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Silver Back to Bullion Index Home

Often considered the 'poor man's gold', silver's history as a monetary metal is as rich as its more expensive counterpart, even outshining the yellow metal in some societies.

Find out all you need to know about silver bullion and how it could prove to be the ideal investment for you.

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800 silver

800 silver refers to a silver alloy that is 80% pure. Pure silver is very soft and easily damaged, so for most practical purposes silver is mixed (alloyed) with other metals in order to strengthen it. 800 silver is one of many different silver alloys, but is not commonly found …

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Amount of silver in the world

Silver is much more commonly found on Earth than gold, platinum or palladium, which is one of the reasons its price is lower than these precious metals. It is estimated that 1.74 million metric tons of silver has been discovered to date, but the amount of silver in the world …

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Best ways to invest in silver coins

Having made the decision to invest in silver coins, you could find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices available. Mints from across the globe produce a number of annual silver bullion coins, and the choice you make could affect how much you pay for your coin, and how …

British silver coins

Silver has been used for coinage since the Roman denarius and was introduced into Britain during the coin reforms of Charlemagne. As a lower price alternative to gold, silver has remained a popular part of Britain’s coinage to this day, with silver bullion and proof coins still highly sought after. …

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Density of silver

The density of silver is most commonly stated as 10.49 grams per cubic centimetre. This makes it less dense than Gold, which is one of the densest elements at 19.32 grams per cubic centimetre. The density difference means that an ounce of gold would be almost half the size of …

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How is the price of silver set?

The Silver Spot Price is the ever changing market price for silver bought or sold on the Silver Commodity Exchanges for immediate payment and delivery. It is determined by the price of Silver Futures Contracts, and is also used as a guideline for what price to set on physical silver …

How to clean tarnished silver

You may be surprised, and possibly amazed, at the effects of cleaning tarnished silver pieces. What may appear to be pure scrap can instead be transformed into a prized possession. It should be noted however that cleaning old collectable coins could negatively affect the value of your item. We'd recommend …

How to invest in silver

Silver is the second-most popular precious metal to invest in, and 2021 saw a lot of new interest in this alternative asset. Many new investors will be asking themselves how to invest in silver though. There a few different ways to invest in silver, but BullionByPost we believe physical silver …

How to tell if something is silver

There are numerous manufacturing methods that give a silver or mirror-like appearance to an object without the use of any real silver. Silver has a relatively high value, and as such many people might come across items and wonder how to tell if it is silver. This is particularly important …

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Junk silver

Junk silver is an expression used by coin collectors to describe a silver coin that has limited value as an investment coin, and no value as a numismatic piece. Junk silver coins are ultimately more valuable as scrap metal than as collectable items. They will often have 90% (900 fineness) …

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Largest silver mine in Australia

The largest silver mine in Australia is the Cannington underground mine in north-west Queensland. It is Australia's largest dedicated silver producer. As well as producing silver, Cannington also excavates lead and zinc. It is owned by South32, which is a newly formed division of previous owners BHP Billiton. A feasibility …

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Melting point of silver

The melting point of pure silver is 961.8 degrees Celsius (Centigrade) and 1,763.24 degrees Fahrenheit. Though silver has nowhere near the highest melting point on the periodic table, it is still relatively high. This resistance to heat is key to a number of silver’s uses in the electrical and mechanical …

Milk spots on silver coins

We are often asked about milk spots on silver coins: What are they? Do they affect a coin's value? Can they be removed? Milk spots are marks that appear on the surface of a silver coin. The white or off-white colouring bears a resemblance to milk – hence the name. …

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Silver facts

With its greater abundance and lower value, silver can often get overlooked in comparison to gold. Silver has a huge number of uses across a wide range of industries however, and is fascinating in its own right. Many of the silver facts below are why silver is so useful, and …

Silver Fix

The term ‘Silver Fix’, refers to the old benchmark used for the trading of silver bars, silver coins, and other silver assets across the world. For more than a hundred years, major players in the silver industry would hold a conference every day, at 12 noon GMT, in which they …

Silver futures

Silver futures contracts, more simply referred to as silver futures, are binding contracts to buy and sell silver at an agreed price on an agreed date. Silver futures are traded in large-scale, high volume amounts of silver, and are used for hedging by manufacturers, or for speculating by traders. Someone …

Silver hallmark date letters

If you own old silver jewellery or antiques, then silver hallmark date letters offer the best way to work out when your item was assayed, and a rough guide to when it was made. While not needed as part of the valuation process for scrap silver, the date letter hallmark …

