Bars vs kilo coins vs ounces

[Guest]

Quick question. If your budget was in the 500 to 600 GBP, would you rather go for a bar, a kilo coin or multiples of ounces? 

And why?

Thanks 

[greenrizz]

Personally I would avoid large bars and coins. They are hard to resell in my experience. Also if you have multiple ounce coins and you need to free up some cash but dont want to sell a kilo, you have the added flexibility. Also something to consider - if the silver price went up considerably, would you be able to find a buyer quickly? Just something to think about [emoji41][emoji9][emoji38]

[Lea79]

Depends on your exit strategy.  If your just gonna sell em to a bullion dealer then bars coz they're cheaper and your focusing more on weight.

If you want the most growth on your investment then semi numismatic 1oz coins like pandas, kooks, lunars or Rwanda.  It's a pain in the arse to sell them all individually, in sets or in bulk but in my opinion they appreciate more over time than bars.  You will get less oz's for your money but should b worth it in the end.

I have a mix just so I can cash some in quick if I need to.

[KDave]

Coins are a better bet as you get flexibility and can get more money when selling them individually if you wish, but you can also just lump sell them for spot if a quick sale is needed. It is a hassle selling them a coin at a time as others have said, not to mention posting them as such, serious investing would require some later serious logistical planning.

I bought kilo bars as my core as they are compact and easy to store, no fear of getting them scratched or milking all over the place, and the size is right for posting to a dealer or customer one at a time. Ideal for what I wanted, a spot investment that was liquid and easy to move. 

That said, Kilo bars can take longer to shift unless you just want spot for them, but personally I have had no issues selling a few bars for dealers prices when I had to recently. I have a few kilos left but will probably be buying low premium coins on the next order for the flexibility they offer and because storage space is no longer such an issue. Coin tubes do take up a lot of room though.

Coins can also offer a kind of premium insurance if you get the collectable ones for near spot like the lunars, as they can often go up in price even if spot falls, but you will get less ounces for you money if you got this route. Not a quick answer sorry but there you go 

[Pete]

I still struggle with the interest in poured bars ( or bricks as I like to describe them ) especially when priced per ounce the same or sometimes higher than coins.

There was a time a few years ago when the VAT in Germany on bars was 19% whereas it was only 7% on coins and then someone came up with with idea of a coin bar to use the lower rate of VAT. Why anyone would purchase a boring block of metal at a higher price beggars belief.

The best way to value bullion is by weight and if you have 32 x 1 Oz coins then effectively you have a kilo of silver.
Having the fractional one ounce coins gives you more options for selling than a kilo bar.

If you have never handled a kilo Kookaburra or similar coin then you will have a smile on your face when you do.

[rebnah]

I have had plenty of 1kg bars and in my view the fastest sellers are Metalor bars. To my knowledge have never been faked either.

If you look on eBay they always have bids on them Between £550-£600 I even sold one on there once for £700 (pure luck)

Best price per ounce too!

The kilo coins look and feel amazing but I have found them hard to shift.

If I was to buy coins I would get a tube of Silver Britannia's. You can pick them up at a good price from the sellers abroad and you can usually sell at a profit.

Another option is to mix it up a little with maybe a sovereign and a couple of 10oz silver bars?

But as said above it really depends on your own goals?

Are you a flipper, collector or in it for the long haul?

 

 

 

[Scuzzle]

I'm switching more to 5 and 10oz coins, they fit that middle ground perfectly, if you need cash it's just a case of selling one coin, they are not so expensive that they alienate most buyers and you get a worthwhile amount when you sell one.

[Pete]

14 hours ago, Scuzzle said:

I'm switching more to 5 and 10oz coins, they fit that middle ground perfectly, if you need cash it's just a case of selling one coin, they are not so expensive that they alienate most buyers and you get a worthwhile amount when you sell one.

These are great coins to hold and admire or show friends but when selling is there really any difference in your experience selling a 5 oz single coin vs a bunch of 5 x 1 oz coins ?
Ditto with the 10oz coin ?

[Scuzzle]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

These are great coins to hold and admire or show friends but when selling is there really any difference in your experience selling a 5 oz single coin vs a bunch of 5 x 1 oz coins ?
Ditto with the 10oz coin ?

You do cut your risk of milk spoting harming the premium slightly, for some reason my 5 and 10 ounce coins don't spot anywhere near as badly as 1oz ones, coming from new in a capsule rather than a mint tube makes a difference possibly.

[Guest]

19 hours ago, Lea79 said:

Depends on your exit strategy.  If your just gonna sell em to a bullion dealer then bars coz they're cheaper and your focusing more on weight.

 

 

17 hours ago, rebnah said:

I have had plenty of 1kg bars and in my view the fastest sellers are Metalor bars. To my knowledge have never been faked either.

 

Are you a flipper, collector or in it for the long haul?

 

 

 

I'm definitely not a flipper and I would look to sell to a bullion dealer just in case. I was thinking of investing in bars because they are compact. I have a few tubes of different one ounce coins and now they start taking a lot of space. So in theory bars would be the best. The thing that puts me off is: how would the bullion deal know that the bar is genuine? With coins, you can always measure them and weight them, but bars need to be cut to be 100% sure, correct me if I'm wrong. 

If someone forges a bar, and then stamps a big "Metalor", how would they know it's a real Metalor? 

[KDave]

5 minutes ago, savoyard said:

 

I'm definitely not a flipper and I would look to sell to a bullion dealer just in case. I was thinking of investing in bars because they are compact. I have a few tubes of different one ounce coins and now they start taking a lot of space. So in theory bars would be the best. The thing that puts me off is: how would the bullion deal know that the bar is genuine? With coins, you can always measure them and weight them, but bars need to be cut to be 100% sure, correct me if I'm wrong. 

