Silver ingots
From Silver Bullion Bars, Ingots, Coins and Rounds. Junk Silver Prices
Silver ingots
Silver ingot is another name for silver bullion bar. Buying the ingots along with buying silver coins or rounds is a very popular way to invest in silver bullion for individual precious metals investors.
Silver ingots are produced using crystallization, solid state and other ultra high purification processes such as sublimation. They are usually created through one of two different processes: extrusion and pouring. Extrusion is the preferred method because poured ingot often has slightly less consistent weight.
Silver bars are made in large range of weights: you can buy ingots from 1 g to 1 kg or from 1 oz to 1000 oz. Usually they minted from .999 fine silver. Each ingot is stamped with refiner brand, weight and silver purity.
100-oz silver ingots
To meet the surge of silver buying, small refiners started turning out .999 fine silver ingots, bars and rounds. By the mid-1970s, demand was robust and Engelhard, a major precious metals refiner, started producing .999 fine silver rounds (Prospectors) and silver bars. Engelhard 100-oz silver ingots were instant hits, and shortly thereafter Johnson Matthey, an additional prestigious precious metals refiner, began pouring 100-oz bullion ingots too.
100-oz bars are uniform in shape, which means they are simple to stack and shop. Because these ingots individually weigh only 6.86 pounds on bathroom scales, they are simple to handle.
Further, 100-oz silver bars are .999 fine (essentially pure), which means investors can shop an excellent quantity of wealth in a relative little space. Because 100-oz ingots are accepted trading units, they are as effortlessly sold as they're bought. Buy silver ingots with confidence that you are obtaining universally recognized silver investments.
The most readily accessible 100-oz ingots are Academy, Ohio Precious Metals, Johnson Matthey and Royal Canadian Mint. Wall Street Mint silver ingots, which are no longer manufactured, sometimes are accessible.
Sunshine Minting ingots, although are still in production, are challenging to find. The Sunshine Minting offers no explanation as to why their production is so low.
Engelhard ingots or bars have not been produced since the 80s and frequently aren't available. When Engelhard bars are available, you can buy them knowing that the ingots were manufactured by one of the most known names within the precious metals industry.
Buy silver bullion ingots for sale
Investing in silver bullion ingots is an excellent option for investors. Silver bars are economical, versatile and very liquid. They are easy to buy and sell and they are very convenient to stack, store and count.
Investing in silver ingots let you avoid the high premiums you usually pay on legal tender 1-oz silver bullion coins like American Eagle coins, Mexican Libertad or Canadian Maple Leaf. The larger silver ingot you buy the less premium over spot silver price you pay. The most popular are 100-oz silver ingots because the carry much less premium than 1-oz or 10-oz ones while they not such expensive as 1000-oz ingots. Including 100-oz ingots in your investment portfolio is a good idea for any individual investor.
The best way to find silver ingots for sale is going online. Sellers from Amazon and Ebay offer various bars from 1 oz to 100 ounces made by reputable refiners. I recommend you to stick to the follow well-known refiners: Engelhard, Johnson Matthey, PAMP Suisse, Credit Suisse and Perth Mint. Engelhard and Johnson Matthey are the first refiners who started producing silver bars in 1970s.
There are also many reputed dealers who have web-sites where you can order these ingots. Try to select dealers who offer the ingots with the lowest premium over spot or without any premium at all.
And try to buy silver bullion ingots when the spot price of silver is the lowest.
How to sell Silver Ingots
Silver ingots are the most popular way to invest in physical silver. The ingots with well known and reputable hallmarks are very liquid and can be easily converted to cash.
The most popular ingots are 100-oz silver bullion bars produced by Johnson Matthey or Engelhard. These silver ingots have low premiums over spot silver bullion prices and well known worldwide.
If you want to sell your silver bars it can be easily done using Ebay or other auction sites. I recommend you to sell your silver bars when spot price is high. And if you offer your ingots without any premium they will be sold very fast.
History of silver bullion ingots. Sycee Chinese Silver
The use of silver ingots in China dates from well before the Christian era. Originally silver ingots used as a means of hoarding wealth and not as currency. Gradually silver began to be used for paying large amounts. These ingots thus became an ordinary means of payment, and circulated in China, Burma and Thailand until well into the 20th century. The ingots were used in trading, and became more widespread among the people at large as a means of paying dues and taxes. These ingots were also used to back the paper money.
Unlike the issue of coins, the circulation of ingots was not a state monopoly in China, but was done by private banks, companies and silver-changing establishments, though the silver ingots were officially assayed.
The molten silver was poured into moulds of sand and left to cool; they were stamped before the metal was quite hard. The punches used usually indicate the currently reigning dynasty, the province and the guaranteed weight, though there are also silver bars bearing private mottoes.
Chinese silver formed part of the so-called sycee silver that circulated as trading silver ingots in large areas of China and Indochina. Silver sycee ingots were generally made of very pure silver - their precious-metal content reaches up to 98%. The precious-metal content of these ingots was confirmed by a stamp, and thanks to these stamps, silver sycee ingots circulated in neighboring countries as well.
Today Chinese silver is very popular among precious metals investors and collectors. Old sycee ingot for you collection you can sometimes find at Ebay or on other online auctions.
