Kitco News
(Kitco News) – Resolute Mining (LSE: RSG) is forecasting gold production for the full year in 2020 of 500,000 oz at an AISC of US$980/oz.
The post Resolute Mining forecasts 30% higher gold production in 2020 appeared first on WorldSilverNews.
Kitco News
(Kitco News) – The ongoing decline in gold reserves will continue to fuel merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the gold mining sector in 2020, adding to the substantial trend that started in 2019, according to analysts at Bank of America Securities.
The post Dwindling Gold Reserve To Fuel M&A activity in 2020 – Bank of America appeared first on WorldSilverNews.
Kitco News
(Kitco News) – The amount of gold buying happening in the new year points to the rising fear factor in the marketplace, says CNBC’s Jim Cramer, adding that gold might be heading towards $1,800 an ounce.
The post ‘Gold, gold, gold’: The metal wants to go to $1,800 — Cramer appeared first on WorldSilverNews.
Kitco News
(Kitco News) – Gold futures continue to trade under pressure.
The post Safe-haven assets see diminishing value as U.S. equities soar appeared first on WorldSilverNews.
The story of Silver Jefferson Nickels starts in World War Two when Congress was rationing many commodities. Nickel was rationed because of the use in armor plating. On October 8th, 1942, Congress ordered the United States Mint to remove nickel from the five-cent pieces. From 1942 to the end of 1945, the five-cent pieces were then minted using an alloy of copper, silver and manganese.
The 1942 – 1945 Silver Jefferson Nickels, a junk silver coin, contains 35% silver which is 0.0563 troy ounces. There are some other silver coins ranking in the top most valuable silver coins.
Listed below are the mintage numbers for each year. The year column lists the year and mint mark on the coin where, D is for Denver, S is for San Francisco, and P is for Philadelphia. Also, a coin without a mint mark means the coin was minted in Philadelphia.
The Mintage column is the number of coins struck and released by the U.S. Mint.
The Numismatic Value Range column represents what people typically pay for that type of coin (usually a very wide price range depending on the condition and demand of the coin).
| Year | Mintage | Numismatic Value Range |
| 1942 P | 57,873,000 | $1.00 – $95.00 |
| 1942 S | 32,900,000 | $1.00 – $150.00 |
| 1943 P | 271,165,000 | $0.90 – $120.00 |
| 1943 D | 15,294,000 | $1.25 – $1,100.00 |
| 1943 S | 104,060,000 | $1.00 – $200.00 |
| 1943/2 P | unknown | $30.00 – $1,265.00 |
| 1944 P | 119,150,000 | $1.00 – $500.00 |
| 1944 D | 32,309,000 | $1.00 – $300.00 |
| 1944 S | 21,640,000 | $1.25 – $900.00 |
| 1945 P | 119,408,100 | $0.80 – $300.00 |
| 1945 D | 37,158,000 | $1.00 – $500.00 |
| 1945 S | 58,939,000 | $1.00 – $400.00 |
Money Metals Exchange offers junk silver at competitive prices. The founder believes (as do we) that investors should buy precious metals at or near the spot price of the metal. Low prices like that have helped Money Metals Exchange’s rapid growth. Read reviews of Money Metals Exchange.
The post 1942 – 1945 Silver Jefferson (War) Nickels: Investor’s Junk Silver Guide appeared first on Silver Monthly.
Silver Mutual Funds are one of the numerous ways to invest in precious metals these days. Silver Bullion Coins and rare coins have always been investment options, and they’re still good ones. Gold and silver certificates and privately minted coins are some other choices. And there are also mutual funds that can offer you exposure to the precious-metals sector.
There are about thirty mutual funds which invest in both gold and silver. But as you will see, the investment styles and strategies of these funds vary greatly. Some invest primarily in mining stocks, while others hold bullion or coins. Still others offer a balanced approach. And finally, there are the exchange-traded index funds tied directly to the bullion price of silver and gold. One thing is for sure—it’s never been easier to invest in precious metals.
Two of the Best Precious-Metals Funds
Two of the best precious-metals mutual funds are Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining (ticker: VGPMX) and Permanent Portfolio (PRPFX). Both of these funds received five-star ratings from Morningstar, and yet they are quite different.
The Vanguard Fund is heavily stock-based mutual fund. As of July 31, 2007, 97% of its $4 billion in assets were invested in equities, with its largest holdings Lonmin (LMI), Impala Platinum (IMPUY), Anglo Platinum (AGPPY), and Aber Diamond Corporation (ABZ). All four of these stocks are foreign and can only be purchased by U.S. investors through ADRs—buying the fund is much easier.
