How to buy silver
Posted 14th March 2010 at 02:35 AM by Andyhenry
You may not be aware of the fact that not all silver is the same. Some silver is good, while other silver is bad. Obviously, the purer the silver, the more valuable and the more precious it is. You should know that there is a standard "sterling" which determines the purity of silver. If your silver is sterling that means that it has 92.5 percent of actual silver and the other 7.5 percent are other metals used to harden the silver so that it is possible to make things out of it.
At its purest, 99.9 percent, silver is too soft and too fragile to make anything. That is why people add copper and other metals to make the precious metal a little harder. Sterling silver is considered good silver, but how do you now that your silver is good?
There are a couple of things you can do to determine the quality of your silver.
1-Check the stamps.
Most of the companies providing silver to you will stamp it to prove to you that the silver is sterling. Somewhere on the silver you're purchasing there is going to be the word "sterling" written on it. It is usually stamped or engraved in the metal. When you see that word, then chances are that your silver is good quality. Of course it is very easy to forge those stamps so that stamps alone are not enough for you to be 100 percent certain.
2-Certificates.
If a company is a reputable company, they will provide you with a certificate that will give you the actual weight of the silver and its purity to provide you with some kind of proof that what you're getting is actually good. Of course, those documents are very easy to falsify as well, so the fact that you have a certificate does not matter that you are not being duped.
The best thing you can do is to have a strategy when you purchase silver from someone new. The first thing is to buy a little bit of silver, literally just a couple of ounces, and then go and check it with a professional. Go to a professional that will tell you what the actual purity of the silver is, and if you are satisfied with what you find out, you can come back to your original seller and buy more from them. Obviously, at this point you don't want to fork out everything you have and just buy everything. Instead, buy a little more and check that batch as well. Just go back to your expert and check the purity of the silver again.
This way you will make sure that you are not being given a different type of silver than what you have bought previously. After you are happy with what you have received, you can go back the third time and buy even more silver. This time you can be pretty sure that what you will get is a high-quality silver and feel confident spending more on that purchase.
Andy Henry is the author of 'Now Invest In Silver' a beginners guide to investing in silver and the owner of http://www.nowinvestinsilver.com and http://www.sellingyoursilver.com the new auction site dedicated to silver buying and selling.
At its purest, 99.9 percent, silver is too soft and too fragile to make anything. That is why people add copper and other metals to make the precious metal a little harder. Sterling silver is considered good silver, but how do you now that your silver is good?
There are a couple of things you can do to determine the quality of your silver.
1-Check the stamps.
Most of the companies providing silver to you will stamp it to prove to you that the silver is sterling. Somewhere on the silver you're purchasing there is going to be the word "sterling" written on it. It is usually stamped or engraved in the metal. When you see that word, then chances are that your silver is good quality. Of course it is very easy to forge those stamps so that stamps alone are not enough for you to be 100 percent certain.
2-Certificates.
If a company is a reputable company, they will provide you with a certificate that will give you the actual weight of the silver and its purity to provide you with some kind of proof that what you're getting is actually good. Of course, those documents are very easy to falsify as well, so the fact that you have a certificate does not matter that you are not being duped.
The best thing you can do is to have a strategy when you purchase silver from someone new. The first thing is to buy a little bit of silver, literally just a couple of ounces, and then go and check it with a professional. Go to a professional that will tell you what the actual purity of the silver is, and if you are satisfied with what you find out, you can come back to your original seller and buy more from them. Obviously, at this point you don't want to fork out everything you have and just buy everything. Instead, buy a little more and check that batch as well. Just go back to your expert and check the purity of the silver again.
This way you will make sure that you are not being given a different type of silver than what you have bought previously. After you are happy with what you have received, you can go back the third time and buy even more silver. This time you can be pretty sure that what you will get is a high-quality silver and feel confident spending more on that purchase.
Andy Henry is the author of 'Now Invest In Silver' a beginners guide to investing in silver and the owner of http://www.nowinvestinsilver.com and http://www.sellingyoursilver.com the new auction site dedicated to silver buying and selling.
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