Silver offers protection — As mentioned earlier, investors flock to precious metals in times of uncertainty. When political and economic uncertainty is rife, legal tender tends to be supplanted by assets like gold and silver.
While both gold and silver bullion can appeal to investors, the white metal tends to be overlooked in favor of investors in gold, despite the fact that it serves the same function. Silver bullion is a finite tangible asset.
Since physical silver is so valuable, it won’t crash completely, despite its vulnerability to market fluctuations, said Chris Duane, an investor and YouTube personality. He liquidates his assets and puts the cash into silver bullion when prices fall. He believes that our money system, and our whole way of life, are based on unsustainable debt, and that the reason to invest in silver bullion and the silver market is to avoid the mathematically inevitable collapse of that system.
The white metal is not only less expensive and therefore more accessible to buy than gold bullion, but it’s also more versatile to spend. Because of its lower value, silver coins are easier to break than gold coins, just as an ounce of gold bullion can be a challenge to divide. As a result, silver is more practical and versatile than physical gold, making silver investment more attractive.
Because the white metal is worth approximately one-quarter the price of gold, buying silver is affordable and in bull markets, silver has historically outperformed the gold price. GoldSilver claims that silver rose 448 percent in the past decade, while gold rose 166 percent in the same period.
An investor could hedge his bets with silver in their investment portfolio. Silver has a long history of being used as legal tender, giving it a sense of security. Many people feel safe knowing that this precious metal has been valued throughout the ages, and so they feel confident it will endure while a fiat currency might fall by the wayside.
When individuals invest in physical silver, whether that is by purchasing a silver bar, pure silver, a coin, or other means, there is a sense of security that its value has and will continue to exist.
Silver offers anonymity. Whether you value privacy or not, silver offers the same advantages as cash in that it offers a degree of anonymity when spending. As Glenn Greenwald argues in his TED Talk, not everyone wants to make all of their transactions public records. Privacy is a crucial part of democracy. This is another plus for investors who want to buy silver bullion.