Is It a Good Time to Invest in Gold in 2012?

For decades many have invested in gold and for most, it has proven to be a good investment. However, before making an investment in gold, it is best to consider all aspects of gold. Investing in a gold coin is another way to invest in gold.

With gold and silver, there is usually a limited supply and in the past decade, the demand for gold has increased. Common sense will tell you that when the price of a certain item rises and the demand is less than what is in supply, the value of the item-such as gold--will increase.

One big advantage with gold is that it can be melted down and turned into jewelry. Many foreign countries like India love jewelry-hence the value of gold for jewelry, rises. When a person invests in gold there are two basic advantages that come with it such as being a secure way to invest in one's future. With economic times as they are and if an emergency arises, the value of gold will go up and of course, be of help in that emergency. Another advantage of buying gold is that it can be used as an alternative currency. Gold coin values fluctuate according to the economic twists and turns of an economy.

Buying gold is actually another way to invest in currency and future growth. When the value of the dollar drops, then gold and other investments usually rise and this helps to preserve the value of your current wealth. For many buying gold offers diversification in one's investments. Investing in gold coin is a great investment option.

When it comes to deciding how much gold one should invest in, some say that between 10% and 25% should be invested in gold. The best kind of gold coin investment is "government-minted bullion coins." Gold coin investments are worthwhile and are quite productive.

Gold coin option investments can be investments that adds value to your portfolio. Coin collections are also another way to invest. Other examples of coin investments are: Bars, Bullion, Silver Coins and silver bullions. For more information on coin investments, talk with a financial advisor.

The most popular investment coins are the Krugerrand, which is government minted in South Africa. The US Eagle, minted in the United States of America and recognised as an investment quality coin world-wide. If you are in the UK or Europe, then you will probably buy the British Sovereign and Britannia. Both minted by the Royal mint and also traded globally. In the UK the Sovereign and Britannia are exempt from Capital Gains Tax, making them and highly sought after investment.

In answer to the question, "Is it a Good Time to Invest in Gold in 2012," the answer is a resounding, yes!

There's Gold in Them There Hills! Metal Detecting for Gold   When the Funds Are Low And The Debt Is High   How to Ensure You Purchase Authentic Antique Silverware   Purchase of Gold And Silver - Find The Best Deals   What It Means to Start Investing in Gold   Precious Metals Price Discovery - At and Despite the Margins   

Top 5 Silver Items to Sell To Gold Buyers

Although most viable currencies - certainly the Unites States' dollar - are backed up by the unshakable value of gold, there is a place for silver as a precious metal in any economy. Whenever there's an especially robust market for gold, it turns out that you can also engage in selling silver as long as it is the right kind, because it can also act as insurance against economic downturn, and has been valued in nearly all locations around the world since antiquity. There are countless vendors that will pay you fairly for your silver trinkets; in fact, there are five very popular items that silver buyers purchase most frequently from sellers:

1. Ornate or antique silverware may be worth more than you think, especially given the fact that the worth of silver doesn't devalue, and the price can obviously go up during times of fiscal misfortune, when the dollar's own worth takes a hit. This may initially surprise you, but even if the silverware is damaged, it is still worth about the same amount, because it will be melted down anyway in most cases, as long as it's real silver. If it is aged Spanish royalty silver or something like that, then it can be worth more than heaps of gold.

2. If you have silver coins for whatever reason - maybe they've been passed down through the generations of your family, etc - then these could be very good items to sell for fast cash. You can be paid well for them at a pawn shop depending on the place of origin, the age, to whom did it belong, etc; but you can often get much more money from an online website that deals in precious metals.

3. Silver jewelry is always a popular one to sell, because they are worthy accessories that are always in demand. As usual, taking the time to find a trustworthy online retailer often nets you considerably more than you might get at a local jewelry store, since online retailers don't have the multiple costs that a brick-and-mortar physical location that has to deal with customers, security, utilities, etc. Out of all silver, jewelry can sometimes be the easiest one to sell because of the worth of the craftsmanship, meaning the buyer can just choose to resell it, and the usual inherent worth of the silver itself, which can be broken down, melted, and used in multiple ways.

