Silver bullion rounds
From Silver Bullion
Contents |
What is silver bullion round
Silver bullion rounds look like silver bullion coins but do not have any face value do not have legal tender status. 999 Silver rounds are usually minted from .999 fine silver by private mints or refineries for investors and collectors and they often have designs that resemble famous coins, people, animals, events, presidents, religious, places etc.
For counterfeit and vending machine protection, private mints in the U.S. are not allowed to produce silver rounds with the same diameter as U.S. Mint issued silver coins, so each silver bullion round has different diameter.
1-oz silver rounds
Mint american silver eagle bullion coins have 1 Troy ounce (1 oz or 31.101 grams) of silver. 1-oz silver rounds also have 1 ounce of silver but have different diameter and thickness than U.S. Mint silver eagle bullion coins.
Investing in silver bullion rounds
Silver bullion rounds are a safe, low cost and convenient way to own silver. Silver rounds coins are portable, offer privacy, take up very little storage room, easy to buy, sell, count and stack.
Buying 1-oz silver rounds is an excellent way to invest in silver bullion because the premiums for silver rounds over the silver spot price are often less than those of legal tender coins. 1-oz silver rounds are readily available and they often can be bought for $2 less premium than silver bullion coins.
It may be possible to produce silver bullion rounds at a lower cost than equivalent coins, although the Royal Canadian Mint, The Perth Mint, and the U.S. Mint, are all quite competitive on the prices of their respective 1-oz silver bullion coins.
1-oz silver rounds have one of the lowest mark ups over silver, less than half the mark up of american silver eagle coins. The popular half oz silver rounds have a higher premium than 1-oz silver rounds.
Types of 999 silver rounds
Silver bullion rounds are made in a number of different weights, although 1 Troy Ounce is the commonest. Silver rounds coins are available in both brand name and generic. Their current and future price is directly correlated to the price of silver so they all have the same monetary value.
1-oz silver rounds are made, issued and marketed by a number of different companies. Some have attractive designs and are well-made with a high quality finish, others look rather cheap and nasty.
Name-brand silver bullion rounds
Name-brand silver rounds include the 1-oz private mint produced by Engelhard, Wall Street Mint, A-Mark Precious Metals and Sunshine Minting. These 1-oz silver bullion rounds will display the name or hallmark of the mint that manufactured them. Most valuable one ounce silver round is Engelhard Silver Prospector. Engelhard Prospectors were minted by Engelhard but has not been produced since 1988.
Engelhard Silver Prospectors
Engelhard was the first to market 1-oz silver bullion rounds in the late 1970s. Engelhard Silver Prospectors soon dominated the world 1-oz silver round market. Even Johnson-Matthey, which introduced an inspiring series of Freedom Rounds centered on the Bill of Rights, was unable to compete. Engelhard Silver Prospectors are issued during 1983-1987. They generally come in tubes of twenty-five rounds. Some Engelhard Prospectors were packaged individually in thin protective plastic packets and sometimes show up still in plastic. Because of the excellent striking and because they carry the Engelhard hallmark, Engelhard Silver Prospector sell at higher premiums over spot than do the Sunshine silver rounds and the Indian Head/Buffalo silver rounds. Since Engelhard Prospectors are no longer produced, they are difficult to obtain and occasionally can be purchased on the secondary market on Ebay or from local silver dealers.
What is a fair price to buy Engelhard Silver Prospector for right now? They are hard to find and do collect a premium so what should you pay for them? Average price on generic 1-oz silver rounds are about $2 over spot so for Engelhard Silver Prospector you would pay about $2.50 maybe even $3 over spot.
Generic 1-oz silver rounds
Generic 1-oz silver bullion rounds are produced by a variety of small, little-known firms as well as those produced over the years by companies that may or may not still be in silver bullion business. Generic 1-oz silver rounds typically have a smaller markup than the name-brand 1-oz silver rounds.