As of July 31, 2007, Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining had a one-year annualized return of 22.29%. Its three-year return was even better, at 39.88%. And its five-year return was 34.01%. An investment of $10,000 five years ago would be worth $43,220 today.
Another amazing feature about the Vanguard Fund is its incredible Sharpe Ratio of 1.41 (five-year return over risk). In fact, based on the fund’s three-year, five-year, and ten-year data, Morningstar assigned it a return designation of “high,” and a risk designation of “low.”
Permanent Portfolio (PRPFX) didn’t fare quite as well. Its three-year, five-year, and ten-year returns are designated as “high,” but it’s risk is also “high” or “above average.” What’s more, its returns haven’t been as high as Vanguard’s—just 8.1%, 11.75%, and 13.06% for one, three, and five years, respectively.
But Permanent stands out when you look at its worst returns. In its history as a fund, the worst three-month period it has ever experienced is -5.58%. By comparison, Vanguard shareholders would have suffered a -29.8% three-month period if they held the fund long enough.
Remember, the Vanguard Fund is 97% stocks. Permanent Portfolio, by stark contrast, is much more well balanced. As of July 31, 2007, it was 23% in cash, 32% in stocks, 21% in bonds, and 24% in “other”—which, as you might guess, means mostly precious metals. In fact, its four largest holdings are U.S. Golden Eagles, Gold Canadian Maple Leafs, COMEX Gold, and COMEX Silver.
It’s easy enough to look at these two funds and say Vanguard is superior, but it really depends on what you want as an investor. Do you want a well-managed mining-company fund, or do you want a mutual fund that gives you real exposure to gold and silver? If the answer is the latter, than Permanent Portfolio is your best bet.
One Not-So-Good Fund
Of the thirty gold and silver funds, only two received a five-star rating. Three others received four stars, and all the rest but one were either given three stars or weren’t rated. There was just one two-star fund: RiverSource Precious Metals & Mining.
Like the Vanguard Fund, RiverSource is predominantly stock-based. As of July 31, it had 96% of its $120 million invested in equities, more than half of which were foreign securities. Unfortunately, its selections haven’t panned out as well as Vanguard’s, with only a 7.06% year-to-date return.
Another negative aspect of RiverSource is its ultra-high expense ratio of 2.15%. By comparison, Vanguard has an expense ratio of just 0.35% and Permanent Portfolio’s is just 1.11%. Both of the five-star funds are no-load, whereas RiverSource has a 1% back-end load. All of these fees and expenses can really take a bite out of your returns, especially when the fund’s performance isn’t all that hot to begin with!
Exchange-Traded Funds
Finally, there are exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that allow investors a more direct access-point to gold and silver. For gold, there is streetTRACKS Gold (ticker: GLD), and for silver, there is iShares Silver Trust (SLV). Both of these funds are tied directly to the price of their corresponding precious metal, and invest in nothing other than gold and silver, respectively.
For example, streetTRACKS Gold is priced so that one share of the fund is equal to 1/10 an ounce of gold. The iShares Silver Trust is priced so that one share equals ten ounces of silver. However, these ratios don’t always hold up—GLD recently traded for $66.57 a share while gold was $670 an ounce; and SLV traded at $127.65 while silver was priced at $12.79. Nevertheless, these ETFs do give investors an easy way to own gold or silver, at least on paper.
It’s As Easy as Point and Click
So what is the best way to invest in precious metals? It’s really up to you—your preferences and investment goals. The only thing you must be sure of is if your strategy matches your investment objectives. For example, if you want real exposure to gold and silver, it’s much better to purchase Permanent Portfolio than the Vanguard Fund—but even better yet to buy GLD and/or SLV.
But if maximum exposure isn’t your goal, the Vanguard Fund could be a great investment. The best news is there are dozens of options which simply didn’t exist ten or twenty years ago. Now, with nothing more than a few hundred dollars and Internet access, anyone can hedge with and profit from precious metals.
The post Silver Mutual Funds Offer Another Option for Investors appeared first on Silver Monthly.
Silver bullion bars also referred to as silver ingot bars, generally, consist of 99.99% silver and range in size from one ounce to 5000 ounces. The 10-oz and 100-oz sizes are the most popular with investors.
The 5-oz, 25-oz, and 50-oz size bars, which were produced in the early 1970’s, are very difficult to find nowadays. However, the diligent collector can sometimes find these silver bars on popular online auction sites such as eBay.
