The Case for Silver

Recent strength in the price of silver on the back of France’s ‘No’ vote deserves further attention. Silver prices have risen dramatically in recent years and we wanted to learn if silver bars is just along for the ride with gold, or if there is more to the story.

Silver Outperforming Gold
Silver has had a strong run the last couple of years. After rising by 24 percent in 2003, silver had a strong year again in 2004, rising by 13.6 percent and ranging from a low of $5.63 per ounce to a high of $8.29 per ounce. In 2004, to buy silver bullion outperformed gold by 9.6 percent.

Silver’s Excellent Supply and Demand Fundamentals
Today, demand for silver far outstrips supply – 2004 marked the fourteenth year in a row that industrial demand outstripped silver coins . The accumulated silver supply deficit since 1992 is now more than 1.4 billion ounces, which has been satisfied through the disposal of government stockpiles.

In 2004 the US government sold the last of its silver stockpile, and the Chinese government sold about 40 million ounces from its stockpile, a sharp reduction from earlier years. With US stockpiles gone and Chinese inventory drastically reduced, the only other known government stockpile is in India, which announced in early 2005 that it would sell off its entire 65 million ounce inventory over the next three years at a rate of about 20 million ounces a year.

Bullish Outlook for Silver Prices
Silver and gold prices are likely to move higher with any continuing weakness in the US dollar. In addition, the depletion of above-ground stockpiles continues and at some point will be insufficient to feed the silver deficit, requiring higher prices to establish equilibrium in supply and demand.

In short, silver has fundamental strengths that make it extremely attractive as a store of wealth, and the future for silver prices has never been brighter.

Some investors gather through the layout around the reverse on the coin. The reverse of a lot of sovereigns has St George slaying a dragon. A different reverse style is really a shield. The shields of Elizabeth II, Victoria, William IV and George IV are actually utilized.Other enthusiasts pick to gather by portrait variations. More than the reign of some queens and kings they’ve applied diverse portraits for the sovereigns more than the many years. For instance, George VI has two distinct portraits a single with and 1 not having a laureate on his head. There had been four portraits for Victoria. Two have been young portraits with and with no a day, a jubilee head and an older portrait. George V received two portraits one particular smaller along with the other a bigger head. Elizabeth II experienced 5 portraits that contain the very first, decimal, third, sovereign in 1989 and also the forth portraits.