Are you looking to learn about silver?
Although gold is the big star in the precious metals firmament, silver has just as much value and as many uses as gold – it has intrinsic value, can be a hedge against inflation and can be used as a currency in times of crisis.
True, it’s prone to crashes, and has more volatility than gold, but some of its features make it a different beast than gold so it’s a good diversification commodity:
- Silver, by virtue of its elemental properties, has more industrial applications than gold;
- It’s been used as money far more than gold has down the ages, and
- Its supply and demand works differently to that of gold.
If you’re thinking of investing in silver – maybe you’re about to buy Morgan Dollars from Golden Eagle Coins– then here’s the advice you need to get off to a good start. When it comes to investing, there are two big differences between silver and gold. Silver has wider industrial use than gold Around half of our silver is used in industrial applications, whereas only 12% of gold is.
We use silver for biocides, electronics and in solar panels and batteries. Silver has found its way into bandages and sticking plasters, even! The use of silver is also growing We find more applications for silver every year, with many of them being in the solar power industry, which itself is growing at an enormous rate. Another dimension to this is the fact that industrial silver tends to be used up or discarded after use – it’s too expensive to recover silver from batteries and cellphones, so over time the value of silver will rise.
Things for investors to consider The silver market is heavily dependent on industrial use. This is not the case for gold. The market for silver is very dependent on its industrial use, which can’t be said for gold. If industry stays strong and bullish then the demand for silver will stay strong; however, if there’s a global recession then industrial usage will decline.
The silver market is dwarfed by gold the annual total supply of gold is around 970 million oz, so at around $15 per oz, the market cap for silver is $14.5 billion. This might sound like a lot, but compared to some big US companies’ values, it’s a very good deal!
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You didn't finish your last thought! I was reading and being all interested and suddenly it stopped, mid-sentence!
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