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Last Edited on 08/08/2025

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Silver Bullion Buying Guide
with a list of Reputable
Silver Bullion Dealers

Silver Facts

Silver ore exists in the Earth's crust in many forms; it is found in its "native silver" elemental form as nuggets or crystals of pure silver. It also occurs naturally as an alloy with gold, known as electrum.  However, it is most commonly found alongside other metals, including copper, gold,  lead, and zinc ores.

Mexico is its leading producer of silver, followed by China, Peru, Chile, Poland, Australia, Bolivia, Russia, the United States, Kazakhstan, Argentina, and India (source).

Silver's atomic number is 47, its chemical symbol on the Periodic Chart is "Ag," the abbreviation stands for the word for silver in Latin: Argentum.

Silver has a brilliant whitish metallic luster that can take a high polish, it is the most reflective element and is used in mirrors, telescopes, microscopes, and solar cell.

Silver is the best elemental conductor of electricity. Silver serves as the benchmark for measuring other conductors. On a scale from 0 to 100, silver scores a perfect 100 in electrical conductivity. By comparison, copper ranks 97, while gold ranks 76.

Silver is the best thermal conductor among all metals. Silver paste is used in every computer; it is applied between the CPU and motherboard for its effectiveness as both an electrical and thermal conductor.  In addition, only gold is more ductile than silver; one ounce of silver can be drawn into an 8,000-foot-long wire (source).

It is estimated that silver was first used by man around 5000 BC, it is one of the oldest forms of money.  In fact, "silver" and "money" are the same in 14 different languages.

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Silver's Price and its
Surplus & Deficit

Unfortunately, deficits in the silver market are often used as a marketing scheme by some in the industry to create a sense of urgency for those interested in purchasing silver.

We all know what happens when a market runs out of something that is in strong demand, the price skyrockets until demand is met; oddly that isn't what is going on in silver's market.

The silver market is supplied by silver mining and recycled silver, which according to the Silver Institute's 2025 World Silver Survey comes from silverware, jewelry, coins (unspecified), and industrial scrap.

The first chart to the right gives you look into the silver market's surpluses and deficits over the last nine years.

The chart is from the Silver Institute's 2025 World Silver Survey (page 11), it shows that the price of silver isn't influenced much when there is a surplus or deficit in the silver market.

In the next chart (below-right) from Resource World Magazine, it shows that their is practically no correlation between the price of silver and its supply and deficits.

Those who understand the laws of supply and demand are likely scratching their heads by now.

(Note: there are some surplus/deficit discrepancies between the Resource World Magazine's chart and the other charts because the magazine's chart doesn't include coins and bars)

The chart below from The Natural Sapphire Company, shows that silver's supply has been hit with surpluses, and deficiencies since 1960.

In 1980, when the highest green bar occurs in the chart below showing silver's highest surplus, the price of silver nearly hit $50.00 an troy ounce and averaged that year $21.82 a troy ounce.

At the end of the chart below during times of deep deficits in silver's supply, the price of silver all through the 1990s was under $10.00 an troy ounce, as seen in the chart above.

According to the laws of supply and demand these occasions in the silver market shouldn't happen; when there is deficit in supply, the price of silver should rise, and when there are surpluses, the price should fall.

Either the laws of supply and demand don't pertain to silver or in the years that the silver supply was in deficit, those who needed silver found it somewhere in previous supply because there is no other way to explain how or why the price doesn't skyrocket when demand isn't met.

Price manipulation is one way that those in the silver industry conclude this issue, but it doesn't explain were the deficiencies in the silver supply are made up to meet demand.  

In addition, all the charts above come from credible sources, as is noted at the bottom of each chart (CPM Group, Silver Institute, LBMA, Bloomberg), somewhere something is not right, the question is: Where?

Answer:

Implied Unreported Silver Stocks

Source: CPM Group: Silver Bullion Inventories

The CPM Group has for years posted versions of the chart above to explain this issue with silver's price in relation to its surpluses and deficits by showing that there are billions of troy-ounces silver bullion on the secondary market. 

