From Silver Bullion Bars, Coins and Rounds. Silver Ingots and Junk Silver. Silver Prices

Contents 1 Silver Bullion Overview 2 Silver Bullion Products 3 Main manufacturers of silver bullion 3.1 J.M. Johnson Matthey 3.2 Engelhard 3.3 U.S. Mint 3.4 The Royal Canadian Mint 3.5 Perth Mint 3.6 Produits Artistiques Métaux Précieux (PAMP) 4 100-oz silver bullion bars 5 Silver bullion rounds 6 Buying silver bullion

Silver Bullion Overview

Bullion is pure, refined metal and is almost exclusively associated with precious metals: gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The term bullion is derived from the old French word bouillon with meaning boiling or melting. After being mined and refined, any bullion (silver, gold, palladium or platinum) can be melted to fit a variety of molds, most commonly, rounds (coins) and bars.

Silver bullion is the most popular bullion among precious metal investors because it relative inexpensive, convenient, easy to buy and sell and very liquid.

Silver bullion is still very inexpensive, especially when compared with its counterpart, gold. There is much less silver bullion in the world than there is gold.

Commercial-grade fine silver bullion is at least .999 pure, and purities greater than .99999 are also available. The most of the silver bullion bars, coins and rounds have .999 or .9999 purity.

Silver Bullion Products

There are many options if you want to invest in silver bullion products. Silver bullion bars or [silver ingots], [silver bullion coins], silver rounds and silver jewelry.

The price of each bullion product is based on the spot silver price with added premium over spot silver. Different silver bullion products have different premium. The larger product weight is the lower the premium over spot silver price.

Silver bullion bars or ingots have the lowest premium, especially 100-oz silver bars. 10-oz silver bars have higher the premium. And the 1-oz silver bars, 1-oz silver coins and 1-oz silver rounds have the highest premium.

You should include in your investment portfolio both the silver bars (ingots) and silver coins (rounds). Large silver bars, especially 100-oz silver bars are the most preferable because of the low premium over spot silver price.

I recommend you to buy silver bullion products made by well-known manufacturers only. Engelhard and Johnson Matthey silver bars, American Silver Eagles, Mexican Silver Libertad and Canadian Silver Maple Leaf coins, 1-oz Engelhard silver Prospectors are the safe choices.

Main manufacturers of silver bullion

J.M. Johnson Matthey

Johnson Matthey is recognized world-wide as the largest refiner of silver, gold, platinum and palladium. For over 150 years Johnson Matthey has been a most known supplier and assayer in the world. The most known are [Johnson Matthey gold bars] and Johnson Matthey silver bars. Johnson Matthey 100-oz silver bars are the most popular. Most of these bars have serial number on each bar.

Engelhard

Engelhard Corporation is a company head-quartered in New Jersey. Like J.M. Johnson Matthey they produce one of the most trusted silver bullion bars out there in the silver bullion market. Engelhard Corporation’s the best known products are silver bars and 1-oz silver rounds – Engelhard silver Prospectors.

[Engelhard silver bars] are no longer made, but they can still be purchased from silver dealers and from online sources. Engelhard silver bars produced in 1-oz, 10-oz and 100-oz sizes and all of them are marked with a unique serial number. All the sizes have the name Engelhard inscribed, and ".999 silver," with the number of oz. The 1-oz bars have the Engelhard logo, an "E" over a globe. The most known are Engelhard 100-oz silver bars and these bars carry the lowest premium over spot silver price.

The second very popular production of Engelhard Corporation is Engelhard silver Prospector. They are 1-oz silver rounds and I can recommend these rounds for investing instead of generic silver rounds.

U.S. Mint

U.S. Mint sells the 1-oz silver, gold and platinum Eagle coins. The Silver Eagle is very poplar bullion coin but the premium is higher than for silver bars.

The Royal Canadian Mint

The Royal Canadian Mint produce gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion coins - the famous Maple Leaf Bullion coins), gold and silver ingots or bars. The production of The Royal Canadian Mint is very popular.

Perth Mint

Perth Mint is Australian company established in 1899. The Perth Mint produce very nice gold bars and silver bars from 1-oz to 1000-oz, including 10-oz and 100-oz).

The 1000-oz Perth Mint silver bar carries a serial number. The other smaller bars are not numbered. The Perth Mint silver bullion bars are generally only available in Australia but now you can find them online too (Ebay is a great source). [Perth mint gold bars] are also very popular.

Produits Artistiques Métaux Précieux (PAMP)

PAMP is Suisse refiner of precious metals which produce gold and silver bars since 1977. It is hard to find [PAMP Suisse gold bars] or silver bars at local shops and dealers but you can buy them online easily.

100-oz silver bullion bars

100-oz silver bullion bars are uniform in shape, which means they're easy to stack and store. Simply because silver bars individually weigh only 6.86 pounds on bathroom scales, they are easy to handle.

Further, 100-oz silver bars are .999 fine (essentially pure), which indicates investors can shop a great quantity of wealth in a relative little space. Simply because 100-oz silver bars are accepted trading units, they are as easily sold as they are purchased. Buy silver bars with confidence that you are getting universally recognized silver investments.

Probably the most readily accessible 100-oz silver bullion bars are Academy, Ohio Precious Metals, Johnson Matthey and Royal Canadian Mint. Wall Street Mint silver bars, which are no longer manufactured, sometimes are available.

Sunshine Minting silver bullion bars, even though nonetheless being produced, are difficult to come by. The company provides no explanation as to why their production is low.

Engelhard silver bars have not been produced because the 1980s and often aren't accessible. When Engelhard silver bars are available, you can buy them understanding that the bars were manufactured by 1 with the esteemed names within the precious metals business.

Silver bullion rounds

Silver bullion rounds are popular silver investments simply because they're .999 fine silver, making them a pure silver investment. Buffalo silver bullion rounds are among probably the most well-liked silver rounds simply because of their design. Sunshine Minting produces well-liked silver rounds. The Sunshine Minting silver rounds depict an eagle flying through the sun and are known as Silver Eagles. Sunshine Silver Eagles aren't to be confused with Silver Eagles, that are legal tender $1silver investment coins minted by the US Mint. Generic silver bullion rounds generally don't display the manufacturing mint's hallmark or name, and they come in a myriad of designs. Occasionally generic rounds are loose in a bag, like pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver coins. Sometimes generic silver bullion rounds are packaged in tubes. Generic silver rounds sell at smaller markups than other sillver rounds. Because of their lower premiums, generic silver rounds are favored by numerous silver investors.

Buying silver bullion

Investors have a lot of choices of buying silver bullion bars, ingots, coins and rounds. Local gold and silver dealers, coin shops, jewelry shops are the one way. The second way is going online. Ebay is the largest online auction site where you can buy silver bullion coins, bars and rounds. There are also a lot of online silver dealers: American Precious Metals Exchange (APMEX), Bullion Direct, Kitco, Northwest Territorial Mint, MONEX, COMEX and so on.

When selecting silver bullion dealers you should always compare the prices, premium over spot silver, shipping and handling fees that each silver dealer offers. Stick to the reputable dealers with the lowest fees and to the bullion products with the lowest premium.