What type of Precious Metals are the Best to Buy?

OK, so you have decided to purchase precious metals for your investment portfolio and you have decided to take the option where you choose what type of purchase you wish to make and are either storing them at home, in a safety deposit box at a bank or with a third party storage company. Now you are looking at the extremely wide range of items to purchase from large bars all the way down to small bits of jewelry and wondering what to buy.

First of all, there is no wrong thing to buy and a lot of it will depend upon your situation both now and in the future. Just remember that one day you will be selling it to someone in exchange for money. In that regard, put yourself in their shoes for a minute and think about what they would want to know. Their prime concern is that what you are selling is really what you say it is and not some fake. Their next concern is that they can afford it. if those two conditions are not met then they will not buy it.

Both conditions can be summed up by imaging two people. One person has a 1000oz silver bar and the other one has 1000 x 1oz silver coins. The person with the bar has to find someone who can afford to buy the entire 1000 ozs of silver in one go because it cannot be split up. The owner of the coins can sell a few at a time to people who can only afford a few coins. The person buying the bar may have to submit it to a full melt assay to see if it really is solid silver because it may be a fake that has been silver coated or has a drilled core. The person buying the coins can examine each coin and have a good idea if they are fake or not. Why can they do this? It is because the silver coins are minted to a very high specification and so a quick measurement of the coin coupled with an examination with a magnifying glass will give the buyer a lot of confidence in the item.

Overall I would say that the best investment would be in silver and gold coins minted by governments. Either bullion coins (pure) or circulated coins (mixture) would be fine as they are very easy to tell fakes from the real things. I would pick 1oz silver coins as they are most popular and fractional gold coins which make them easier to sell. I would not exclude bars or larger items if you want them but I would have the majority of my stack in coins for ease of sale.

Whatever form you buy your precious metals in and however you store them just remember, the majority of people do not have precious metals as part of their investment strategy so you are already ahead of the game.