Unlike silver coins, silver bullion bars are first and foremost an industrial product. They are intended to be used as a storage means and are consider a trading medium. They are very liquid but should be purchased strictly as an investment and not used for bartering purposes.
Some of the advantages of owning silver bullion bars are:
The 100-oz silver bullion bars are often called investment bars, because collectors who buy them usually do so for investment purposes, not as a hedge against inflation. These type of collectors will often sell when silver prices go up.
The 100-oz silver bullion bars are desirable because they offer a low markup over the spot price of silver, although they aren’t as flexible as the 10-oz variety.
The most popular silver bullion bars are created by Engelhard and Johnson-Matthey. Although they are two of the world’s largest refiners, they have not mass-produced silver bars since the mid-1980s. This means Johnson-Matthey and Engelhard silver bars are only available when other investors decide to sell.
More readily available are the 100 ounce Wall Street Mint and Sunshine Mining bars. The English Sheffield and Handy Harman bars can be obtained, but are more difficult to find. The most popular size is the 100 troy ounce silver bar produced by Englehard, an American company.
Engelhard is renowned for producing quality silver bullion bars that are accurately stamped with the exact pureness of the silver that is contained in the bar. Because of their low premium over spot, compared with silver bullion coins, the 100-oz Engelhard silver bars are an excellent way to invest in silver bullion.
Johnson-Matthey was founded in 1817 and has an unrivalled reputation in the precious metals field, because of its technical excellence and dedication to quality. Johnson-Matthey 100 ounce silver bars are always in high demand from silver collectors and investors because of their confidence in the company.
An investor can buy a Johnson-Matthey silver bar with total confidence in its purity, liquidity, quality. Every Johnson-Matthey silver bar is stamped with the exact weight and an individual serial number, exclusive to each and every buyer.
Silver Bullion Bars are not only a great investment with potential for appreciation but a way to protect your wealth against inflation, bank failures, and other unforeseen financial catastrophes. In these uncertain times, investing in silver can be an easy way to make sure your family’s financial future is secure.
Traditionally, bullion bars came in 100 oz. sizes; however, now companies have innovated to include even 1 oz silver bullion bars. So, going on: here’s how to invest in silver using bullion bars.
The first step is determining your silver investing budget: how much silver can you afford to buy. This will then determine the amount (in ounces) you should buy. Studies from Ibbotson Associates shows between 8 – 10% of your total investment portfolio should be invested in silver. However, if you think above average inflation is on the way then a higher percentage may be warranted.
Anyways, after figuring out the ideal budget for your personal investing needs, selecting the size of the bullion bar is next. This step is a little more tricky than the last. Take the total amount you’ve budgeted ($1,000 for example) and divided it by the current price of silver ($18.44 for example). This will equal the amount of silver you can buy in terms of ounces (54.22 ounces of silver for this example). Now, just as you wouldn’t want just one stock, you won’t want one large bar of silver. It’s important to spread out the ounces you can buy into multiple bars because of the liquidity risk. Say one day you need to liquidate some silver–it will be much easier with multiple (smaller sized) bars.
Now, once you’ve decided the ounce allocation, the third step is deciding the company(ies) that you’ll buy these silver bars from. Several companies like A-Mark, Sunshine Minting Co., and Engelhard all make various silver bullion bars. Now, back to this spreading out risk idea as we talked about in #2, it’s important to remember that buying silver bars from one single company would be riskier than spreading your silver allocation out to all three (or more). That way, should investors favor waver from one bullion bar to another, you’ll be set holding multiple types of bullion bars.
The post Silver Bullion Bars: Complete Investors Guide to Bullion Bars appeared first on Silver Monthly.
1932 – 1964 Silver Quarters are 90% silver. These silver quarters along with many other silver coins are classified as “junk silver“, read more about junk silver as an investment. Junk Silver is simply a silver coin that has been used in circulation but now is sold for its silver content instead of the face value.
Listed below are the mintage numbers for each year. The year column lists the year and mint mark on the coin where, D is for Denver, S is for San Francisco, and P is for Philadelphia. Also, a coin without a mint mark means the coin was minted in Philadelphia.
The Mintage column is the number of coins struck and released by the U.S. Mint.
