Hi Kim, thanks for stopping by and commenting. Not necessarily a mistake if you needed the cash for something worthwhile at the time. You have a great website design, very relaxing, I almost wanted to step inside one of those cottages!

That's a good question Cynthia, yes some certainly do consider silver to be a better choice today with respect to it's potential for long term growth. While silver today is currently around $31 many precious metals analysts estimate the true value for 1oz to be in triple digits How long it will take to assert it's true value though is difficult to say which is why people talk about long-term rather than short term potential, it assumes increasing industrial and investor demand. If there was a severe economic downturn for example, demand would likely fall and so would the price for silver for a period of time. The primary reasons people tend to buy gold or silver though is to protect the value of their savings against currency devaluation and personally I think there are distinct advantages to owning both. Thanks for the comment Cynthia

Hi Cynthia, thanks for the follow up question it gives me the chance to try to explain in a little more detail. Let's say you buy a 1oz Silver Maple Leaf coin at Apmex today, you would pay $43 The current spot price for silver is around $31 so you have paid an additional $12 premium over the spot. price, but you now have a 1oz silver coin. Let's say you put that away in a box and at the same time put $43 paper dollars in another box. Let's say for arguments sake that gas prices rose over the next 2 years. Rising gas prices would push up the cost of food production and transportation causing food prices to rise, so you now find yourself in the position of having to pay both higher gas prices and higher food prices. You remember that you put away $43 in a box 2 years ago and pull it out. When you go out to spend it on food you realize that the $43 cannot buy the same amount of food that you bought 2 years ago. In other words its value has dropped. You then remember that you have the silver coin from Apmex. If you sell back the coin you may be able to get the same amount of food as you did 2 years ago because the price has risen and when you sell the coin back you will get more pieces of paper than you originally paid out You could then swap the paper for the same amount of food as you did 2 years earlier. This is what is meant by protection from currency devaluation. However a price rise for silver in the short term is not necessarily guaranteed. It may be that the rise in gas and food prices has caused people to cut back their spending on things like computers and other consumer goods which use silver. This could be combined with a drop in demand from China if their economy slows. Manufacturers who use silver could find they no longer have the same requirements for it due to a drop in consumer spending, so they stop buying more because they already have enough stockpiled. In these circumstances the price of silver may fall because there is more silver that people want to sell than want to buy. So you look at your coin, decide not to sell it today but to put it back for another 5 or possibly 10 years. When you pull it out years later the likelihood is that you will be able to swap it for far more than the $43 you paid for it today. Why is this? This is because the long term trend demands for silver look good to many analysts. Regardless of what happens in the short term they see increased demand from growth economies over the long term combined with a scarcity of silver . They also anticipate more money printing, like anything else the more money that is in circulation the less value it has. They also anticipate that more people will start to understand their money is loosing value and want to buy gold and silver to own something with intrinsic value which a piece of paper doesn't have. These factors combined (with others) they say, will push up the price. Again Cynthia, it's worth pointing out that the favored metal to offer protection both long and short term is gold and always has been because it is seen primarily a monetary metal and has historically been viewed as a safe haven. I hope this has given you a better understanding, if not visit Mike Maloney's site he has some very good educational videos on both gold and silver. Penny

Thank you Cynthia, I'm pleased it made things a little clearer. I'm sure you're right, if you didn't quite understand then others might not either that's exactly what I was thinking as I wrote the reply. Thanks for the suggestion about the 30 day challenge it's certainly something I'll think about. Penny

Hi Lemuel, yes a lot of people think it's a good idea to have some silver as well as gold and usually buy a small amount each month. Canadian Maple Leaf and American Eagles are the most popular bullion coins or you could buy 1oz bars if you prefer. Glad you found the information useful, thanks for stopping by and commenting. Penny

Thanks Shawn, I really liked your last couple of articles too! :)

Good for you John, you're already a step ahead just by owning a little. Thanks for the comment.

Hi Rob, yes it can be a difficult decision. I think the important thing though is that people have at least something that's physical and not paper, whether that's either gold silver or some combination of both, preferably in their own possession outside the financial system where there is no third party risk. Thanks for stopping by to comment Penny

Thanks Kevin, I'm glad you found it helpful.

Thanks for visiting Stacy, I hope you found the information useful.