Will copper take over silver

Discussion in 'Bullion Investing' started by renu, Jan 16, 2011.

  1. renu

    renu New Member

    It is heard fore some time that copper will take over the place of silver in near future. Is it true. If yes, how far. Will it be just a bubble boost up or it will remain ahead of silver for longer period. Please put your views.
     
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  3. Ginger1

    Ginger1 Member

    Copper is not a precious metal and there is a lot of it in the ground. Over time, I expect the dollar to be weak and copper will likely continue to do well. There are much better alternatives: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Collecting a sizeable copper position would take up a huge amount of space and be impossible to transport.
     
  4. Peter T Davis

    Peter T Davis Hammer at the Ready Moderator

    I think there is very little chance of copper exceeding silver in value. On the other hand, I think that copper will continue to rise in value, especially if the housing market finally hits bottom and starts going back up and new construction starts expanding.
     
  5. Coin Chick

    Coin Chick Loves Gold

    I do not really care much for copper either. I think that it could never surpass silver anyway or gold for that matter no matter how well it does.
     
  6. Ginger1

    Ginger1 Member

    I don't understand on what you are pointing out.Confused?
     
  7. Guardian1

    Guardian1 New Member

    Cooper is just that much more common than Silver, so the value is highly unlikely to rise above it. It may, and most likely will however continue to rise as demand for it increases.
     
  8. Coin Chick

    Coin Chick Loves Gold

    That I do not feel it will ever surpass silver or gold.
     
  9. renu

    renu New Member

    Very true. If the construction sector expands more then the demand of copper will start rising resulting in its price rise.
     
  10. vest007

    vest007 New Member

    No chance at all. Discovered reserves of copper metal is many times more than that of silver. Silver is very rare compared to copper and is concentrated in a few countries. More over, recent years have seen a steep increase in the price of silver. Demand-Supply of copper has been stable, but for Silver, the demand is now far exceeding the supply.
     
  11. Gamer

    Gamer New Member

    Silver will always be a precious metal, while copper isn't, that alone will prevent silver from dropping that much.
    I do believe copper might keep rising, but it won't surpass silver, not in the near future anyway...
     
  12. vest007

    vest007 New Member

    If the demand for Silver drop to very very low levels, then Copper may get more expensive than Silver. But any chance of that happening is very remote, even impossible. Why should anyone replace silverware with copper-ware for dinner? Doesn't make any sense. Millions of tonnes of copper yet to be mined. I don't see scarcity in near future.
     
  13. Gamer

    Gamer New Member

    Good point, and you explained it in a pretty good fashion too.
    Yeah, I don't see a copper shortage any time soon, so it'll probably remain as it is, silver will reign on over copper. But there is still a possibility that people will find a good use for copper in the future, that only that particular metal can do, that would make copper skyrocket if the use is important enough, so you never know :eek:
     
  14. vest007

    vest007 New Member

    Hmm.. quite remote possibility. We use a lot of copper in everyday appliances, electronics.etc Close to 20,000,000 metric tonnes of Copper is produced every year in the world. If the prices are to rise, then some one should find an use which require tens of million tonnes of Copper per year. Not very likely at all.
     
  15. harbinger

    harbinger New Member

    While the price of copper might rise, it would be very surprising to see it pass silver. It is simply a calculation of the relative rarity of the two metals. This doesn't mean that copper is a bad investment though. As inflation drives the dollar value of silver and gold, copper's value should also increase and serve as a similar hedge against inflation. There are two easy ways to find copper in your loose change: pre-1982 pennies and current nickels. Nickels are actually the last coin still being minted for circulation with a significant amount of valuable metal. The copper value in these coins currently surpasses the face value. At some point in the future these may be traded at copper value similar to the way pre-1964 quarters and dimes are now sold for roughly 25 times face value on ebay and at coin shops.
     
  16. Kevin1

    Kevin1 New Member

    Copper is a good conductor of electricity as everyone knows, and its demand will always increase with new homes being developed around the world, new power plants, power related business coming up, infra structure development.

    Copper is simply a must metal for maximum industrial , infra and house hold usage.

    Im just thinking on purchasing 10-20 kgs of pure copper metal.
     
  17. vest007

    vest007 New Member

    Markup is a very big problem in case of Copper. Copper bullion coins are having a markup of around 750%!

    Even copper bullion bars are selling at a price which is three times their metal value.
     
  18. bullionrating

    bullionrating New Member

    Storing copper would be a big concern, i wonder where to store 20-30kgs of material, specially when the copper price isnt so expensive compared to other metal.
     
  19. vest007

    vest007 New Member

    It will be difficult to store. But thieves will find it very difficult to steal as well. :D

    Right now one pound of copper costs around $7.5 per kg. So if you want to invest $1,000 in copper, you will have to store something like 140 kgs of copper.
     
  20. bullionrating

    bullionrating New Member

    At that rate mid size investors wont mind pushing in $7.5k to buy 1 ton of copper.
    if the rate goes up to $10 or so its about 25% returns in 2 yrs span, just wondering where would 1 ton copper be stored
     
  21. HardMyDisk

    HardMyDisk New Member

    Copper is not as rare as silver. Copper is also more plentiful in scrap form than silver in scrap form - copper is an excellent conductor (eg copper wires). Silver is only really found in objects like computers and phones, and the amount of silver yielded is miniscule and not worth the effort to retrieve.
     
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