# What is the best way to invest in Gold and Silver **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 4, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170 "2011-04-04T18:02:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170/81 "2012-03-05T16:58:04Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I strongly suggest that you invest in something other than coins if you are buying precious metals as an investment. The markup on coins is usually quite high. What medium would you suggest? In other words, say a reasonably sane investor who has a good, solid amount of capital (for the sake of argument, over $10,000,000) wants to put, say, 2% of their assets into physical gold (not EFTs–that’s a whole other kettle of fish) as a hedge. What would most reasonable financial professionals say one should buy? American Eagles? Canadian Gold Leafs? Bars? (Yes, I realize most financial professionals would say don’t buy it at all. Foregoing that, what would the best course of action be?) I’m assuming here that the hypothetical sane investor wants to remove all “collectable” value from the equation and focus on the gold itself as a raw commodity. What is the most efficient way to do this? ---
**Author:** ![Trom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170/82 "2012-03-05T17:20:31Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > What medium would you suggest? > > In other words, say a reasonably sane investor who has a good, solid amount of capital (for the sake of argument, over $10,000,000) wants to put, say, 2% of their assets into physical gold (not EFTs–that’s a whole other kettle of fish) as a hedge. What would most reasonable financial professionals say one should buy? American Eagles? Canadian Gold Leafs? Bars? (Yes, I realize most financial professionals would say don’t buy it at all. Foregoing that, what would the best course of action be?) > > I’m assuming here that the hypothetical sane investor wants to remove all “collectable” value from the equation and focus on the gold itself as a raw commodity. What is the most efficient way to do this? Why dismiss ETFs? GLD or SLV are fine instruments that do a great job tracking gold and silver. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170/83 "2012-03-05T18:27:13Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > I spent over twenty years in the military and I still never found a good way to effectively use lots of small arms simultaneously… Think big! You’ll need to be arming all your sister-wives. And all those kids in the compound–until the males hit puberty & are turned out to the howling wastes… ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170/84 "2012-03-09T15:27:22Z")
> [@Trom](#): > > Why dismiss ETFs? GLD or SLV are fine instruments that do a great job tracking gold and silver. Investing in gold is more fetishistic than commercial equities or debt instruments. One of the appeals of gold as an investment is that it cuts out the intermediaries that are necessary for most other investment-class places to sink your money. If I’m going to invest in something that is statistically going to lose money in the long run, that 2% of my haul is going in wholeheartedly. Pascal’s wager and all that. Along those lines, the very well-written Wiki article on gold as an investment makes a very good case for bars, since there is a smaller markup on bars from the melt value of the metal (though there is the pesky problem of having to re-assay them for sale). I don’t buy the world-collapsing theories earlier in this thread that gold coins would be easier to spend; no matter how bad it gets, humanity is not going to return to feudalism. Gold is gold. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170/85 "2012-03-09T15:44:51Z")
So did the op buy or not? If he did, he’s up about $275/oz at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![Rich\_G7subs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85e7bf/32.png) [@Rich\_G7subs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rich_G7subs)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170/86 "2012-03-09T15:50:18Z")
> [@MrFloppy](#): > > I’m thinking of buying silver and/or gold for a long term investment - 10+ years. > > I’m looking at physical ownership rather than ETFs. Possibly Canadian Maple Leaf Silver coins which are 99.99% pure. > > If you had $500 per month to invest in silver/gold, how would you do it? > > Is now a good time? My dad’s been doing well buying US silver dimes and quarters on Ebay. If you know the up to the minute value of silver you can do pretty well. Of course you’d have to factor in the shipping costs. ---
**Author:** ![Safe\_Money\_Tony](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Safe\_Money\_Tony](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Safe_Money_Tony)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170/87 "2012-05-19T22:28:58Z")
Depends upon your goals. I don’t really look at gold or silver as an investment, but rather as a saving vehicle hedging against inflation of currency. If you protecting against a SHTF scenario. Some junk silver is in order. (these are older US coins of 90% silver.) These would become money if there is a currency collapse. Junk silver is not an option for tax qualified money. The cheapest way to buy is to buy .999 pure bullion. The larger the weight the cheaper by the ounce. If you are using a tax qualified plan such as an IRA, you need to have a custodian to store your bullion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-way-to-invest-in-gold-and-silver/577170.md?page=4)