The Numismatic Value Range column represents what people typically pay for that type of coin (usually a very wide price range depending on the condition and demand of the coin). There are some other silver coins that are the most valuable silver coins. The highest selling silver quarters are indeed some of the rare silver coins.
| Year | Mintage | Numismatic Value |
| 1932 | 5,404,000 | $4.00 – $400.00 |
| 1932 D | 436,800 | $200.00 – $1,500.00 |
| 1932 S | 408,000 | $200.00 – $1,500.00 |
| 1934 | 31,912,052 | $3.00 – $100.00 |
| 1934 D | 3,527,200 | $4.00 – $1,200.00 |
| 1935 | 32,484,000 | $3.00 – $1,500.00 |
| 1935 D | 5,780,000 | $3.00 – $900.00 |
| 1935 S | 5,660,000 | $3.00 – $900.00 |
| 1936 | 41,300,000 | $3.00 – $100.00 |
| 1936 D | 5,374,000 | $5.00 – $1,500.00 |
| 1936 S | 3,828,000 | $4.00 – $600.00 |
| 1937 | 19,696,000 | $3.50 – $80.00 |
| 1937 D | 7,189,600 | $3.50 – $220.00 |
| 1937 S | 1,652,000 | $4.50 – $400.00 |
| 1938 | 9,472,000 | $4.50 – $300.00 |
| 1938 S | 2,832,000 | $4.50 – $300.00 |
| 1939 | 33,540,000 | $3.50 – $60.00 |
| 1939 D | 7,092,000 | $3.50 – $130.00 |
| 1939 S | 2,628,000 | $4.50 – $390.00 |
| 1940 | 35,704,000 | $3.00 – $60.00 |
| 1940 D | 2,797,600 | $3.00 – $350.00 |
| 1940 S | 8,244,000 | $3.00 – $60.00 |
| 1941 | 79,032,000 | $3.00 – $35.00 |
| 1941 D | 16,714,800 | $3.00 – $35.00 |
| 1941 S | 16,080,000 | $3.00 – $35.00 |
| 1942 | 102,096,000 | $3.00 – $35.00 |
| 1942 D | 17,487,200 | $3.00 – $35.00 |
| 1942 S | 19,384,000 | $3.00 – $35.00 |
| 1943 | 99,700,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1943 D | 16,095,600 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1943 S | 21,700,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1944 | 104,956,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1944 D | 14,600,800 | $4.00 – $60.00 |
| 1944 S | 12,560,000 | $4.00 – $60.00 |
| 1945 | 74,372,000 | $3.00 – $70.00 |
| 1945 D | 12,341,600 | $3.50 – $70.00 |
| 1945 S | 17,004,000 | $3.50 – $70.00 |
| 1946 | 53,436,000 | $3.50 – $50.00 |
| 1946 D | 9,072,800 | $4.00 – $130.00 |
| 1946 S | 4,204,000 | $4.50 – $130.00 |
| 1947 | 22,556,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1947 D | 15,388,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1947 S | 5,532,000 | $3.00 – $125.00 |
| 1948 | 35,196,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1948 D | 16,766,800 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1948 S | 15,960,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1949 | 9,312,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1949 D | 10,068,400 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1950 | 24,920,126 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1950 D | 21,075,600 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1950 S | 10,284,004 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1951 | 43,448,102 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1951 D | 35,354,800 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1951 S | 9,048,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1952 | 38,780,093 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1952 D | 49,795,200 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1952 S | 13,707,800 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1953 | 18,536,120 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1953 D | 56,112,400 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1953 S | 14,016,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1954 | 54,412,203 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1954 D | 42,305,500 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1954 S | 11,834,722 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1955 | 18,180,181 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1955 D | 3,182,400 | $5.00 – $250.00 |
| 1956 | 44,144,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1956 D | 32,334,500 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1957 | 46,532,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1957 D | 77,924,160 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1958 | 6,360,000 | $3.50 – $100.00 |
| 1958 D | 78,124,900 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1959 | 24,384,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1959 D | 62,054,232 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1960 | 29,164,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1960 D | 63,000,324 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1961 | 37,036,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1961 D | 83,656,928 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1962 | 36,156,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1962 D | 127,554,756 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1963 | 74,316,000 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1963 D | 135,288,184 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1964 | 560,390,585 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
| 1964 D | 704,135,528 | $3.00 – $30.00 |
Money Metals Exchange offers junk silver at competitive prices. The founder believes (as do we) that investors should buy precious metals at or near the spot price of the metal. Low prices like that have helped Money Metals Exchange’s rapid growth. Read reviews of Money Metals Exchange.
The post 1932 – 1964 Silver Quarters: 90% silver appeared first on Silver Monthly.