4. You've certainly heard of gold bullion; but probably not as much about silver bullion. If you happen to have any silver bullion, it can be very valuable because it is already in a widely-acceptable format, and the expenditure to heat and melt it down need not be made, which automatically drives up the price you can get for it.

5. You may not even be aware of some the valuable silver in your home; for example, silver has the highest electrical conductivity of any known element, as well as the highest thermal transfer abilities. This is what makes it as good as a conductor in many electrical contacts, especially older ones (before silicon started being used primarily). If you have enough old machinery that no longer works or is no longer needed, they can serve as a valuable source of silver. Remember that since it will all be broken down anyway, silver from this source can be just as valuable as from silverware or coins.

There's Gold in Them There Hills! Metal Detecting for Gold   When the Funds Are Low And The Debt Is High   Gold Bullions - An Investment Option   How to Know Where to Buy Gold   How to Ensure You Purchase Authentic Antique Silverware   Purchase of Gold And Silver - Find The Best Deals   

What Is A Semi-Numismatic Silver Coin and How To Spot Them

Semi-Numismatic Silver Coin Features

1. The most crucial aspect of semi-numismatic coins is their undeniable beauty and design. The design of these coins should appeal to everyone regardless of culture, and should be so stunning that their beauty is undeniable. Judging exactly what makes a "beautiful" coin takes some experience in this field, however, the examples in this section should teach you the types of coins that are considered "beautiful".

2. The next feature to look for is a design that keeps changing. This creates a scenario where that every year a new design comes out and the old design instantly becomes a collectors item. Great examples of such coins are the Chinese Panda and Somalian African Elephant.

3. The third and final aspect to spotting semi-numismatic bullion coins is limited mintage. Some coins are unlimited mintage and the production runs until it meets demand. However, some coins are limited mintage, even though they are regular bullion coins. Examples of such coins are the Australian series coins such as the Kookaburra and Koala and the Canadian Wildlife Series coins.

Why Buy Semi-Numismatic Silver Coins

1. Price Cushion- The very second you purchase semi-numismatic coins, you are theoretically immediately making money. No other investment can make this claim because it seems almost too-good-to-be-true. What this means for you is that the silver price can drop many points before you will even break-even, nevertheless lose money. This leads me to the second reason for why you should be buying these premium coins, the undeniable protection against selling that comes with buying these awesome coins.

2. Protection- Stacking only the most beautiful and rare coins will make you a lot less willing to sell before the next huge run in this bull market. I have seen many people get very caught up in the profit story of purchasing the metals that as soon as the price starts falling, they get scared and sell all of their silver. I can tell you from personal experience that it is very hard to sell your semi-numismatic coins because of the fact that the longer you hold, the higher the value goes. For example, I have two rolls of Grizzly Bears that I bought 6 months ago. I paid around $35 for these coins and they are now worth around $50, but should I sell now or wait until they are worth $70 or even $100? This leads me to the third point for why semi-numismatic coins are the best for of silver, and that is the growing premium.

3. Growing Premium- The premium on semi-numismatic coins always grows, regardless of silver price. I have noticed that most of these premium coins sell for around $50 varying only slightly with huge upswings and corrections in price. I believe that the reason for why the premium grows for these coins is due to the previous two points. Most people who purchase semi-numismatic coins understand that the longer they hold, the higher the price will be and since they are so beautiful to look at, why not just hold on for a few months?

Visit Silver 2012 for examples of semi-numismatic silver coins that appreciate in value regardless of the current silver price once they sell out.

There's Gold in Them There Hills! Metal Detecting for Gold   When the Funds Are Low And The Debt Is High   How to Know Where to Buy Gold   How to Ensure You Purchase Authentic Antique Silverware   Purchase of Gold And Silver - Find The Best Deals   

Why You Might Buy Silver Instead of Gold

Most people view gold as a safe investment and considering how much the price of gold has risen historically, it would seem that their views are not wrong. After gold has always been viewed as a precious metal, trading has been done in gold, gold coins and bars are a global currency (particularly in illegal deals), gold is used as jewelry, and till recently banks had to have reserves of gold against currency issue (though now they have much less). Gold has long been a hedge against inflation.

