Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 1: Introduction

Known for centuries as “Poor Man’s Gold”, silver has been used as a currency base as far back as ancient Greece. Since 4000B.C, it was regarded by the Aegeans as a sign of wealth when they began separating it from lead. During the course of the last 6000 thousand years, it had been used for coins, jewelry and more. It was the currency standard adopted for many world currencies until the last 200 hundred years. Many ancient empires and merchants had also used silver as a storehouse for wealth much like gold. The origin of the phrase “to give change” most probably originated from the use of silver to swap for other metals of the same value like gold.

Because it is easy to purchase silver in small quantities, silver actually provides a good storehouse for wealth as well. It might not be as compact as gold as a store of wealth but then again it serves this function equally well. Silver is also less expensive than gold and thus this makes silver a good substitute as an investment choice in a precious metal without a capital outlay as large as for gold.

Another reason why silver is a good investment is that it also has a healthy industrial demand. Thus, its price is a true reflection of the laws of supply and demand at work. Gold, on the other hand, is stockpiled by all the major central banks in the world, a remnant of the gold standard. If this stockpile is released into the open market, the price of gold will be eroded greatly as there is only investment demand for this precious metal unlike silver.

Investing in silver is an easier task than investing in other precious metals. This is because it is cheaper to purchase .Literally speaking; you can purchase silver for just a few dollars. There also numerous dealers dealing with silver.

In addition, silver as an investment has long been ignored as a precious metal investment and as a storehouse of wealth. Most investors tend to focus on Gold or Platinum. Although the price of silver follows that of the markets like gold or other precious metals, it is less prone to severe fluctuations and it is cheaper. Furthermore, the smaller fluctuations can also lead to stronger percentage gains. 

This is chapter number 1 out of 15. Read the rest:

Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 2: Starting out as a Silver Investor
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 3: Silver as an Investment Vehicle
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 4: Methods of investing in Silver
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 5: Investing in Silver Bars
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 6: Silver Coinage as an Investment
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 7: Silver in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 8: Silver Mining Stocks
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 9: Silver Mutual Funds
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 10: Silver Futures
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 11: Silver Certificates
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 12: Comparison between various forms of Investment in Silver
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 13: Investment in Silver versus Gold
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 14: How to invest in Silver
Read Guide to Investing in Silver – Chapter 15: Conclusion