"Implied Unreported Silver Stocks" refers to silver bullion bars, rounds, and pre-1970 U.S. silver coins that trade on the secondary market.

In the late 1960s, the U.S. Treasury sold off its silver inventories when the U.S. Government moved away from its silver-backed currency and ended its restrictions on the sales of silver to the public and private entities.

The 1960s was a time of increased use of silver both in the coinage and in industry, putting pressure on the price of silver, which was capped at just over $1.29 per ounce by the government.

In 1963, after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the U.S. Congress authorized the silver half dollar to be changed from Benjamin Franklin to memorialize the fallen president. 

When the Kennedy half-dollar was released in 1964, the coin was so prized by the public that it was hoarded, the demand for the silver coin was so great it was seldom seen in circulation.

The increased silver demand caused the U.S. Government's storage of silver to be depleted exponentially and the government could no longer keep the price of silver under control. 

The Coinage Act of 1965 was implemented in the United States to address coin shortages caused by rising silver prices. The law eliminated silver from dimes and quarters.

From 1965 to 1970, the silver content in the half dollar was reduced from 90% to 40%; after 1970, the silver content in all half dollars was eliminated.

In addition to the billions of troy ounces of silver the United States sold off, refiners and bullion manufacturers around the world have been selling silver bullion bars and rounds since the late 1960s.

Many of this bullion  in this category of unreported silver stocks that are on the secondary market. 

To explain this a further, we'll use Engelhard bullion bars and rounds to give you an idea of how much of just their bullion is on the secondary market. 

The site All Engelhard keeps an large inventory of Engelhard silver bars and rounds, it is the ONLY site that does this on a large scale, there is no other databases for these silver bars and rounds; zero, zilch, nada; there it. 

Engelhard made silver bullion bars and rounds from the late 1960s to 1988, they produced hundreds of millions of ounces of silver bullion bars and rounds for the secondary market and All Engelhard is the only site that does any in-depth accounting for these bars and they don't account for all of the Engelhard bullion ever made.

Now, lets take this truth about Engelhard and add all the hundreds of million troy ounces of silver bullion manufactured by Johnson Matthey, Hereaus, PAMP, Degussa, Sunshine Minting, Metalor, and many other refiners and bullion manufactures. 

Fact is, nobody knows how many silver bullion bars and rounds these manufacturers made, none of these refiners and bullion manufacturers have or had databases for all the bullion they produced.  Serial numbers are placed on bars moreso as a service to the holder of the bullion to keep track of it, not the corporation who creates it.

Now, add all the silver bars and rounds on the secondary market to this scenario, in addition to all the pre-1970 U.S. silver coins also known as junk silver coins, and you come up with an incredible amount of unreported silver stock.

Furthermore, on the introduction of All Engelhard's 100oz. AG bullion bar page (below in red) is one of the likely thousands of different ways these "Implied Unreported Bullion Stocks" of silver are being taken from the secondary market and added to silver's market to meet current demand.

One last point on this issue, in the next section on silver price dynamics, you'll notice in the demand charts that bars are totaled by "Net Bar," not "Gross Bar".  Is there a supply of silver bullion bars that are not being recorded in the supply?  That is a question that I cannot answer, but it reveals that more unreported stocks are added each year to supply. 

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Demand for Silver

Silver has two roles in the markets, its primary role (55%) is as an industrial metal, which include: solar industry, chemical catalysts, electronics, and more.

Its second role (45%) is as a monetary metal fabricated in jewelry, silverware, and in coins and bars because of its beauty, durability, and it inherently holds its intrinsic value.

Monetary metals like silver and other precious metals are 'de-centralized' forms of money, they have no liabilities and they will never be worth zero.

Understanding Silver's
Pricing Dynamics

Silver's price is much more dynamic than gold because silver is an industrial and monetary metal, gold is considered solely a monetary metal because only about 10% of its market is devoted to industry.  Gold is primarily purchased as a store of wealth by individuals and Central Banks.

As previously mentioned, 55% of silver's demand is industrial, the chart to the above right shows how silver's industrial demand has been consistently rising over the last 10-years and is expected to continue to rise.

