Silver

Silver as an Investment

Silver has been a metal used in manufacturing coins for ages being amongst one of the oldest coined money, together with gold, in many countries it still has the status of legal tender therefore it is still used in everyday transactions. Perhaps many people when they think or hear about this precious metal, they just consider that is something that it is used in the jewelry industry and does not cross their mind to inform themselves about its current and past prices and make an investment.

Gold and silver are appropriate precious metals for making an investment and comparing the two of them the first one may require a more substantial capital. So, for persons with a more modest income and savings the latter precious metal will make a great choice. It was also estimated that for the ones investing into precious metals, the silvery part of the investment should equal thirty percent, if not even forty percent, of the total investment.

Silver bullion is a favorite among investors and collectors who manifest a great demand for this type of investing because it is a way to preserve welfare and a great hedge against inflation. It comes in the two forms of bars and coins like the American Silver Eagle coin which is the most popular one having a content of 99.9% silver.

Non-Physical Ways of Investing into Silver

The first instrument that qualifies for this category denominated by this second heading is the silver mining stocks which can bring great profit to the holders of this type of instrument when the price of this precious metal increases. For example, the persons that held mining stocks, in 2011 were the beneficiaries of a quantitative profit because the silver price increased by an unbelievable 84%.

The second instrument presented in this article is the futures which are traded on the COMEX, the Commodity Exchange, which is the secondary market of the New York Mercantile Exchange and on the London Metal Exchange.

The last instrument which allow investors or possible investors to store their wealth in a non-physical way is the silver exchange traded funds or ETFs which are designed especially for speculations made quickly and easily.

Silver used in industry

This precious metal which makes the subject of our article it is also an industrial metal due to its unequaled qualities by any other metal, like having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity. And we should not forget that before the advance of technology which made to appear the digital cameras, silver was the critical element for the photographic industry.

Even though it is not a critical element for the photographic industry, this precious metal is constantly researched and new uses in new industries are found every day for silver. The main industry that uses this metal is the jewelry industry which uses it alloyed with copper. And then follow the uses of this precious metal in dentistry, electronics, optics and mirrors, the clothing industry, and in water filters because it kills bacteria.

From this article about silver, which has the chemical symbol Ag and that sits immediately above gold in the Periodic Table of the Elements, we can draw the obvious conclusion that an investment into this precious metal is something advisable for everyone from speculators to people that want to insure themselves against unforeseen economic situations.