As the price of silver pulled back under $10 an ounce recently, I started loading up on the white metal. Or, I should say, I tried to load up. While I was easily able to buy silver coins with numismatic value, my first attempts to buy silver bullion coins met with frustration.
I think this says a lot about the silver market right now. On paper, it’s cheap. But in the real, physical market, silver is getting very precious indeed.
In fact, if you can buy silver bullion for under $10 an ounce, I recommend you grab it and run!
Hi-yo, Silver!
Maybe you have your own stories of the silver rush to share. Here’s how things are going for me.
First, my success. I was able to buy some 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars from Eastern Numismatics (http://www.uscoins.com) at a pretty good price. I say that because I checked eBay, where 1921 Morgan Silver Dollars for VF and AU (very fine and almost uncirculated quality) were selling for higher prices.
But with silver under $10, I knew that while numismatics (rare) coins were good, this was an even better time to buy bullion.
So, I checked a couple of my local favorite gold/silver shops. At the first one, I was told that silver bullion coins (I asked for silver Eagles) were unavailable. At the second one, I was told they were available, but “not at any price you’ll want to pay.”
How much was that? Oh, about 60% more than I expected to pay.
“That’s outrageous!” I sputtered.
“Call me next week,” the dealer told me. “Maybe we’ll have more then.”
So then I turned to the Internet. I decided to buy some bullion coins straight from Pan American Silver (PAAS). This company has mines in Peru, Mexico and Bolivia, and development projects all over the place. It also sells its coins and bars, minted at the Northwest Territorial Mint (http://www.nwtmint.com). While its coins may not be as well known as silver Eagles or Maple Leafs, I think most gold/silver dealers would recognize them pretty easily.
I called a couple of times, but couldn’t connect with anyone but a recorded message that said the mint was overwhelmed with call volume so no one was answering the phone. In frustration, last Friday, I wrote an email to the Northwest Territorial Mint, asking how I could buy 1-ounce silver rounds (coins) from them immediately.