Solar Energy is one of the fastest growing industries globally, currently it consumes more than 200 million ounces of silver annually, and has been consistently growing more than 25%, year over year, since 2015.

Silver's industrial demand gives its price a floor or a base to grow upon, but it doesn't govern the movement of silver's price, its relationship with gold as a monetary metal governs its price.

Monetary metals are safe havens; they bring certainty in uncertain times. In a portfolio, they serve as a counterweight to what are considered riskier investments like stocks. Monetary metals have no counterparty risk, no liability, and they will never be worth zero.

The primary driver of a monetary metal's price is uncertainty.  In contrast, when there is a lot of certainty in the markets, monetary metals can, in some cases, like in the late 1990s, be worth less than the price to extract them from the ground. (Source: MINING.COM: How big miners are reliving the late 90’s bust: Steve Todoruk - Oct. 16,2014) 

Silver's monetary properties govern its price movement, it moves in relative fashion to gold.

This is proven in the chart below, in it, you can see that silver's price moves in similar direction to gold.  However, silver is more volatile than gold because of the size of silver's market is much smaller than many realize. 

Silver market is about $95 billion annually (source), whereas gold's market is about $5 trillion annually (source), this makes silver's price swing more than gold when large amounts of capital are added or subtracted from its market.  

The chart below is an example of silver price dynamics, it's 55% industrial demand gives it a floor; however, silver's relationship with gold as a monetary metal makes it move relative to gold, and the size of silver's market gives it more volatility.

Gold and Silver Performance Chart provided courtesy of MiningVisuals.com

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Silver Protects Purchasing Power

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Owning silver or gold is crucial as it protects an individual's "Purchasing Power" as a hedge against inflation.

The chart above offers you a glimpse into the impact of how inflation has eroded the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar; it shows that $1.00 today has the same purchasing power as 4 cents had in 1872.

How did this happen?

The U.S. dollar is the world's reserve currency, held by many governments for trade, savings, and investment purposes; it is also used by many countries to pay for imports and stabilize their own currencies.

However, the U.S. dollar is also known as a fiat currency, meaning it is not backed by a physical commodity like gold or silver.   The value of the U.S. dollar comes from trust in the stability of the U.S. Government in its ability to pay its debt and keep inflation low.

The chart above reveals that the majority of the value of the U.S. dollar was lost after it was no longer backed by gold and silver.

Before 1933, gold and silver was literally the money in American's pockets and used for everyday exchange.  Americans also used silver and gold certificates that looked like cash and were redeemable for the physical precious metal.

Under this system, the U.S. dollar was literally as good as gold to the individual, who could no longer own gold; foreign countries were the only ones who could exchange U.S. dollars for gold bullion or gold bullion for U.S. dollars.

(Note: Executive Order 6102 was overturned on December 31, 1974, when U.S. President Gerald R. Ford Jr. signed Executive Order 11825.)

On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon took the United States off the Bretton Woods system and completely separated the U.S. dollar's convertibility to gold, which eroded the value of the U.S. dollar and has ever since.

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Silver's price

The Silver price chart below, provided by GoldBroker.com, illustrates how silver has retained its purchasing power since President Nixon took the United States off the Gold Standard and silver stopped being pegged under $1.30 a troy ounce and began to be priced and traded as a commodity.

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Now that we've gone over silver's supply, demand, and its dynamic pricing, let us introduce you to one of the best barometers for knowing when it is best to buy and or sell silver.

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The Gold to Silver Ratio
a barometer for buying and selling

Silver is known as the "Poor Man's Gold", but for many of those who invest in physical silver bullion, consider Silver to be a "Smart Investment." 

The reasons behind silver's 'Poor Man's' label is this simple truth;  Silver is more abundant in earth's crust than other precious metals and is priced less.

The label doesn't devalue silver's relationship to other precious metals, it simply states the obvious, that silver is more affordable. 

For those who want to invest in silver and receive the greatest return, should pay attention to the Gold to Silver Ratio.

Interpreting
the Gold to Silver Ratio

The "Gold to Silver Ratio" represents the number of silver ounces it takes to buy one ounce of gold.

