The precious metals silver and gold are sought-after investments, especially in times of crisis and when the stability of the monetary value is declining. But the value of this form of investment is also supported by the fact that gold and silver are needed for a wide variety of industrial purposes. And if you buy silver in its pure and raw form as silver bars, you are actually holding a value in your hand that corresponds to that of the metal.

Buy silver as bars, coins or jewelry

Even with coins, you pay a surcharge for the processing of the metal, the minting, and with jewelry, the processing surcharge often significantly exceeds the value of the silver. You will not get this surcharge back when you resell the silver or gold piece, as the manufacturing effort is lost when the metal is recycled. Silver bars are a cheap alternative when compared to other forms of trading of the precious metal. This is especially true for cast bars, as they represent the rawest form of the pure metal and require the least possible effort to produce. As with most other metals , bars have been the usual form in which the raw metal has been traded and stored since time immemorial. One of the few exceptions is mercury, which is liquid in its pure form at room temperature. There are also some rare but industrially important metals whose melting point is so high that the energy required to cast bars is too high. These precious metals are stored in powder form and are therefore quite unsuitable as investments.

The word bars are usually associated with large blocks of metal weighing over 10 kg, which are used, particularly as gold bars , by national banks and international precious metal dealers and can sometimes be seen in films. Such bars are standardized for international trade in precious metals under the name “Good Delivery” by the London Bullion Market Association. This standard prescribes a weight of 400 ounces for a gold bar and around 1000 ounces for silver. Converted into kilograms, this corresponds to almost 12.5 kg for gold, but 31 kg for silver. Despite their greater weight, the prices for silver bars are lower because the price for 1 gram of silver is significantly lower than that for a gram of gold. For private investors, such voluminous silver bars are only suitable for large investment amounts. And not just because of their high weight and size, but also because a single Good Delivery silver bar is equivalent to the price of a mid-range car.

Handy silver bars and prices

The large Good Delivery bars are not the only form in which pure silver is processed into bars. Kilo bars, half kilos and quarter kilos are typical sizes for trading silver as an investment object. Small bars weighing one gram are sometimes worn as jewelry in this form. The big advantage of this product is that you have 100 individual pieces conveniently packaged and, unlike with a bar, you don't have to break off a piece; the pieces are already there. Each bar has the weight unit and the fineness stamped on it.