Month: August, 2011

Profiting From Silver

Although silver is often looked at as gold’s younger sibling, the reality is that this “white metal” has a plethora of its own unique uses and functions in our society.  As modern technology advances we are rapidly finding numerous ways to utilize silver in an industrial setting as well as medicinal, hygienic, and environmental uses.

Silver is an essential ingredient in the production of photos in dark rooms.  In recent times, the rise in the popularity of digital photography has caused this aspect of silver’s market to decline.  Silver prices are still on the rise due mainly in part to its use in industrial machinery, but also in jewelry and collectables. Read the full article »

by  /  August 29, 2011  /  Posted in: Precious Metals
Tagged: ,

You Cannot Have Gold Without Silver

Very rarely you’ll come across someone who likes both silver and gold. A person will like either one or the other but never both. Yet the two seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly, green eggs and ham, sunshine and picnics, baseball parks and hot dogs…well, you get the idea. At a time when the US dollar and any other currency for that matter aren’t really amounting to much, precious metals are making a comeback and gold isn’t the only one either.

Palladium is a white-silver metal, often mistaken for, can you guess, silver. As a member of the platinum family, palladium’s history is parallel to that of platinum. When archeologists discovered the use of platinum in civilizations such as the Esmeraldas people who dwelled on the northern coast of Ecuador centuries before the Spanish arrived, they found that it wasn’t pure platinum but platinum combined with palladium. The same was found in Egypt where a platinum/palladium combination was found inlaid amongst decorative boxes carved with ancient hieroglyphics. It was doubtful that palladium was even known for what it was back in those days and it wasn’t recognized as a separate element until the early nineteenth century. Read the full article »

by  /  August 28, 2011  /  Posted in: Precious Metals
Tagged: ,

The American Buffalo

In 1979, Canada created the Gold Maple Leaf, one of the first coins to be minted with 99.99% pure gold.  In 1982, China released its Gold Panda coins at 99.9% pure.  In 1986, Australia produced its Gold Nugget coin, also at 99.99% pure gold.  Then, the United States made its Gold Eagle in 91.67% pure gold, and it was no wonder that it had a hard time matching these other coins.  Many investors would choose the more pure coins when selecting bullion, leaving the United States with a wide gap in the market on which it could not cash in.

It was not until 2006 that the Presidential $1 Coin Act demanded the United States make a pure bullion coin to compete on the world market.  This new bullion coin was to be made of 99.99% pure gold and be available as a one-ounce coin.  To ensure the public’s approval and the popularity of the coin, the Mint made the choice to reuse the Indian Head design first created in 1913 by James Earle Fraser.  The Mint’s habit of choosing beautiful and historically important artwork for its bullion coins continued with this selection.  This new Gold Buffalo would be the United States’ primary full-gold coin. Read the full article »

by  /  August 27, 2011  /  Posted in: Precious Metals
Tagged: ,

Your Gold Coin Investment

It seems like every day the economy is changing, sometimes for the better but more often then not the economy is plummeting, with many state jobs being laid off, causing the job market to become incredibly flooded.  State jobs aren’t the only ones that are at risk, it seems like every company is forced to make cuts, if not having to completely shut themselves down entirely.  Because of this everyone is going to be looking for alternate means of making some additional cash.  This can usually come in a number of different ways, but by far one of the more popular choices is getting involved in investing.

Obviously there are going to be risks with investing, if it was such a sure fire thing then everyone would be doing it.  If you want to get involved in investing then the first thing that you need to do is pick a product that you know is going to be popular for some time.  One of the biggest mistakes that potential investors will make is picking a product that has hit a peek point in popularity.  While it might be popular now, usually after it hits a peek it will start to decrease in popularity, meaning that by the time you actually begin to start investing your product isn’t going to be as sought after, making it difficult to actually make a profit, and sometimes even becoming a challenge just to break even. Read the full article »

by  /  August 26, 2011  /  Posted in: Precious Metals
Tagged: ,

A Rare Silver Coin Commemorates Assassination

You know you have made it as a memorable leader when your assassination is made into an official state coin!  Why, not even the greats like Kennedy or Lincoln had such a bizarre honor.  Oh, but Caesar did.  His assassination inspired a Roman rare silver coin, marking a landmark occurrence in Roman civilization.

Metro Online reported that the coin is expected to bring in over 300,000 pounds when it is auctioned off in September of 2011.  Why this fascination over the death of Caesar?  It’s easy to understand in 2011, as considerable time has passed, and Caesar is now a man of historical fascination.  Why though did the Romans create such a coin?  The Romans actually loved their coinage, and eagerly created coins based on anyone in power and everything interesting that happened.  This rare silver coin was once known as the Eid Mar, and was the size of a 1p piece.  It was minted after the murder of Caesar and was minted—by all people!—by Brutus, the assassin. Read the full article »

by  /  August 15, 2011  /  Posted in: rare coins
Tagged: ,
© Gold Trader Today