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4 of the Best U.S. 100 oz Silver Bar Brand Suppliers

Large silver bars are made by government mints and private mints alike, since consumers and banks both recognize these units as a easy way to store a lot of value in a small space. Central banks prefer 1000 oz silver bars, also called Good Delivery Bars, when moving around assets, but in a pinch 100 oz silver bars will do. Most of these non-government, mega private mints, don’t sell direct; they sell wholesale to gold and silver retailers, and the retailers sell to the public.

Procuring 100 oz silver bars is one of the best ways to get the most metal for your money since, similar to other goods, buying in bulk reduces the premium, or upcharge, paid over the silver spot price. Plus, the bars look really cool. To give you perspective, 100 troy ounces is 6.86 pounds for those of us on the British Imperial System of measurement (what the United States currently uses), not the metric system.

It’s not likely you’ll see a list of best 100 oz silver bar suppliers without mention of Johnson Matthey or Royal Canadian Mint, however both of these respectable makers have their main offices are in London, England and Ottawa, CA, so they aren’t on the list for the good ole’ U.S.A. You’ll also not see Engelhard Corporation. Although loved, the New Jersey company went defunct in 2006. Any bars you may run across are 15 years old or more. On the list below we’ve attempted to recommend mints and/or refiners that are proven. Private mints come and go, but each one of these have been around for decades. Without further ado, here’s our list:

:::Asahi Refining USA:::

This astonishing silver bar was designed and introduced by Asahi Refining USA Inc. Asahi is one of 152 world refineries that makes Good Delivery Bars. Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, Asahi Refining USA Inc. is one of the most highly regarded private mints in the business. Opened in 1989, the qualities of their silver bars are quite unique – they exhibit a diffrerent finish than most bars.  They do not sell directly to consumers, but you’ll easily find their bars through the major retailers like a JM Bullion or APMEX.

Asahi has refineries in five countries on three continents: Toronto, Canada, Tokyo, Japan, Mexico City, Mexico, and Santiago, Chile. However, the reason why they made this list is because they have an American refinery in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their refineries service major industries such as: miners, recyclers, bankers, and distributors.

Asahi Refining purchased the gold and silver refining segments of London-based Johnson Matthey in 2014 for $186 million. Refining was just a small part of Johnson Matthey, which is primarily and still involved in the business of manufacturing specialty chemicals and sustainable technologies. The addition of Johnson Matthey’s refining operation helped cement Asahi Refining’s place as a global force of which to be reckoned. Read more about Asahi Refining.

Asahi Refining USA 4601 West 2100 South Salt Lake City, UT 84120

:::Scottsdale Mint:::

Located in Scottsdale, Arizona,  Scottsdale Mint is one of the largest privately owned mints in the Southwest. As a private American mint, their main focus is on create heritage and Christian designs. Collectors enjoy their innovative designs trademarked and patented shapes and structures.

Scottsdale Mint has brought back such items like the Bisbee and Tombstone silver bars which is a return to the Old West mining operations and the products put out at that time. The production of these types of themes and others are popular with their customers. Unlike some of the other mints, consumers can buy direct from them on their website.

Scottsdale Mint has trademarked Scottsdale Stacker®. These 100, 10 and even round bars have an innovative contrasting convex and concave striking on the two side which allows them to stack nicely with each other using interlocking edges that make a satisfying “click” noise when positioned correctly. You’ll often see many precious metal and diamond tradeshows in Arizona due to the mines and markets that still exist. Scottsdale Mint is one of my personal favorite silver bar manufactures. Read more about Scottsdale Mint.

Scottsdale Mint 20701 N. Scottsdale Road Suite 107-266 Scottsdale, AZ 85255

:::SilverTowne:::

SilverTowne was founded in 1949 in Winchester, Indiana, by Leon Hendrickson and his wife Ruhama. The rural coin shop eventually would go on to become a thriving national  business. In the early 1970s, SilverTowne recognized an opportunity to mint its own proprietary bullion products, as few companies were doing so at the time. In 1973, the company launched SilverTowne Mint. Today, the mint produces hundred of thousands of ounces of fine silver bullion each month.

In 2016, A-Mark Precious Metals acquired a majority stake in SilverTowne Mint. At the same time, the mint entered into an arrangement with Asahi Holdings to be its exclusive source of silver feedstock for minting bullion. SilverTowne’s other businesses, the coin shop and retail website, continue to operate as wholly owned enterprises. We hope to make a trip to Indiana and visit this coin shop some day because their mom and pop shop story is a true American Dream. Read more about SilverTowne.