If someone forges a bar, and then stamps a big "Metalor", how would they know it's a real Metalor? 

Metalor have a tacky certificate with them that helps prove authenticity but if someone was determined enough that could be faked too. Dealers would know if its real so if you are buying and selling only to them there is nothing to worry about.

Coin bars are cheaper but not as popular, these are sealed in with their certificate and are easy to store (I have a few of them they stack well )

https://www.silver-to-go.com/en/silver-coins/fiji-coin-bars/1-kilo-fiji-coin-bar-silver-argor-heraeus/

I am not saying to buy from Silver to go for them though, they are definitely not the cheapest dealer of bars, this is just an example of what I am talking about. Mine are cook island coin bars but its the same mint that made them and same principles apply.

[KDave]

Also I agree with Rebnah the best bars I had in terms of liquidity and sale price were metalor kilo's. 

[rebnah]

The great thing with the Metalors is there nice and fat so not to huge. Their also a cloudy finish so you can handle them as much as you like without the dreaded white gloves lol.

Nothing better than having a good hold of a real bar in bare hands without any protective wrapping.

I even use one as a door stop lol

If you want one I'm sure I could move one of mine on.

just pm if your interested mate

[vand]

I'm gonna be conventional and say just get some 1oz coins.  They're much more interesting than bars imo, command lower premium if you buy them from the right place, and offer the best risk/reward in terms of potential premium growth.

Bars make more sense for US buyers looking to maximize their ounces.

[sixgun]

To start with i think a silver stacker is best off getting some decent 1oz coins. I would get Perth Mint Lunars with weights around 1/2oz - 2oz. The 1/2oz and 2oz coins tend to show more appreciation after a few years especially if that year was a lower mintage. The 1oz coins are invariably hitting maximum mintages these days.

The Perth coins are good quality. They rarely spot and they come in a capsule.

I would tag onto the joint purchase that is going on with goldsilver.be on the selling section so you can cut down on the postage a bit. Alternatively just pick up coins on the selling section. You will end up with a bigger variety and may well get a lower overall price in the end.  

When you have collected enough smaller coins, then start looking at bigger coins to make up a full set of Lunars. Then progress to bars to bump the weight of your stack. Remember if and when silver prices rises a 1kg bar [32oz] @$50/oz is $1600 - don't imagine the current bargain prices for silver are going to last indefinitely. 

If you are getting bars i would keep my eyes peeled for something a bit different/vintage. You will likely pay a bit more but an older bar, something where the bar is no longer made or the maker has disappeared give the bar more collector potential. If you aim to keep the bar a long time, bars for example like the Engelhard were once basic bullion but are now highly sought after, so try to think ahead.

[lightjaw]

I changed how i invest this year, and now i only buy 1kg silver bars and the odd silver coin and smaller bar for fun. My reason for doing this is because i like to hold them in my hands, and really wouldnt want to do that with a kg coin.

The price difference in buying a kg coin or bar from STG is so minimal when you factor in delivery, that i often pay the extra couple of quid just to be able to get the bar sooner from a UK dealer.

My exit strategy is to have 20 kg bars to just sell to a dealer at the rate of one per year in retirement. It will pay for christmas at least. For a more regular income, i still am planning to be able to sell a full or half sov a month for 20 years as a nice little top up in retirement. So far i am about 6 years out of 20 years done. This, on top of the government pension, my two company pensions and my private pension will give me about 20k a year to live on. Hardly amazing, but for me thats the goal. 

[silversky]

On ‎10‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 23:02, savoyard said:

Quick question. If your budget was in the 500 to 600 GBP, would you rather go for a bar, a kilo coin or multiples of ounces? 

And why?

Thanks 

I would buy a 2016 Kilo Lunar Monkey.  The premium if bought from Belgium is around 19% on spot right now but you may be able to find a cheaper one in Germany somewhere.  Not too bad if you consider it simply as weight.  Buying a bar you'll pay more because they can't offer the dealers margin scheme on vat for bars although you will occasionally see second hand vat exempt deals in the UK but they typically still charge more than 20% on spot.  Buying the cheapest bullion 1oz coins (ie kangaroo's) the premium is around 15%. The only advantage of buying Britannia's would be for capital gains tax but you are not going to ever make more than your annual allowance with that size of investment so forget any thoughts about that.  The kilo monkey has the third lowest mintage in the 1 kg coin size for the lunar series 2.  Although they typically mint around 100 more a year of each of these coins in the series they are very unlikely to increase it's numbers significantly.  That means the monkey will very likely remain the third lowest mintage in that series when it draws to a close in 2 years time.  Therefore in a few more years time it may (repeat may) have an increase of way more in value based solely on it being a rarer one in the series.  A small extra to pay now the difference between cheapest 1oz at 15% or 19% for something with possible numismatic value.  Good luck in your decision.

http://www.free-bullion-investment-guide.com/australian-lunar-silver-coin-1-kilo.html

This is exactly the same data for mintages as in the Perth Mint pdf but easier to read.

The rooster currently shows much lower mintage than the Monkey but it always looks like this every year because of when the list is updated.  They are only showing how many have been minted in the very early part of the year which will obviously have changed when march 2018 rolls around.  The monkey large coins 10oz and 1kg  were halted last year because of excessive demand for the new 1oz kangaroos hence their low mintage numbers.  The rooster will almost certainly have more than the Monkey by the time it is updated again around march 2018 hence why I would recommend getting one if you are going to go down the big coin road.  It also looks amazing when you hold it in your hand(in it's protective capsule)