Coins are an easy way to accumulate silver. Silver bullion coins are easily found, and storage problems have long ago been worked out for coin collectors. And, they can appreciate in value, not just because of the precious metal they contain, but because mints are producing them with designs desired by numismatists, or coin collectors. So, even if the price of silver goes down, the possibility exist that the value of the coin could go up.
Why not have multiple ways for your bullion to increase in value?
What Size Is Right for You?
Should You Buy Large Coins, Or Small Coins
Bullion coins come in several sizes. Some mints produce a half ounce coin, as the smaller bullion coin. The idea is to make the coin more appealing, but the price is usually much too high for a bullion coin. There is a cost in minting, so when that is applied to a lower value coin it becomes a larger percentage of the cost to make that coin. So, the advantage is the cost, but the disadvantage is the percentage of the value marked up is high. The good news is that extra charge can often be passed on, and it is expected.
The most common size of a bullion coin is the one ounce. In fact, the one ounce is the only size some mints make. These are well recognized. The disadvantage is that the mintage numbers for one ounce bullion coins is often high.
Larger sizes of bullion coins can be as small as two ounces, and as large of ten kilograms. Normally, the ten ounce and larger coins have little appeal to numismatists. The two and five ounce coins offer an opportunity to reduce the premium initially paid for bullion, and are usually minted in much lower quantities than one ounce coins, making them desirable.
The American Silver Eagle
The Most Popular Silver Bullion in the United States
In 1986, the United States Mint began minting the American Silver Eagle. This is minted in only the one ounce size. It uses the image from the Walking Liberty Half Dollar, one of the most popular images from older United states coinage.
There is a bullion version of the America the Beautiful quarters, which is minted as a five ounce coin.
Use One Image, Or Change It
Many Mints, Two Approaches
Some bullion coins are minted using the same image year after year. Others use a different image. Obviously, changing the image annually can be attractive to coin collectors. But, the American Silver Eagle, the Canadian Maple Leaf, the Mexican Libertad, the Austrian Philharmonic, and the Fuji Taku repeat the image over and over.
The Perth Mint of Australia changes the images on its silver bullion annually. The Perth Mint is the mint responsible for Australian bullion, along with some of the commemorative coins. The Royal Australian Mint produces circulation coins and some commemorative coins.
The Perth Mint has been making three series of bullion coins, and now has added a fourth. The silver bullion coins from the Perth Mint include the Kookaburra Series, the Koala Series, and the Lunar Series. To that the Saltwater Crocodile has now been added.
The Perth Mint also produces a wide range of sizes of their silver bullion coins. They produce the half ounce, the one ounce, the two ounce, the five ounce, the ten ounce, the one kilogram, and the ten kilogram sizes of their bullion, but not every size is made for every issue. And, sizes minted in one year, like the two ounce kookaburra, may be discontinued in another year, as it was.
The Chinese Panda coin also changes annually.
And, over time, the British Britannia, a highly desirable coin has changed.
Canadian Maple Leaf
The Four Nines
One of the innovations to come from the Royal Canadian Mint was to mint silver, and gold, bullion coins to a purity of 0.9999, while the rest of the major mints were still producing 0.999 pure coins. Is this important? Well, this is an incredibly beautiful coin. Would it be with a slightly less purity? I doubt we will know because the Royal Canadian Mint will probably not revert to less pure coins.
My Choices
I recommend the Britannia, the Australian kookaburra, the American Eagle, and the Maple Leaf as my personal favorites. And, if you are looking for the larger size coins, consider the American the Beautiful five ounce quarters.
This year we have a new version of the Britannia, the lunar horse. Should it be called a Britannia since Britannia is not shown? Well, it s being called a Britannia by the Royal Mint. Another twist is there is a horse privy mark placed on the edge of some 2014 Britannia coins that do show Britannia. A privy mark is an honor mark, usually small in nature, that is added to certain coins. It is very unusual for the privy mark to appear on the edge.
The privy Britannia started with the Year of the Snake.
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