SilverTowne 120 East Union City Pike Winchester, IN 47394

:::Sunshine Minting, Inc:::

Founded in 1979, the Sunshine Minting offers blanks, branded bullion, and custom order bullion. The mint was recognized by Inc. Magazine in its 2013 Inc 5000 list of the country’s fastest growing companies. In 2012, the company reported revenue of $706.1 million and 52 percent revenue growth over a three-year period. In 2014, Sunshine Minting manufactured 70 million ounces of silver bullion.

The company claims it is the world’s leading precious metal mint products supplier, selling its services to corporations, marketing firms, central banks, government mints, other organizations, and private investors and collectors. The private mint operates manufacturing facilities in two states  with it’s main presence in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. They also have a facility in Shanghai, China. Sunshine also has sales offices in Canada, Austria and Argentina.

Sunshine Minting provides vaulted storage of precious metal bullion for customers and other products and services including assay, art and design for custom bullion, extruding, casting, rolling, blanking, coining, colorizing, gold plating and more. Read more about Sunshine Minting.

Sunshine Minting, Inc 750 West Canfield Ave. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83815 USA

Keep stackin’!

-Phil Harmonic

https://www.goldandsilver.org/best-100-oz-silver-bar-suppliers/

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5 Government Guaranteed Cornerstone Silver Coins for Any Basic Beginner Collection

You’ve seen the headlines. After the short lived “silver squeeze” hit the mainstream news, there was a major uptick in searches online about silver. Frantic purchases based on the silver price scare. It became much ado about nothing. Or was it? The actual spot value didn’t go up hugely, but the premiums and demand on retailers did. Similar to how the Game Stop buyers squeezed, in a quick period of time, those in collaboration (Wall Street hedge fund managers) trying to perpetually short the stock, this silver squeeze revealed that the precious metals markets truly are manipulated. Good ole’ Chase Bank and the usual suspects decided to strategically buy more silver than ever before right in the nick of time to keep the price down amongst the scare.

The sky isn’t falling, yet. Now that the dust has settled, many are left wondering and wanting to get involved with collecting silver. Many may ask themselves, “How do I start?”  Should I buy silver coins, bars, or rounds? With what coins should I start my collection? We’re glad you asked. We’ll get in the tradeoffs are bars, rounds, and coins later. For this article we’ll be suggesting five simple silver coins of which a collector or stacker can start a respectable collection. On second thought, in these times, we would advise worrying about “respectable,” and just be concerned with hedging for inflation. Hedging for inflation includes diversifying within an asset class. One mistake that new collectors make is attempting to procure sheerly numismatic coins, when bullion gets the job done.

Thus, we’d advise to change your vocabulary in the beginner mode to “stacker” instead of “collector.” In order to stack silver or begin any basic collection, you don’t need to go with rare or numismatic coins. Go semi-numismatic, circulated, or even down-right worn. Try building a foundation to your stack with these five coins from three different countries. They’re recognized,  quickly liquidated, and easy divisible. Because each has a government-issued face value they are trusted and popular. Thus, you’ll never have an issue having them recognized and accepted.

American Silver Eagle (ASEs) –  These bullion coins that you wont likely see in circulation started in 1986 and still hold a face value of $1, although worth much more for key years. Starting in mid-2021, after 25 years, there will be a design change transition for both silver and gold eagles. This guarantees almost all of the previous designed coins will appreciate and key years will be even more valuable.

Pre-1965 Quarters –  Also called constitutional or junk silver, quarters made in 1964 and before are 90% silver. What used to be pocket change is worth more than face value. You can collect these in a classic Whitman Coin Folder for safe keeping. According to Coinflation.com, as of today, the melt value of one Washington Quarter dated 1932 – 1964 is $5.01, or 20x what it was in 1964.

Pre-1965 Dimes – Also called constitutional or junk silver, dimes made in 1964 and before are 90% silver. These also work nicely in a Whitman Coin Folder. According to Coinflation.com, as of today, the melt value of one Roosevelt Dime dated 1946 – 1964 is $2.00, or 20x what it was in 1964. Plus, in a worse case scenario, dimes are quite divisible for trade, so you’re not left buying groceries with a 100 oz silver bar and expecting change.

