Category Archives: Precious Metals

Determining Silver Price Per Ounce And Its Investment Potential

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Like all precious metals on the market today, silver can, and has been used as an investment over the years. For years it has been viewed as something that can be used for trade and has had a significant value. Because of the slide in standards for this metal, it is mainly used today as an industrial material and the base for different types of jewelry. Here is some information about how silver price per ounce is calculated, the methods it is measured in, and what items are created with it.

Commodities are valued by supply and demand and what someone else reports it is going to do in the stock market; whether its value will be appreciated or depreciated. The trends for silver are watched carefully for how it is showing in the market, and the prices are set accordingly. While there is a fair amount of speculation that happens when valuing this precious metal, there is a solid value that can be used as a baseline in valuation.

Sometimes the price will reflect a rise or fall in other types of precious metals. If gold happens to be surging in the commodity market, then you will see a bit of a rise in the prices for silver. It is based on the ratio between the two metals. Additionally, the lower the ratio/number is, the more costly silver is in relation to gold. If the ratios are higher, that means that gold is going to be more expensive.

There are a few things that influence the pricing of precious metals, considering that gold is much more valuable than silver is. It does not make a lot of money for those who choose to invest in it; this can often move people to try to corner the market to make the price rise so a profit can be made. There are a few federal agencies in place in the United States, such as the Federal Reserve, that do not allow this type of market behavior any more.

There are many uses for silver in different applications and products today. Because silver has always had an antibacterial property about it, it is used extensively in medical supplies and uses. Additionally, things like major appliances, clothing, jewelry, and water purification systems are only a few of the ways that silver is being used in manufacturing and technology.

Silver is measured in troy ounces. A troy ounce is equivalent to four hundred eighty grains, and the international troy ounce is equal to 31.1034768 grams. The troy ounce is only used to measure the weight of precious metals. This method of measurement has been preserved from the medieval days and it is used mostly out of custom and it is an international measurement tool; one troy ounce weighs the same no matter where in the world you happen to be.

The American platinum eagle coin is considered the official platinum bullion coin of America. They were released in 1997 by the United States Mint agency. This coin comes in many weights, but the most valuable is the one that ways one troy ounce. These coins are generally collected by those who have an interest in obscure or special coins. Proof and uncirculated coins are very unique because the design on the back of the coin is always changing with each pressing.

These coins are considered more of a commodity than as a rare type of coin, so people who are preparing to retire have often included them in their individual retirement accounts as investments. IRA savings do not allow things like rare coins to be included in the accounts because the value of these collectible coins is not something that can be guaranteed; it depends on what collectors are valuing them at, not a commodities market . Because of this, the platinum eagle coin is usually not worth more than what the worth of the actual metal it is made from.

The current designs on the back of these coins bring your attention to the Preamble of the United States, with different passages engraved on each yearly coin roll-out. The 2012 coin says To Provide For The Common Defense and the design was sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. In recent years, the coins have had designs that represent The Fountains of Democracy and they represented the three branches of the government.

The current price of silver is a little over thirty dollars and it is continually fluctuating with supply and demands within the market. Tomorrow, the price may very well be completely different, depending on the commodities market and the way it is being traded there. Banks will often manipulate the price of silver because the banks will lose money more often if you are actually investing in this type of metal, thus saving money.

There are a few sensational items of history that surrounds this precious metal and its pricing. Things that have affected the price of the metal include inflation, and the United States taking the metal out of circulation as a currency option and using what was left in the reserve for industrial purposes. There are also a few constants in investing in this metal as well. It will never entirely lose its value; it will always be worth something. It will never go bankrupt and not any one country will take control of the way it is priced or traded; it will always remain international.

It is impossible to speculate where the price of silver per troy ounce is going to end up in the next ten years because it is constantly moving and fluctuating. It is used as an investment tool to speculate against, some people buy it in order to guarantee the value of the metal will be stable when it comes time for them to cash it in at retirement time. The measurements that are used to weigh the metal is an international method that is a little more than a standard ounce, at almost thirty two grams, which is one troy ounce.

Palladium And Platinum As Investment Commodities

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Palladium and platinum are two of nine metallic chemical elements considered “precious” for their rarity and high economic value. Like all the other precious metals, palladium and platinum have various industrial uses. But apart from these, both are also regarded as investment commodities.

Palladium as an investment commodity:

Palladium is valued at around US$415 per troy ounce. Actually, this is much lower than its price of more than one thousand U.S. dollars per troy ounce in early 2001, when the automobile industry placed a high demand for the precious metal for use as catalytic converters.

As an investment commodity, palladium may be bought in forms of bullion coins or bars. Palladium bullion coins are internationally recognized forms of currency and have the ISO codes XPD and 964. The first known palladium coins to be issued were those of Sierra Leone in 1966. The following year, Tonga started issuing theirs.

