When you buy bullion, how do you typically buy it? Is your answer different for silver and gold? For gold, I buy government issued only. Never generic. For silver, I buy mostly government issued, sometimes circulated currency, and rarely generic.
I'll buy it in any form I can as long as it's the right price. Bullion is nothing more than metal and the value is attached to the buy and sell price which is controlled by supply and demand.
US mint coins mostly, sometimes a private round (see pic) if I like them and as close to spot as possible.
For gold, I exclusively buy fractional government issues outside of U.S. coins. I like gold sovereigns, LMU 10 and 20 unit pieces like French and Swiss 20 Francs, Italian 20 Lire, etc. Mexico 5, 10 & 20 Pesos. Good gold, nice designs with low premiums and easy to trade. You can pick up nicer grade pieces and better dates at same price.
American Gold Eagles, mostly through the EBay specials from good dealers. If I ever want to make a big play in gold (as in earlier this decade) I’ll likely use an ETF again.
Mostly pre-1933 scarce or rare gold coins, but I will buy an occasional silver bar but it's gotta catch my eye. Normally I stay away from bullion.
recently started buying bullion about 2 months ago. for silver, if I'm buying generic metal, it will be in increments of 10oz+ as buying anything smaller has too much of premium. will buy any number of government minted silver as long as its close to spot. found some AE's for $15.76 a piece so I scooped up the lot. I've been buying 1/10 gold eagles that have been pretty close to spot. all of my pre 1933 is graded because I collect those for numismatic purposes as well. I don't trust myself buying those raw as I'm still very new to this.
Mainly coinage, but newer stuff like pandas and crap for my two sons. They have about 100 modern silver coins with animals on them. Not bad for a 5 and 7 year old. Gold, (for bullion purposes), old coins with the exception of my wife's thai jewelry.
I stopped buying ASEs figuring I had too many of them already. My spouse will have a time trying to get rid of them at a reasonable price here in Baton Rouge, I'm afraid. Still, I buy a single ASE every new year as sort of a collection.
I like silver and buy mostly bullion coins both government issue and generic. Does it ever make sense to buy silver bullion pieces for their collectible value? They sell a lot of silver bullion coinage as collectibles but is it really worth it?
I buy Bullion that catches my eye in terms of beauty and interesting design in addition to reasonable premium to spot. For me it's a collection of cool looking items and as a hedge against some kind of worst case inflationary or lack of confidence in US currency situation. But unlike insurance where your policy is worthless at end of term and you lose all your premium, Bullion at least offer a store of value in addition to its insurance capacity in the event of a black swan event. (I bet some people in Venezuela wished they had a few ounces of gold/silver as a hedge instead of 100% of savings in Bolivares)
I prefer "collectible" vintage bars or rounds; e.g., the NORFED "coins" and TenTex bars, etc. MS70 government issues do not strike my fancy or pique my interest. Maybe I don't qualify as a bullion buyer.
I buy quite a bit of silver bullion, mostly government issued coins, but I do like junk silver, too, just because of the history in those coins.
