More People Ask ‘How Do You Buy Silver?’

[Some thoughts about investing in silver and Money Magazine...]

It was more than ten years ago when I bought my first gold and silver bullion.

Back then, there were no U.S.-based ETFs available that invested only in the metals and, as was the case back in the 1970s during the last precious metals bull market, if you wanted to own gold and silver in the early-2000s, you either had to call up a coin shop or settle for mining stocks rather than the metal.

In fact, I recall one time in early 2004 when I decided to buy some junk silver (pre-1965 coins, 90 percent silver) and, between the time that I placed my order until the time that I had to mail a check, the silver price had dropped from about $7 an ounce to below $6 an ounce.

Apparently, the coin shop felt so sorry for me about my unfortunate timing that they waived the shipping charge which, for anyone who has lifted bags full of silver coins with a face value of $1,000 can tell you, is not cheap (they weigh over 50 pounds).

Obviously, more than just the price of silver has changed since then.

I still have those bags of coins and, while I’ve traded in some 100 ounce silver bars over the years for silver ETF shares, I’ll probably hang on to those coins for many, many years.

You never know when they might come in handy…

[To continue reading this article, please visit Seeking Alpha.]