Other countries later began issuing their own palladium bullion coins, including Canada (with its Big & Little Bear Constellations and the very popular Palladium Maple Leaf), Australia, France, China, Portugal, and the former Soviet Union. The latter, in fact, is known to have minted the most number of palladium coins in the world.

Because of low circulation of palladium coins, palladium as an investment commodity is not as good as either silver or gold. Another reason for this is the relatively wider spread between the metal’s buying and selling prices.

Palladium is traded on the London Stock Exchange as an exchange-traded fund (ETF), under the ticker symbol LSE: PHPD.

Platinum as an investment commodity:

As of January 2010, platinum is valued at around us$1,555 per troy ounce (a couple years earlier, its price is about 48% higher than this – considered its peak price). Compared with silver or gold, platinum tends to trade at a higher per-unit price because it is scarcer and has lower mine output. The average mine production of platinum is 5 million troy ounces per year. This is lower by about 77 million troy ounces when compared with the annual mine production of gold, and even much lower – by about 547 million troy ounces – when compared with the yearly silver mine production.

Platinum is traded on the London Stock Exchange (as ETF, under the ticker symbol LSE: PHPT) and on the New York Mercantile Exchange. One way of investing in platinum is through platinum ingots. Platinum ingots are first assayed and hallmarked before being sold on commodity markets.

Another way of investing in platinum is through platinum coins. Platinum coins are internationally recognized forms of currency and have the ISO code XPT. However, there are only a few varieties of platinum coins minted, largely because of the cost of platinum and of the difficulty in working with it.

Bullion coins minted from platinum include the Manx Noble (minted from 1983 to 1989), the Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf (1988 to 1999), the Australian Platinum Koala (1988 to the present), the Mexican Libertad (1989 only), and the American Platinum Eagle (1997 to the present). The Chinese Platinum Panda were minted in three periods: from 1988 to 1990, 1993 to 1997, and lastly from 2002 to 2005.

Platinum accounts are offered by most banks in Switzerland. Here, platinum is treated like any other foreign currency; that is, it can be bought or sold instantly. However, bank clients are not entitled to ownership of the physical metal. Instead, they have a claim against their banks for a specified quantity of the metal.

Bullion: Mass Of Precious Metals

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Bullion is a mass of any one of the known precious metals. By strict definition, precious metals are those metallic elements that are rare. Bullion is commonly made of either gold or silver. Its value is determined by the worth of the metal rather than by its face value as money.

To put it another way, bullion is valued based on the mass and purity of the metal used, instead of its artificial currency value.

New sources of ore have been discovered and there also have been improvements in the mining and refining processes. These two factors may cause the values of gold, silver, and the other precious metals to diminish. Also, the “precious” qualification of a metal is determined by the market value or high demand.

Bullion is traded on commodity markets in two forms: bulk ingots or coins, the latter minted by the government of a country. At least ten countries are known to mint gold and silver bullion coins. These are Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

While bullion coins are issued as legal tender, with nominal values assigned to them on minting, such face values are far below the commodity value of the metals themselves. Here’s an example: Most of the gold coins issued by national governments, particularly those with currency values of between 10 and 100 U.S. dollars, usually contain no less than 31 grams of gold. On the average (considering the consistent rise in the exchange rate of gold), the value of gold is around USD12 per gram. Here, it is clear that the currency value assigned by the government to a gold bullion coin has no meaning.

Below is a list of some of the government-issued gold and silver bullion coins:

1. Australian Gold Nugget, Lunar Series I, and Lunar Series II
2. Austrian Philharmoniker
3. Canadian Maple Leaf
4. Chinese Gold Panda
5. Mexican Centenario, Libertad, and Onza
6. Polish Orzel bielik
7. South African Krugerrand
8. Swiss Vreneli
9. British Britannia and Sovereign
10. American Buffalo, American Eagle, and Double Eagle

The 10,000-dollar Australian Gold Nugget is one of the world’s largest bullion coins. Minted by the Australian government, this bullion coin is made of 1 kilogram of 99.9% pure gold. Some other bullion coins larger than the Australian Gold Nugget have come out. However, these are not produced in mass quantities and are not practical to handle. Two examples are given here: One is the 100,000-euro Vienna Philharmonic, minted in 2004, which contains 31 kilograms of gold; the other is the 1 million-dollar Canadian Maple Leaf, minted in 2007, which contains 100 kilograms of gold.

Three factors – metal, purity, and weight – affect the value of bullion. The overall value of bullion is determined by the metal used. We know, of course, that platinum is worth more than gold, which, in turn, is worth more than silver. It is easy to understand, therefore, that silver bullion coins have become popular with collectors because of their relative affordability.

Palladium: Least Dense Of The Platinum Group Metals

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Palladium is a rare precious metal characterized by its lustrous silvery-white appearance. It was discovered by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston in London, England in 1803, along with his discovery (together with Smithson Tennant, another English chemist) of the other metals in the platinum group. The name “palladium” was coined by Wollaston from the asteroid named “Pallas”.

