This page on how to buy silver covers everything you need to know about buying silver, including what silver is, why silver is valuable and has been valuable throughout history, why silver may soon become more valuable than gold, the different ways silver can be bought, links and resources for even more information on silver, the current value of silver and buying silver in general.

Historically the price of silver, though volatile and hinging on the fickle hands of supply and demand, has always closely followed the trend of Gold in value and price. If gold prices rise, silver prices rise, and if gold prices fall so does the price of silver. http://seekingalpha.com/article/176338-silver-could-rise-even-if-gold-falls

The current state of the world’s economy and the plummeting value of the US dollar have sent investors world-wide scrambling to get all the tangible, cold hard gold they can get their hands on. This dive for gold has caused the demand for Gold to sky rocket. Being that both gold and silver obtain value from supply and demand, we see a steady rise in the price of gold and so as history shows, silver follows suit by rising in value as well.http://www.investingadvisers.com/articles/archives/the%20Texashedge/gold_will_rise_but_silver_will.php

However, investors believe that the cost of silver may soon exceed even that of gold. Further more, it’s hypothesized that as the value of silver rises, it may also break free of the chains of it’s brother investment gold, not only exceeding it, but failing to fall in value when gold does.http://seekingalpha.com/article/176338-silver-could-rise-even-if-gold-falls

When seeking to buy any investment product or valuable resource, one of the most important steps is to understand what exactly it is you are buying. A firm understanding of what you are purchasing is important to understanding it’s current worth and value over time.

Most everyone has seen silver at some point in their lifetime, but what is silver really and how do we use it?

What is Silver?

Silver is a metallic mineral found in the earth. It's atomic number is 47 and symbol is Ag standing for its Latin name Argentum which may have originated from the word Argos meaning “shiny or white”. This is supported by the fact that Silver appears as a bright, white colored metal with impressive luster. Its early Latin name was even “luna” meaning “moon” as it was thought to shine like the moon.

For over 5,000 years silver has captivated the mind’s of humanity first as a shiny thing to be worked into jewelry and other ornamental objects and later as a tool of science and industry.http://www.mii.org/Minerals/photosilver.html http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele047.html

How is Silver Used?

Silver conducts heat and electricity better than any other element in existence making it extremely valuable beyond its beauty.http://www.chemistryexplained.com/elements/P-T/Silver.html The list of uses for Silver is extensive and dominated by three main categories:

• Industrial such as batteries, bearings, electronics, brazing and soldering, and catalysts.
• Traditional such as photography, art, silverware, jewelry and coins.
• Emerging such as water purification, mirrors and coatings, medical applications, and solar energy.http://www.silverinstitute.org/silver_uses.php

Without silver, much of modern technology would fail.

Silver’s value is dependent on supply and demand. Currently there are no new silver mines in existence. Even if new mines were found it would take time to throw them into production. Pure Silver mines account for 35% of the world’s silver production and are nearly depleted. The other 65% of production is obtained as a by product of other mineral mines, however many of these minerals such as zinc, lead and copper dropped in value due to over production causing many of the mines to close. Coupling this with the fact that only 5% of silver produced is recycled for re-use and we begin to understand that the supply of silver on earth is disappearing while its demand grows with every new technological advance.

After understanding this we see that regardless of the economy or the value of the dollar, silver will likely continue to increase in value even if gold does not.http://goldprice.org/buy-silver/ http://seekingalpha.com/article/176338-silver-could-rise-even-if-gold-falls http://www.investingadvisers.com/articles/archives/the%20Texashedge/gold_will_rise_but_silver_will.php

There are two primary methods of buying Silver, to actually buy physical silver and to buy ETF’s or Exchange Trade Funds also known as Silver stocks.

Buying Physical Silver

Buying physical silver is just as it sounds, you buy actual silver products and store them yourself or in a bank. Here are the primary items that are purchased as tangible silver goods:

• Silver Coins such as the Silver Dollar
• Silver Jewelry
• Silver Bars
• Silver Bullion

While you can buy physical silver just about anywhere from thrift stores to collectors, there are silver dealers which specialize in the sale of silver. The top Silver dealers today are:

• The US Mint
• Kitco
• Monex
• Apmex

http://www.getmoneyenergy.com/2008/06/top-gold-and-silver-dealers/

Ownership of physical silver can also be purchased while the actual silver is held by a bank or company.

Buying Silver Exchange Trust Funds

An Exchange Trust Fund is essentially a share of a companies holding of silver in the form of a silver stock. http://www.etftopics.com/etf-definition/

Here is a list of the Silver ETF funds available:

• Shares Silver Trust
• ETFS Silver Trust:
• ProShares Ultra Silver
• ProShares DB Silver Fund
• ProShares UltraShort Silver
• E-Tracs Ubs Bberg Cmci Silver ETNhttp://etfdb.com/type/commodity/silver/

Silver Exchange Trust funds can be purchased through any stock brokeragehttp://www.ebullionguide.com/silver-etf.aspx