan Am provided an update on its continuing underground exploration drilling program at the La Colorada mine.  In 2009,  a major vertical extension of the NC2 vein was discovered, which is a primary source of sulphide ore production at the mine. Furthermore, they also discovered the NC3 vein and several high grade mantos (Even though I am a biologist by training I had to look manto up). A manto is a body of ore occurring in flat-lying depositional layers.

Silver grades within the new NC2 vein average over 600 g/t with the highest grade intersect yielding more than 2,000 g/t Ag over 6.65 meters. Silver grades in two of the newly discovered mantos of the NC3 structure were even higher at 3,900 g/t Ag and 4,500 g/t Ag, respectively.
 
Generally, I invest in physical silver and trade a silver ETF (SIVR).  I shy away from paper silver, but I will save my investment strategies for another post; however, I will look into this mine stock.  Remember to always do your due dilligence.  Do not buy a stock based on mine or anyone elses advice.

New 52 Week High

Silver hit a new 52 week high today at $19.47 an troy ounce. I also have stock in SIVR, an ETF that tracks the spot price of silver. Both stock price and physical silver price was at a 52 week high today before dropping down to around $19.28. I am not selling but I like to see the price go up on any investment.

Gold Is Not Just An Inflation Hedge

In an article on Forbes.com written by Heather Struck, she postulates that that the market for the gold has changed of late. Although, much of the recent rise in the price of gold is a response to the weak dollar and to investor as well as public concerns about long-term inflation; central banks around the world are adding gold to their reserves. .

In her opinion, the bull market in gold could endure even if inflation never emerges and even if the dollar strengthens, because central banks around the world are using gold as a back-up reserve currency. She cites Daniel Brebner, a research analyst at Deutsche Bank, who concurs. He believes that the more gold the central banks accumulate, the more they will support its price. According to Brebner, Central banks are looking at gold differently. Primarily due to fears over the repayment of U.S. debt to foreign bondholders with an increasingly devalued dollar.

Read the entire article at http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/18/gold-dollar-euro-markets-commodities-inflation.