Pre-1965 Half-Dollars – Your older relatives may have started to hold onto these after 1965, since the Kennedy Half Dollars from 1964 are 90% silver, and the ones from 1965 – 1970 are 40% silver. We recommend the 1964 coins since it’s a key year – the year Kennedy was shot – and the math is easier on calculating the bullion value.

Canadian Silver Maple Leaf – These are our brothers and sisters to the north. Produced by the Royal Canadian Mint, these coins feature the queen’s image on the obverse and maple leaf on reverse. You can often buy one of these bullion coins for a lower premium than American Silver Eagle.

British Silver Britannia – Royal Mint has produced the Silver Britannia since 1997. These coins have changed designs numerous times since they have been produced. On even numbered years a Britannia, the female representation of Britain, is depicted. Since 2013 the proof coin has depicted a different design each year.

If you start with these five coins, your silver stack will be well-diversified by large nation government issued bullion in order to get you off to a great start.

-Phil Harmonic

https://www.goldandsilver.org/beginner-silver-coin-collection/

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7 Principles for Silver Stacking After the “Silver Squeeze”

With the recent “Silver Squeeze” that was brought about by members of a subforum on Reddit called BetOnWallStreet, and the mainstream news’ take causing a feeding frenzy, there has all of a sudden been more of an interest in the silver price.

Whereas many polls show 80 – 90% of those surveyed believe precious metals are a good idea to own, only 2% of the population actually goes bull and hold physical metals in his/her her household or in a secure storage location.

Although the mainstream interest may be short lived, many are now considering silver that never did before. Newbies that have been “bitten by the bug,” and/or suddenly stricken with FOMO.

Often these silver novices don’t know where to begin, and subsequently go to Google for answers. For this reason, we’re posting our first time-centric article riding on the coattails of the media commentary.

After building 1000s of evergreen info pages for this precious metals publication over the last three years as an educational foundation for those that like to read research, and learn, we’re now writing something more timely.

We’ve been studying the precious metals industry for the last ten years, even working for one of the largest online retailers at one time. Thus, we’re here to guide your way and give you our two cents on how to start with silver. Thus, we’ll start simple.

What is Silver Stacking?

Silver stacking, unlike coin collecting or numismatics, is all about the bullion. Meaning, the goal is to get the most precious metal for your money. The coins, bars, or rounds sought are often at least 99.9% pure silver.

Forget speculation, rarity, coinage limits, and being overly concerned with designs. It’s not about show and tell – it’s about saving your tail if or when you know what hits the fan.

The possible dystopian world of the future, no matter who is the President or what party is in power, where US dollars are worthless is the silver stacker’s worldview.

Possibly less dramatic, consider the fact that the current US National Debt is nearing $28 trillion, and the fact that Social Security is supposed to be dried up in less than 15 years. Hyperinflation is a very real scenario. All that being said, here are some principles for beginner silver stackers.

7 Silver Stacking Principles

1. Dollar Cost Average – Buy silver bullion when you get paid, no matter if the price is up or down. This is paying yourself first and dollar cost averaging. Buy even more on the dips on top of your regular cycle, if you can, but keep the cycle. The key is consistency.   


2. Pay Attention to Premiums – Buy silver bullion for the least premium, which is the amount the retailer charges above spot, possible. Know the current  silver spot price and do the math for what percentage over spot the retailer is charging. Shop around before making your final decision.   


3. Bulk Up – Buy silver bullion in bulk if you can afford it – typically ten or more of the same ounce size pieces, whether it’s one ounce pieces or 100 ounce bars,  at once will earn you a discount. 


4. Don’t Be Swayed by Packaging – Don’t buy slabbed, graded, and “first strike” coins. Brilliant uncirculated (BU) bullion silver in a plastic sleeve is fine, but don’t overpay. You don’t even need to worry about BU if you’re a true stacker. 


5. Stay Local – Consult your local coin shop (LCS) which can be a great supplier and offer deals that are less than online retailers in their bargain bin. 


6. Go Big on Bullion Bars – Consider 100 ounce silver bars as an option for your silver stack. They are easy to liquidate if needed, and take up less room when you literally stack them.  Three bars make a pyramid! 


7. Secure the Standard – Procure a Monster Box (500 one ounce pieces) of American Silver Eagles (ASEs) for one of the best bangs for your bullion buck. These bullion pieces complete with a government-guaranteed face value (which still means something as of now).

Happy stacking!

https://www.goldandsilver.org/principles-for-silver-stacking/