IF you feel you must own metals, it makes a HUGE difference what the vehicle is. Whether bullion, shares in an ETF, or shares of miners, or futures contracts. They are not well correlated. If the price of silver moves up or down, those different vehicles will/can respond in the opposite. Not only that but, they can and do respond differently to the same move in the spot price.

As someone said above "I don't consider it an investment". True story. IF/WHEN the price goes up it is usually because the value of the dollar has gone down ....so you haven't gained a thing in terms of purchasing power. You MAY have stayed flat which is better than a loss of course.

There are multiple better places to put your money and precious metals is sure not the one I would choose. IF you must buy into PM right now...the one with better ( as opposed to GOOD ) prospects is platinum.

A friendly suggestion that interested speculators do a bit of DD surrounding the supply and pricing of U308 and Cobalt... and then have a look at the TSX listed stock "UEX"
With current technology, a lithium battery cannot be produced without Cobalt which is primarily sourced in places that many companies Corporate Social Responsibility policies would disallow them from dealing with.

I am no expert, and this is not a solicitation...

The Old Man on Pawn Stars collected and hoarded a lot of silver. I once heard he has 1,000s of pounds of the stuff.

The thing is that the "markets" what will they be in any apocalypse and people may not understand what cobalt or other minerals would do for them but everyone knows silver/gold have always had value long before other currencies came along.

But so did salt

I would rather have an infinite supply of baked beans tha all the silver in the country, following an apocalyptic event!

I agree Law Dog, but honestly in a truly SHTF situation then your basic commodities with the most value would likely be ammunition and fresh water... and honestly, if you have ammunition you can always "get" the water you need.

Agree but having all can be useful for sure just don't see so much with what people don't know they need or will not understand what they have a use for or have any market for!

It seems a oz of silver would have more value then any piece of paper then.

But salt didnt withstand the test of time. Gold is the only true form of money, the rest is just an IOU.

But it could just as easily be some other commodity depending on conditions. Precious metals have no intrinsic value other than that which we assign them. We perceive them as valuable...therefore they have value.

If I had an infinite supply of baked beans I could cause an apocolypse.

I'll take a 100 rolls of TP and some slim jims over an oz of silver in a SHTF scenario lol.

And they been perceived as having value since the dawn of man and will for eternity. Well unless we start mining asteroids.

I believe gold has value because it is a noble metal and does not deteriorate over a long period of time. Plus in a societal collapse everybody will follow the golden rule: Whoever has the gold makes the rules.

Or hemorroids

I believe in a societal collapse that whoever has the power makes the rules. Gold is not power, weapons and the people to wield them are power. If you have the weapons and the people to wield them you can take the food, alcohol, and gold that others have, and then make the rules. Gold is assigned value because it does not deteriorate over time and is rare, so it is useful as a trading commodity for exchange purposes. In a low tech society it has no intrinsic value. In an advanced society it has a few uses such as electrical contacts in high end weaponry, but otherwise it is just an exchange medium of convenience.

Key, gold, and silver numismatic coins of high quality have an overall good return, plus you have the gold, and silver as a base value. Better investment than just bullion.


RTT

Last I knew the electrical contacts on vehicle airbags were gold plated. And the electrical contacts on industrial motor starters were silver, or silver plated.

Mike

Gold and silver has always been and will be an universal form of trade or money. While I believe in having plenty of lead available. Trading a box of bullets for which you don't have a firearm for will not work. Just look at the history of gold and silver. Been valued and worshipped for hundreds of years. I will always keep a supply on hand. Never bet on just one thing. Sarge

In a collapse I believe that firearms, ammo, food and water will be most important until whoever makes it adjusts and some trade starts. The problem I see with gold is that it would be had to come up with a small piece to say, trade for a loaf of bread. Silver dimes, quarters, half's and dollars along with some 1oz pieces would be easy to trade for smaller items.

Now if just the dollar tanked gold and silver might be useful from the beginning if all else stayed normal. But....if the dollar tanked all else might not stay normal.

Civil society hangs by a thin rope, IMHO.