The gold-to-silver ratio serves as a barometer to help you decide when to buy or sell gold and silver.

The chart below reveals that the average or median for the gold-to-silver ratio is 62.   

Over the last 40 years, the gold-to-silver ratio has mostly been above the median. Therefore, the following is the best way to maximize returns when interpreting this ratio.

To maximize returns on gold or silver:

• buy silver when the ratio is 15 or more points above the median number
• buy gold when the ratio is near or below the median number

Chart provided courtesy of incrementum

Facts in the Ratio

The 2018 mining ratio of the Gold to Silver ratio - measures to be about 8.3 to 1. (8.3 oz. of silver mined to 1 oz. of gold mined)

In monetary comparison, from 1100 A.D. (12th Century) to 1700 A.D. (18th Century), the Gold to Silver Ratio was as low as 12 to 1; if the 12 to 1 ratio were true today, the price of silver would be over $250.00 an ounce.

Types of Physical Silver Bullion

There are many different forms of physical silver bullion that one can choose from; they include:

Silver Bullion Coins

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Other forms of Silver Bullion include:

• Pre-1970 U.S. Mint "Junk Silver" Coins (see the  Junk Silver Buying Guide for more in-depth information about these coins)
• Silver Rounds (made by numerous Private Mints & Refiners)

• Silver Bullion Bars ranging in size from 1 gram to 400 oz., by some of the following refiners: PAMP, Johnson Matthey, Engelhard, Heraeus, Sunshine Minting, Inc., etc.)
• Silver Bullion Jewelry, and Sterling Silver Jewelry & silverware

List of Reputable
Silver Bullion Dealers

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Note: As a suggestion to anyone interested in buying bullion from any one of the sites listed below, Please Read each company's ordering instructions and shipping rules carefully.

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BGASC 

(Silver Bullion link)

"BGASC" is a acronym for "Buy Gold And Silver Coins" they are a Precious Metals Dealer based in California, and is one of the largest coin and bullion dealers in the United States.
   
Buy Gold And Silver Coins.com's goal is to be the kind of dealer they've always wanted to trade with: to be in stock, ship fast, be fair & reasonable, and operate honestly and efficiently.

They are an Official PCGS Dealer, member of the Certified Coin Exchange (CCE), an NGC Collector's Society Member, and a Bulk Purchaser of United States Mint non-bullion coins.

Every single package they ship is sent fully insured for its time in transit. Customers all across the country have quickly come to recognize BGASC as one of the fastest, and most trusted online precious metals suppliers in the U.S.

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Money Metals Exchange

(Silver Bullion link)

Stefan Gleason is president of the Money Metals Exchange, which is a national precious metals investment company and news service with over 500,000 readers and 75,000 customers.

Gleason founded the company in 2010 in direct response to the abusive methods of national advertisers of collectible, and numismatic coins.

Money Metals Exchange believes the average investor should never purchase precious metals that are not priced at or near their actual melt value.

Now you can safeguard your assets from financial turmoil and the devaluing dollar – without paying costly middleman mark-ups or fending off high pressure, bait-and-switch sales tactics.

Savvy, self-reliant investors are embracing Money Metals Exchange as their trustworthy resource for gold and silver bullion.

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SilverGoldBull

(Silver Bullion link)

SilverGoldBull.com provides you with competitive, up-to-minute pricing and we make sure your precious metals are delivered to your door discreetly and fully insured.
    
SilverGold Bull's in-house customer service representatives will work to assure your satisfaction in a timely, friendly, and professional manner. Never hesitate to get in touch - building relationships with our clients is our number one priority.

If you would like to learn more about what our customers are saying about our service, please view our customer reviews (below).

SilverGoldBull has tens of thousands of satisfied customers who have taken their financial future into their own hands by investing in gold and silver.

This bullion dealer is based in Canada and offers a wide variety of precious metals bullion for you to choose from, their commitment to you is to provide extraordinary service throughout your bullion buying experience.

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Silver, Gold, and Platinum
Bullion Broker &
Storage

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Bullion Vault

The video below goes into further detail about Bullion Vault's services. 

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