Gold, Silver Prices Dip on Low Demand, Weak Global Trend!

Gold prices declined by Rs 55 to settle at Rs 27,075 per 10 grams at the bullion market on Saturday due to ease in demand from jewellers at domestic spot market coupled with weak global cues.

Silver also softened by Rs 190 to Rs 36,910 per kg on reduced offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

Traders said besides weak global trend, low demand from jewellers and retailers mainly led to the decline in prices of both the metals.

Globally, gold fell by 0.06 per cent to $1,181.30 an ounce and silver by 0.44 per cent to $15.96 an ounce in New York in yesterday's trade.

In the national capital gold of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity fell by Rs 55 each to Rs 27,075 and Rs 26,925 per 10 grams, respectively. Gold prices gained Rs 20 yesterday.

Sovereign also eased by Rs 100 to Rs 23,300 per piece of eight gram.

Following gold, silver ready moved down by Rs 190 each to Rs 36,910 per kg and weekly-based delivery by a similar margin to Rs 36,595 per kg.

On the other hand, silver coins continued to be traded at previous level of Rs 54,000 for buying and Rs 55,000 for selling of 100 pieces.

Story first published on: June 13, 2015 15:24 (IST)

http://profit.ndtv.com/news/commodities/article-gold-silver-prices-dip-on-low-demand-weak-global-trend-771315

Why Is The Dollar Sign A Letter 'S'?

The letter 'S' appears nowhere in the word "dollar", yet an 'S' with a line through it ($) is unmistakably the dollar sign. But why an 'S'? Why isn't the dollar sign something like a 'D' (like the former South Vietnamese đồng, or the totally-not-a-joke-currency Dogecoin)?

There's a good story behind it, but here's a big hint: the dollar sign isn't a dollar sign.

It's a peso sign!

Bohemian Rhapsody
Though the dollar and peso symbols are inextricably linked, the origin of the word "dollar" is rooted  elsewhere. Its story begins in 1500s Bohemia, a central European kingdom spanning most of today's Czech Republic.

Central Europe had just become rich with silver. After centuries of sending its silver (and gold) abroad in trade for consumable luxuries like silk and spices (very little of which ever found its way back), new sources of silver ore were discovered in Saxony, German Tyrol and Bohemia. 

With far more silver than still-scarce gold, Tyrol began replacing its teeny-tiny gold coins with big heavy silver coins of equal value. The newly-minted guldengroschen coin, 32g of nearly-pure silver, was an instant hit.

Fast forward to 1519. The Kingdom of Bohemia's Joachimsthal region was finally producing enough silver to begin minting a heavy silver coin of its own. 

This new Bohemian joachimsthaler coin improved on the guldengroschen, adjusting the weight and purity slightly to make the coin evenly divisible into existing European weights and measures. 

It rapidly became the new European favorite, and soon most anyone with silver was minting their own version. The thaler suffix came to refer to any and all of these similar heavy silver coins . . . 

And over the next few decades the thaler coins came to have several transliterated variations on their names: the Slovenian taler, Dutch daalder, and in English, the word thaler became dollar.

http://observationdeck.io9.com/why-is-the-dollar-sign-a-letter-s-1683940575

Precious Metals Demand Continues To Buzz - Biggest Price Move Yet To Come!

Despite the fact that it often seemed as if the fundamental and the technical aspects of the precious metals market were at war with each other, silver bull David Morgan believed both methodologies could be used to great benefit.

“These are not dead markets and based on research and experience, the biggest precious metals price move is ahead of us,” he told investors attending the Cambridge House International Vancouver Resource Investment Conference 2015.

Morgan pointed to rising precious metals demand, specifically for gold, from Asian countries such as India and China, which were setting the stage for the next chapter in the precious metals story.

He noted that investment demand for gold had risen significantly in India in recent years, as people who traditionally invested in more accessible silver, made the switch to gold as the population became increasingly affluent.

Despite this, silver demand also remained robust. This contributed to the significant trend of gold bullion moving from the West to the East. He said the most productive economies were the ones most likely to accumulate gold, as was evident with China currently aggressively buying gold. The country currently held about 20% of the global gold reserves.

Asia and China accounted for more than 52% of the global gold demand, after Hong Kong significantly started to lift its gold imports into the country. This started just after the gold price peaked at $1 921.50/oz on September 6, 2011.

This trend today continued unabated. According to Morgan’s data, physical gold holdings comprised about 3% of the total wealth in all asset classes, or about $33-billion out of $962-billion in total assets.

He expected the Shanghai exchange to become the new gold exchange of the world, much in the same way as the LSE had dominated the scene over the past several decades. Other metals were also expected to follow suit.

Morgan believed that the geographic shift might be a good thing, as Shanghai tended to be more transparent in its price setting than its Western peers. GREY MATTERS

Morgan, who has a penchant for silver, said the metal had not seen a lot of demand from professional investors in recent years and pointed out that it would be interesting to see how the markets would react if somebody took a significant position in the current milieu.