When you see movies and shows and see pictures of treasure of any kind they always show gold and precious stones - you almost never see silver. It is no wonder then that the psyche of gold investing is very much entrenched in people's minds.

Why then you would you buy silver as an investment? After all, silver has many drawbacks. You would have to buy a lot more silver than gold; silver is also quite volatile - some years ago its price crashed. If you do buy a lot of silver, you may find it a problem to store it. Then again silver is not as easily saleable as gold is globally.

But with prices of both metals increasing a great deal, it is time to rethink and perhaps do a rejig of your investments in precious metals. In fact it would be a good idea, if you do not have investments in metals, and considering the volatility of the stock market and money market and recent crashes/lack of consumer confidence in paper assets, you really ought to invest in precious metals, if you have not done so.

The benefits of investing in silver

Silver is easier to buy than gold, because it is cheaper. It is an affordable investment even for the small investor.

The silver market as compared to gold is very small.

Silver has good physical properties and is used a great deal industrially.

Silver is actually in short supply in the world.

Historically the silver to gold ratio was 10:1; now it is 40:1.

Silver is under priced at current values.

Silver has anti bacterial and microbial properties, which increases its potential value.

Future mining of this metal is limited, because there are fewer chances of the metal being found deep underground and also because it is uneconomical to mine it. Because of this more silver is used annually than is mined.

Silver is actually rarer than gold, because there is much more gold than silver in the world.

Silver is a good conductor of electricity and high thermal conductivity as well so it finds its way into applications that gold cannot.

Demand for silver in technology and industries is only going to increase and this will cause an increase in price. There is no substitute for silver in almost all products that it is used in.

Silver cannot be confiscated by the US government as gold bullion can.

What kind of silver should you buy?

If you are buying silver for investment purposes, you should avoid silver jewelry because you will lose money due to making charges. Instead you will find better value for the money that you invest if you purchase

Government minted bullion coins.

Junk silver coins, so called because they have no collectible value, are usually 90 percent silver and less liable to be damaged.

Bullion bars, which are 99 percent pure silver.

Silver rounds, which re also 99 percent pure silver

So you can safely invest and buy silver, but from a reputable source or silver dealer.

There's Gold in Them There Hills! Metal Detecting for Gold   When the Funds Are Low And The Debt Is High   How to Ensure You Purchase Authentic Antique Silverware   Precious Metals Price Discovery - At and Despite the Margins   Counterfeit Coin Detection - 4 Ways to Initially Spot a Counterfeit Coin (and Avoid Being Taken)   Gold Bullions - An Investment Option   

Why You Should Be Investing in Gold Now

Most investors split the money over some kind of mix of stocks and bonds. They usually intend that the stocks will be a portion of their money that is expected to grow, while the bonds produce slower growth but, by comparison to stocks, are virtually guaranteed to maintain and increase their value. While these categories of investments have their place in a portfolio, too many people are overlooking the potential benefits of Investing In Gold.

Gold is a metal that has been precious to humans for as long as history has been recorded. A Gold Investment, therefore, is basically guaranteed to always have some value. While a company can declare bankruptcy or a municipality can potentially default on its bonds, gold has had value to people for thousands of years and there is absolutely no reason to believe that this is going to change. In fact, the value of a given quantity of gold more than doubled between 2005 and 2010. This made Buying Gold not only a very secure investment, but one that outperformed the vast majority of the stocks available on the market!

Most of the main financial benefits is that gold is not impacted by a company's profits or lack thereof. When you're dealing with stocks, many times these shares can have huge shifts in value simply because a company performed better or performed worse than was believed. This can wreak mayhem on the value of your total investment portfolio, especially if your portfolio is heavy on stocks.

Potential investors should take the time to learn about the option of a Gold IRA or 401k. Essentially, the government allows for people to invest in gold through their tax-advantaged retirement accounts. In this case, the individual does not end up being in possession of the physical gold. Instead, for so long as it is part of the retirement account, it must be held by a depository that is approved by the IRS. Once a person reaches retirement age and is taking withdrawals from their accounts, of course, they are free to either have the physical gold shipped to them or to have it sold on their behalf.

