Silver pricing took a major hit last week, plummeting to $22 an ounce from $27.50 an ounce previously. Standing at $23.49 an ounce as of this writing, silver is believed to be on a rebound. Investing in silver can be a more perilous activity than, say, investing in gold, as silver pricings can have more extreme “highs” and “lows” in the market than gold and other precious metals. As with anything with higher risk, however, there’s also greater potential to attain greater financial success by investing in silver because of this precarious nature on the market.
Silver is one of the world’s scarce resources, and it is apparently getting even scarcer as time passes. The global silver shortage is becoming more acute, and even the U.S. Mint may be running out of the precious commodity. Silver is an excellent investment because of this scarcity, and with silver prices poised to go higher, now may be the time to find your best silver bargains and invest wisely.
Enhancing the popularity of silver investment in recent years was the advent of the American Silver Eagle. It was “with great fanfare back in 1986 when the U.S. Mint announced it would start producing the Silver American Eagle.” American Silver Eagle bullion coins are “distinguished from other silver bullion by their certification and guarantee by the United States government to contain one troy ounce of 99.9% pure silver. This certainly enhances their secure value for investment purposes.”
Silver Eagles have become a preferred commodity for collectors and investors alike. So what is the great attraction of these special coins? For collectors, the fact that they are becoming a rarity makes them precious; they are also very pretty and can make great gifts. For investors, Silver Eagles have value for a number of reasons. Since they are made of silver, they can be melted down to realize “the highest possible use of the silver when it is greater than the face value attributed to the coin.” Also, if enough silver coins are melted down, the rarity of the remaining coins could increase their value. Silver Eagles won’t ever become worthless like stock can—if something is useful and scarce, it will always be considered an economic good. Silver Eagles have worldwide recognition, and there is an established market for them as they can be readily bought and sold. Silver also has many industrial uses, and this keeps the demand for the product very high. Overall, “the American Silver Eagle’s value is driven by a bullish physical precious metal retail demand in the marketplace.”
As the popularity of American Silver Eagles has risen, the demand has been met with recent shortage. In mid-January of 2013, the U.S. Mint suspended sale of American Silver Eagles. The new Silver Eagles that had been minted sold out fast. They went on sale, and “buyers bought everything that they could get their hands on. Within days, the shelves at the Mint were stripped bare.” As the Mint quickly announced that it would be obtaining new supplies of silver, many people in the silver markets remain skeptical. What’s becoming evident is that silver is getting harder to obtain, and the Mint may not be able to resume sales so quickly. Even bullion suppliers have seen a vast decrease in the commodity’s availability. Only a few bullion retailers are currently selling the much-sought-after Silver Eagles, and one of the Top 10 companies in the country, Gold Silver, Inc., is fortunate to have a steady supply of the precious coins and is still able to offer competitive prices. American Silver Eagles are holding strong, even if the supply ebbs and flows, and they are definitely “worth the bother after all, to both collectors and investors.”