Silver hallmarks

For anyone looking to sell scrap jewellery and antiques, silver hallmarks are a vital way to know exactly what they have, and how much it might be worth. A British hallmark is a legal mark that is punched or moulded into items manufactured using precious metals. The precious metal indicated …

Silver mining

Silver mining is a huge business, producing tonnes of ore to be refined, and sold to the multiple industries that use this precious metal. Silver mining is rarely the sole goal of any single company or mine however, as discussed below. Silver ore rarely exists as pure nuggets. It is …

Silver price during recession

Recessions mark the start of financial uncertainty, and can lead to long-term economic depression. As a safe haven asset, silver's price during a recession can move significantly and quickly. It is fair to say that generally the silver price goes up during a recession, but past trends also don’t necessarily …

Silver Price Forecast 2020

Will silver be a good investment in 2020? Read our silver price forecast for 2020 below to find out. A useful place to start for the 2020 silver forecast is to look at how silver performed in 2019. The silver price started 2019 at £12.11 per ounce, reached a low …

Silver Prices Forecast

Although silver is far cheaper than gold, the buying and selling of the precious metal can still be profitable. As with any asset, selling at a higher price than you paid is the aim. For silver this is best achieved by making a long-term investment in the metal, but with …

Silver Sovereign

We often get asked about the silver Sovereign. Customers often believe they possess such a coin, or enquire about purchasing one, but in truth there is no such thing as a silver Sovereign, or at the very least not one issued by the UK. The only official UK Sovereign coins …

Silver standard

The silver standard was a monetary system, based on the precious metal silver. As one of the oldest and most commonly used metals in currency, silver was an obvious choice for the standard, but disadvantages meant that many countries soon turned to the gold standard instead. It is because of …

Silver Thursday

‘Silver Thursday’ is the most infamous day in modern history for silver investors. The day in question refers specifically to Thursday 27th March, 1980. The Hunt brothers – Nelson Bunker Hunt, William Herbert Hunt, and Lamar Hunt - had purchased enough physical and paper silver to effectively corner the market. …

Solid silver

A commonly asked question is “What is Solid silver?” When talking about bullion and coins, the terms purity, quality, fineness, and solid silver sometimes get interchanged. It's also a common phrase to hear when talking about jewellery and antiquities, and can occasionally be misused or misunderstood. Technically speaking, for something …

Sterling Silver

Anyone dealing in antiquities, jewellery, and older British coins, will almost certainly have heard the term Sterling Silver at one time or another. Here in the UK, Sterling Silver has become ubiquitous with many silver products, and as the name would suggest, it's history is firmly routed in Britain. What …

Sterling Silver vs Silver

Silver and Sterling Silver are sometimes confused and used interchangeably, but they are different; with a different purity, varying uses, and most importantly for investors – are not worth the same. What are the differences however of silver vs Sterling Silver? Pure silver is too soft and malleable for most …

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Types of silver

There are many different types of silver. This is because pure 100% silver is soft and malleable. For most practical applications silver is mixed or alloyed with other harder metals, typically copper. Different types of silver are therefore defined by the type and amount of other metal used in the …

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Uses of silver

Silver is not just a popular metal for bullion investment, it is also one of the most useful metals in human history and in the world today. It is the numerous uses of silver that keep its demand high, and with electronics only becoming more integral to everyday life silver …

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What is the cheapest way to buy silver?

If you have decided to invest in Silver - read more on why buying silver is a good idea - then one of the next questions you’re likely to ask yourself is what is the cheapest way to buy silver? Buying cheap silver means making the most money when you …

What is the chemical symbol for silver?

The chemical symbol for silver is Ag, coming from the Latin word for silver – Argentum . Interestingly, it is the same root word for the French word argent , which means both silver and money, telling us a lot about the historical affinity between wealth and precious metals. The …

Where is silver found?

Silver can be found all over the world, but is generally concentrated around volcanic and hydrothermal activity. Silver is rarely found in pure form – be it nuggets, lodes or placer deposits – but as alloys, mineral deposits, or in trace amounts of other ores. As such, silver mining is …

Why are silver premiums so high?

One of the most common questions for investors looking at silver is why the premiums are so high compared to other precious metals. If we take a look at an ounce of each metal at the time of writing, the premium above spot price for a 1oz bar of each …

Will the value of silver increase?

The main concern of any investor before parting with their hard-earned money is whether or not their investment will offer a good return. Of course the difficulty is that all assets are prone to rise and fall in value as external forces make them more or less desirable. Many investors …