Investing In Gold is a great way to add additional diversification in a very secure form to a retirement account. Anyone who is concerned about being sure that some of the money that they are putting aside for their retirement is not at risk of being completely lost can benefit from getting an account that permits them to hold this asset.

There's Gold in Them There Hills! Metal Detecting for Gold   When the Funds Are Low And The Debt Is High   How to Ensure You Purchase Authentic Antique Silverware   Purchase of Gold And Silver - Find The Best Deals   

Is Outer Space The Next Frontier In Resource Investing?

A particularly unusual announcement that may have come across the radar of those of us investing in the resource sector is that of Planetary Resources, a company pursuing the goal of extracting natural resources from near-earth asteroids. Planetary Resources boasts an impressive team, which includes past and present high-level Google executives Eric Schmidt and Larry Page, multiple former NASA members, a former CTO of Microsoft (MSFT), acclaimed film director James Cameron, and of course seasoned space exploration entrepreneurs as physicists. As impressive as this team is, I do believe they would benefit greatly from having a visionary geologist as well.

As far out (literally!) as asteroid mining may sound, it is reminiscent of the ideas proposed by Zecharia Sitchin and Michael Tellinger -- students of ancient history who have authored books that have popularized the idea that humans were created by extraterrestrials as a slave species designed to mine earth for mineral wealth. These ideas are, needless to say, controversial and widely criticized. But for those who give them some credence, human endeavors to mine asteroids could simply be seen as a species' natural progression that may have occurred before with other species as well.

Regardless of whether or not there is a historical precedent for such activities, let's take a look at what is needed for mining of asteroids to work:

A very high price for natural resources like gold, silver, and copper. Very high quantities of minerals on these asteroids. Moreover, these minerals must have very high grade ore, so that the metallurgical process of refining them is not extremely costly. In other words, because of the inevitably high fixed costs of mining asteriods, there needs to be an abundance of minerals extractable at low prices to make this project economically viable. A strategy for water. The Planetary Resource team admits that while they are certainly interested in securing critical resources like platinum and palladium from these asteroids, these asteroids are likely to contain abundant supplies of fresh water. What is the strategy for dealing with this water? Will it be sold? Sufficiently advanced robotics technology. The ability to reduce energy costs significantly. This is what I regard as the biggest obstacle; in a world where crude oil is over $100 a barrel and where oil production has plateaued since 2005, energy costs are crucial -- especially when you want to do something like mine near-earth asteroids. There are many asteroids up there, and a game plan for how to scale an asteroid mining operation and actually get large quantities of what's valuable needs to be thought out carefully. Ultimately, though, I'm skeptical that systems reliant upon fossil fuel will be low-cost enough to make this work; I think nuclear powered space vehicles are needed before serious space exploration and mining can begin.

In sum, I think this idea is very promising and illustrates where we are headed to solve our natural resource problem -- but this is going to take a while. Given that real world mining companies often take years to get to any meaningful production, I think the timeline for near-earth asteroid mining is going to take a decade or more to get going. Moreover, I also consider it more prudent to explore the under-explored areas here on planet Earth before going to near-earth asteroids. For instance, Nautilus Minerals is a company dedicated to mining the ocean floor; I think that is a strategy that is a much better starting point, and companies that experience success in such endeavors are positioned to use the competences they develop in robotics and massive energy usage to take on more ambitious projects like asteroid mining.

Ultimately, the fact that a company like Planetary Resources is even emerging, is securing top talent, and is gaining media coverage illustrates how critical natural resources are becoming and how high the price is headed. For those of us investing in the resource sector, staying abreast of these "out there" ideas is what will help us stay cutting edge and find the best first mover investment opportunities.

There's Gold in Them There Hills! Metal Detecting for Gold   When the Funds Are Low And The Debt Is High   How to Ensure You Purchase Authentic Antique Silverware   Gold Bullions - An Investment Option   How to Know Where to Buy Gold