Of the different precious metals in the platinum group (which includes iridium, platinum, osmium, rhodium, and ruthenium), palladium is known to be the least dense. It likewise has the lowest melting point.

Palladium is utilized in many applications because of its unique properties, some of which are provided below.

General:
• Chemical Symbol: Pd
• Atomic Number: 46
• Category (as an element): Transition Metal
• Group/ Period/ Block (in the Periodic Table): 10/ 5/ d
• Atomic Weight: 106.42 g.mol-1
• Electron Configuration: [Kr] 4d10

Physical:
• Density (near room temperature): 12.023 g.cm-3
• Liquid Density (at melting point): 10.38 g.cm-3
• Melting Point: 1554.9°C, 2830.82°F, 1828.05°K
• Boiling Point: 2963°C, 5365°F, 3236°K
• Heat of Fusion: 16.74 kJ.mol-1
• Heat of Vaporization: 362 kJ.mol-1

Atomic:
• Oxidation States: 0, +1, +2, +4, +6
• Electronegativity: 2.2 (Pauling scale)
• Atomic Radius: 137 picometre
• Covalent Radius: 139±6 picometre
• Van der Waals Radius: 163 picometre
• Ionization Energies: 804.4 kJ.mol-1 (first), 1870 kJ.mol-1 (second), 3177 kJ.mol-1 (third)

Palladium is used in the following:
1. Catalytic converters;
2. Jewelry and watch making;
3. Dentistry and surgical instruments;
4. Aircraft spark plugs;
5. Electrical contacts;
6. Connector platings;
7. Manuscript illumination.

Since the late 1930s, palladium has been utilized as a precious metal in jewelry. Because of its naturally white properties, palladium has been used as an alternative to white gold. Along with silver and nickel, palladium is popularly used in making white gold alloys.

According to the British Geological Survey (BGS), the top four palladium-producing countries in the world are Russia, South Africa, Canada, and the United States (in this order). Russia produces at least half of the total amount of palladium produced in the world.

Commercially, palladium is produced from copper-nickel deposits in Siberia, South Africa, and in Ontario in Canada. The precious metal is also found – alloyed with the other metals in the platinum group as well as with gold – in Ethiopia, Australia, North and South America, and in the Ural Mountains in Russia.

The Norilsk Nickel Mining and Metallurgical Company in northern Russia is the largest single producer of palladium in the world. Significant amounts of mineable palladium are also found in two other places: the Lac des Îles igneous complex in northwestern Ontario, Canada and the Stillwater igneous complex in the state of Montana in the United States.

Such is the rarity and preciousness of palladium that many metric tons of ore have to be processed to obtain just a troy ounce of the precious metal. The ISO currency codes of palladium, as a commodity, are XPD and 964. Its price is approximately 150 U.S. dollars per troy ounce.

A Short History Of Gold Mining

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Since the second century many people have been gold mining in one way or another. Some experts believe that mining was started in India. It is almost impossible to prove were it all began though. As the years have gone by various different methods have been used to varying degrees of success.

During the gold rush in California which happened between eighteen forty eight and eighteen fifty five many new methods were discovered and quickly caught on with the rest of the world.

Before all the different methods were introduced, many people used a method called panning. This included the use of a large, wide and shallow pan which would be filled with the materials from the sea bed. When the pan was submerged in water and shaken the golden metal would sink to the bottom. Of course this method is not very useful for getting large amounts of the metal.

An advance on the panning method is known as dredging. Dredging adopts the use of a small machine with a hose attached to it. One person operates the machine and another guides the hose which picks up materials from the sea bed into a sluice box which can then separate the metal. This technique is not very widely used anymore as better techniques have taken over.

In years gone by the majority of people would look for gold by wading through riverbeds and using different techniques such as those already mentioned. This is mainly done by people as a hobby now because most of the worlds gold now comes from beneath the earth. To get to it large corporations spend a lot of money on technology and experts to help locate the areas to be mined.

These companies employ the use of geologist to help find the ideal areas for digging. They then expertly drill many hundreds of meters below the earths surface through hard rock. Gold mining through this hard rock produces the majority of our worlds supply of the precious metal.

As well as having a huge financial value, this unique metal has a wide variety of uses. During the medieval times they thought the metal was so beautiful that it must have healing properties, so they used it as medicine to help cure a number of different illnesses. Dentists today use it for fillings in our teeth and it can even be found in some of the foods and beverages that we consume.

It is a very common material used in the making of jewelry and in some Asian countries it has huge significance in their religious ceremonies. As well as all that, this remarkable metal is vital to the production of some electrical devices. Because of its very high electrical conductivity it is used in things such as computers and televisions.

The worlds supply of the most amazing metal seems to be endless but it has become less easy to find. New inventive ways of finding it will no doubt always be developed as technology advances. Mining is big business these days and the gold is more valuable than ever before.