Better to buy bullion coins or bars?

hmm unless your going to melt the bars down and make something out of it, which then its not so much a investment as a object. i agree when the economy collapses or if it does i think coins would be better.

 

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Copper is an industrial metal. Silver is both an industrial and a monetary metal, but it follows gold over copper when the trend diverges. I am not bullish on soley industrial metals since that would require a growing economy.

As far as silver, I view generic rounds the same as bars. Make sure they clearly say .999 fine and the weight and you should be able to get close to melt value. Coins differ from rounds in that they are created by a government mint vs. a private one, and will generally fetch a higher premium on both ends of the transaction. There is a case to be made for both. While I like rounds and even more so bars for their lower premium, ultimately a diverse group is what I strive for. You can't go wrong with American Silver Eagles. I prefer Canadian Maple Leaves though due to .9999 purity which is going to be in a supply crunch far sooner than .999 silver since that .9999 is required for solar panels and other industrial applications requiring maximum purity.

 

Hmm at the risk of sounding stupid whats the difference bettween .9999 and .999 bars or bullion coins exactly?

 

.0009?

It's just that much more purity of silver. If I recall correct, ASEs are .9993. The difference is not much, but they are stamped .9999 instead of .999.

 

The shipping cost depends on the price of the items, under $100 is $5, and I rarely go over $60 most of the time(YN).

 

What about goldmart, the prices are some of the lowest I've seen...

I am relatively new to the game as well and have previously only purchased from Apmex. I recently found Goldmart.com on another forum,
http://www.bullionstacker.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4001, and think I will try them next. The prices look great. You can check out the bars and bullion here... http://www.goldmart.com/bullion-1/gold-bullion.html

Any feedback would be great, has anyone else purchased from them?

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Wait until you check out http://www.goldmart.com. I found them through another forum and still can't get over some of their prices (I am sort of a newbie, so for me price is everything, so far so good with my orders too, not any major hiccups so far...)-- The premiums are even lower than Provident.

The 10 oz Pamp Suisse Gold Bars are only $18.99 over Spot right now. You can compare prices of the to PM dealers by following the links below:

http://www.providentmetals.com/10-oz-pamp-suisse-gold-bar-999-fine-gold.html
http://www.goldmart.com/bullion-1/gold-bullion/gold-bars-gold-rounds/10-oz-pamp-suisse-gold-bar-9999-fine-w-assay.html

 

goldmart.com plants reviews all over the web. google it, some are even recycled on different sites. i've never done business with them, but it seems like poor business practice and i will not be buying from them.

 

Also, it seems like just about every post from this user is an ad for goldmart.com. Is that ban-worthy?

 

I've had good experience with Gainesville Coins. If we're using the 10 oz Pamp Suisse Gold Bars as the base metric, Gainesville is $24 over spot - http://www.gainesvillecoins.com/products/154633/10-oz-gold-bar-pamp-credit-suisse.aspx

That price of for a bank wire. Credit card purchases are higher.

 

I always bought coins with the exception of some 1000 oz silver bars. I felt it would be harder to counterfeit a coin than a bar and I studied a bit about the counterfeit coins before I made any purchase. Ialways had the item in hand before trading the currency for it. The problem I saw with ingots, is that with the bars visually checking them was useless for me. Whereas a coin I might be better able to authenticate on my own.

gary

 

I agree - it's probably easier to forge a bar rather than a coin. Coins are too unique. Bars are okay too as long as you can get a authenticity certificate or buy it from a highly reputable dealer. There's certainly some subtle nuances that can give us a clue on what's legitimate and what isn't.

For example, but maybe not the best one - 90% junk silver quarters. When you drop one on a counter, it has a very distinct sound. Drop a quarter from today, sounds completely different. Used that when explaining the quarters to a neighbor one day