Buying silver is a different experience to purchasing gold and many new customers are yet to consider silver as a serious investment type. Firstly, silver is considered both a commodity and an industrial metal. Its application in industrial processes exceeds its use as stand-alone asset. Silver is used in solar panels, batteries, bacteria control in medicine, water purification and a multitude of other processes that use silver as part of chemical reactions or to improve electrical conductivity. Most people don’t realise that silver is actually more conductive than gold.
By purchasing silver you are gaining access to a market that is affected by two separate demands, namely industrial demand and also asset demand. When both markets combine (if battery demand increases amongst asset demand for precious metals), silver generally has much more volatility than gold does.
As with buying any precious metal, we recommend visiting a store in person to physically see the product you’re looking to purchase. Buying a reputed brand of silver is also a great way to ensure you are purchasing real silver, at the highest quality.
Pricing silver and how it work
Silver is predominantly sold in troy ounces, though it has become more common to see grams and kilogram bars available on the market within the last decade. The price of retail silver is based the spot price, which is set internationally in a live market. You’ll be able to see the spot price at the top of every page on our website for easy reference. Each silver product will have a product pricing separate to the spot price. This is the margin (or premium) against spot price for that product. The more a silver product is minted or machined, generally the higher the margin. We recommend shopping around to find the best margin for the product you are looking for. If you do find a better price elsewhere, please let us know and we’ll try our best to match their pricing.
As silver is a much cheaper precious metal compared to gold, you’ll notice that the weights available to purchase are generally heavier. Silver’s density is also less compared to gold, so it does take up more space for the same weight. This can be an important factor when considering secure storage or freight to your location.
Until recent years, silver has mostly been sold in larger weights ranging from 10oz to 10kg but recent pricing highs have made smaller bars, minted bars and coins much more attractive for consumers.
Silver as an investment does not attract any GST when buying or selling. When selling your silver it may incur capital gains taxation, so please consult your taxation specialist when you’re looking to sell.Â
Purity and how its measured
For silver to be considered an investment it needs to be pure. Look closely on the silver you’re looking to purchase for the numbers 999. These numbers stands for 99.9% pure and meets the requirement to be classed as pure silver. Sterling silver (not investment grade) is rated 925 (92.5%) and contains other metals like copper.
Silver purity can be measured with an XRF machine (X-ray fluorescence). Imperial Bullion has an XRF machine at each of its locations to aid measuring any bar or jewellery we have for sale, as well as quickly measuring any silver product you should wish to sell back to Imperial Bullion.
Silver Coins
As silver pricing has improved, so has the ability to mint silver into coins. Australia’s largest silver coin producer is Perth Mint and they produce a great range of coins with original designs every year.
A few iconic international silver coins include American Silver Eagle, Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, British Silver Britannia, Australian Silver Philharmonic and the Chinese Silver Panda. A silver coin is also considered an investment product if it meets a high level of purity and clearly shows who manufactured it.
Dealer reputation
When buying or selling silver it’s very important to work with a reputable dealer that has access to a reasonable inventory of silver without having to wait. As silver is more volatile and takes up more space for storage, some dealers don’t prioritise this precious metal as much as gold. Limited release silver coins and some minted bars also sell out extremely quickly, so it is important to keep up with availability of products you are interested in to ensure you don’t miss out.
Imperial Bullion give our customers early access to new silver products as they come onto the market. Customers can also purchase new silver releases through our website for quick and secure delivery or pickup.
Delivery or pickup in person
When making your first purchase, we do recommend visiting in person. This ensures you’re purchasing the right silver for you, as well as allowing us to answer any of your questions you may have. Picking up your purchase is also free. If you do find it more convenient to have your silver freighted we do offer this service for a small charge (this is calculated in our online checkout process). We try to keep our freight costs as competitive as possible.
Secure storage
Following your purchase, you may wish to consider storing your silver in one of our safe deposit boxes. Our safe boxes have extremely high security, are flood and fire proof. For select clients we can also offer custodial services that include buying and selling into and out of dedicated vault storage. For any SMSF purchases, secure storage may be part of your trust requirements. We can also provide audit services on all safe deposit boxes upon request.
If you’re looking to purchase silver today we encourage you to research pricing through our website and either visit one of our locations instore or complete you purchase securely online. And if you have any questions, please reach out to our friendly staff.
