Today silver bars are so much more than just that, a silver bar. Mints still produce silver bars in the 100 oz and above category for industry and investment banks, but we can see an ever increasing supply of high premium collectors and private market silver bars. This of course is contrary to original idea of silver bars, which was to provide a low cost and easy to handle format for selling and shipping silver in large volumes. Silver products which was sold to prices far above spot was earlier reserved for collators artefacts, silver jewellery, and household silver items.
Now silver bars has invaded the turf of collectors coins and rounds. This is why it is so important to make sure you buy silver bars that are generic - without any numismatic value - when you buy silver for pure investment purposes.
Remember that as soon as you start buying collectors items the investment game changes. Although you most likely will get a return on the collectors silver bar, equal to the spot price of silver that day, you might still see your invested premium in the “collectors item” fly out the window as you liquidate you silver. This is because numismatic items might follow a different demand & supply curve than the ordinary silver spot price.
So, what are ordinary silver bars without numismatic value? Here are some examples:
Geiger Edelmetalle: This mint is located in Leipzig, Germany, and it produces low premium 1 oz silver bars to 100 oz silver bars. They also produce silver bars in grams, according to the metric standard.
Sunshine Minting. This mint has production facilities in both the US and China. They produce amongst other silver products, low premium generic silver bars.
Johnson Matthey. Amongst many other things, this company mines and refines silver and gold. They have production facilities in both the US and Canada.
Silver bars from all the companies above can be bought through all the major precious metal dealers online such as APMEX, KITCO, Provident Metals, etc.
