Investment Grade Silver: What Is It?

By Jeffrey Carner


What exactly is investment grade silver, and how does this designation have an effect on the cost of this metal? Investment grade silver simply refers to the truth that the silver product is designed to meet the requirements of silver traders, and the genuine purity level that is found with these items can differ greatly. For a few investors junk silver coins are great because these products can often be located close to spot price. These coins may contain between 35% and 90% pure silver, yet they are called junk coins because they are not 0.999 pure as long as silver content goes.

For most traders the word investment grade silver only refers to silver coins, bars, and also other products that offer a purity level of either 0.999 or 0.9999. These kinds of items are almost totally created from real silver and may cost greater than the market value because of the premium and other extra costs that might be involved in the transaction. It's not difficult to find real silver products that meet these levels though, and they're available all over the Web and at local precious metal sellers.

Most traders like pure silver coins and bars because these products don't need any kind of intricate computations. When a product contains below 0.999 silver then the market price for silver will have to be divided by the purity level of the product to determine the actual value that a product has. If a silver coin is 90% silver then it needs to have a spot price that is 90% of the silver spot price. Coins that are 40% pure are just worth 40% of the market price.

Investment grade silver gives assurance because the investor knows that they're having high quality silver products that reflect a value appropriate for the price paid. Oftentimes investors may prefer standard quality silver products instead though, and this is usually due to a lesser value. If an item isn't real silver it will cost below a comparable product that is. Oftentimes scrap silver or even junk silver coins can be located for very close to the market price that silver has got. The premium is also lower on these items.

Every investor will need to figure out the lowest purity level for silver products which is acceptable. This purity level might be different with each investor, and personal preferences will play a huge thing in this decision.