Government Silver or Private Mint Silver?

I was chatting with one of the owners of GoldSeek Mint and we thought it would be interesting to run a poll to see what type of Silver bullion investors preferred? Do they like Government Silver or Private Mint Silver? Silver bullion investors are a very special bunch of people. We actually have a name for our community, “Silver Bugs”.

So it made sense that I would run this poll within the, “Silver Bugs“ group on Facebook. Precious metals investing is a very personal endeavor so I will keep all names and images private. I ran this poll for five hours within the community. I simply asked what kind of silver bullion these investors preferred, government silver or private mint silver?

Definitions-

What is Government Issue Silver-

Government issue silver is silver bullion minted by a government or for a government and denominated in local currency. Here are some examples of government issue silver coins. Did you notice that? We call government issue silver bullion, “coins”.

Here are a few government minted silver coins. They are all legal tender in their respective countries.

• One Ounce Chinese Panda = Ten Renmimbi
• One Ounce American Silver Eagle = One Dollar
• One Ounce Canada Maple Leaf = Five Dollars

As far as government issue silver I have always been a big fan and frankly according to the poll the, “SilverBugs” are also. One of the comments, “Anything gov issued close to spot price. Security and always a chance of catching a hot year and getting in on the numi money.” Let me translate that, the silver investor tries to buy government issue silver bullion at as close to the daily value of silver as they can and tries to invest in coins that also have collector value.

I personally have used this technique also. My mentor bought a few hundred Chinese Panda’s in 2009 as soon as they were available. Today’s silver value would be approximately $20 per coin but thanks to scarcity the 2009 Chinese Panda is selling for $60 retail which is a considerable amount more than the silver bullion value.

What is Private Mint Silver?

Private mint silver is silver bullion minted by a private company. This silver bullion ranges in quality from hand poured bars to high end, low mintage artistic rounds. This silver comes in all sizes and designs. Whatever an artist can conceive, can be designed. If a private mint makes silver bullion look like a coin, we call it a round.

Here are a few examples of private mint silver bullion rounds.

• Provident Metals, “Molon Labe” Silver Round.
• Apmex, “American Precious Metals Exchange” Silver Round.
• GoldSeek Mint, “Lux Mea” Silver Round.

So as you see from the poll, our “SilverBugs" have made it clear that they prefer the government issue silver coins, but don’t despair. I know that almost every silver bullion investor buys private mint silver.

My favorite aspect of private mint silver is that I get more silver for my money!

Here is a quote from one of the Silverbugs, “I’ve been into bars lately. It’s the cheapest silver I can get my hands on. The only upside I can see to government silver is that it’s legal tender. If things go bad, an Eagle will always be worth at least a dollar and a Maple Leaf will be worth five. Really though, if silver ever gets down that low, I wouldn’t be selling.”

So what it comes down to is what your personal preference is, what your buying your silver bullion for and whether or not you have trust in currency. One common answer I get concerning silver bullion is that if something happens to the currency, nobody is going to care whether the one ounce round is government silver or private mint silver. So what do you think? What kind of silver bullion are you purchasing?

Personally I buy whatever is available at the moment. If you are looking to buy some private mint silver make sure to check out the beautiful rounds available at GoldSeek Mint. GoldSeek Mint is proud to have exclusive rounds designed by Heidi Wastweet. New rounds coming very soon. Also check out the 10th Anniversary Silver Seek round which is affectionately called, “The Mantis Round” because it was designed by the founder of the SilverBug community on Facebook Darrel Head during our round design competition.

About Randy Hilarski