He said the $14.15/oz intraday low silver recorded in November was probably the bottom of the cycle for the grey metal, signalling the gradual and inevitable uptick in price. Dramatic low-price spikes were tell-tale signals that the price was possibly about to start an upward trajectory once more.

In 1980, the silver price rose to a peak for modern times of $49.45/oz owing to market manipulation by Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt. Inflation-adjusted to 2012, this would be about $138/oz.

Meanwhile, silver bullion sales had taken off. Sales of the top three silver coins, the American Silver Eagle, the Canadian Maple Leaf and Austrian Silver Vienna Philharmonic coins had grown from about $36.18-billion in 2008 to $85.78-billion in 2013.

Silver imports into India were also gaining traction once more, Morgan noted. Further, global silver output was on the rise, growing from about 600-million ounces in 2004 to almost $800-million in 2013. Most of the additional output stemmed from by-product output in the gold industry, at a ratio of about 10:1, as well as a significant rise in primary silver output.

Morgan said peak silver output had not yet been reached, although the industry was not far from it. Scrap supply was expected to remain at about 200-million ounces a year.

Adding to the strong fundamentals for the metal, technology was continually finding new uses for the metal in a swelling spread of applications, spanning diverse industries.

The photovoltaic (PV) industry, for example, had in recent years pushed demand for the metal up by a significant margin. However, as the steady march of innovation waits for no one, the use of silver in PV had also in recent times been economised, somewhat mitigating the demand impact the green technology had on silver.

http://www.miningweekly.com/article/precious-metals-demand-continues-to-buzz-biggest-price-move-yet-to-come-2015-01-19

Silver Prices To Outperform Gold In 2015!

I know it’s a bold prediction...silver prices are going to surprise investors and provide them with better returns than gold bullion. I say this because both the fundamental and the technical pictures for silver continue to improve.

Investing In Silver!

Demand and Supply:

The supply of silver produced continues to dwindle, while demand for the metal is robust. This is the perfect recipe for higher prices.

In Canada, a major gold-producing country, in the first nine months of 2014, mines produced 373,828 kilograms of silver.
 
In the first nine months of 2013, Canadian miners produced 510,390 kilograms of silver representing a 26% decline in silver mine production. (Source: Natural Resources Canada web site, last accessed December 9, 2014.)

Mine production in other silver-producing countries is also on the decline. As silver prices remain low, silver producers have less incentive to produce. And those whose production costs were too high have shut down their operations.

Meanwhile, the demand side for silver remains strong. From January 1 of this year to December 9, the U.S. Mint has sold 42.86 million ounces of silver in American Eagle coins.

In the entire year of 2013, the Mint sold 42.67 million ounces in similar coins. (Source: United States Mint web site, last accessed December 9, 2014.) Because of the holidays, December is usually a robust month for silver coin sales; hence, the number of American Eagle coins sold this year will only increase.

Demand for silver from India is strong, too. Ashish Mundhra, managing director of Mundhra Bullion, a precious metal dealer in India, said, “There is a tsunami in silver. Investors are pouring in.” (Source: “Silver Demand Returning, in Patches,”The Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2014.)

http://www.silverseek.com/article/silver-prices-outperform-gold-2015-13918

How People Get Rich Investing In Silver!

Gold gets all the headlines, but silver is a shrewd investment if you know what you're doing. One method of investing in silver is the tried-and-true idea of buying low and selling high. And right now, silver has momentarily dipped to 2008 prices.

 Silver Coins

So that might be your signal to invest in silver rounds, silver ingots or silver bars. However, there's another way of investing in silver that a lot of people don't know about. If you buy U.S. coins minted before 1965, many of them are made of 90% silver!

In fact, a long-time customer at the Liberty Coin & Currency store in Vancouver told an interesting story about how a silver coin held its value. He decided in 1964 to put a brand-new quarter in his pocket and carry it around for a while. 

At that time, he said he could buy a gallon of gas with that quarter. As amazing as it sounds, he is still carrying that same quarter. And today, that same quarter is still worth about one gallon of gas because of the silver content. 

However, if he had saved a quarter minted in 1965 (with zero silver content), it would only be worth 25 cents. So, in essence, silver has kept up with inflation.

The benefit of investing in bags of 90% silver coins is that you can typically buy them at a discount to silver bars or silver bullion coins. 

You pay a modest premium on top of the spot price of silver when you buy bullion. But bags of 90% silver coins carry a smaller premium when purchased in volume. That's why many people swear by investing in bags of silver coins minted before 1965.

Liberty Coin & Currency keeps live silver prices on our home page, so it's easy to see when it might be a good time to cash in on your investment. 

If you are ever interested in investing in silver bullion or bags of 90% silver coins the experts at Liberty Coin & Currency would be happy to discuss the advantages of both. And we would love to hear any of your gold or silver stories.

http://www.kgw.com/story/life/shopping/goldcoins/2014/11/10/how-people-get-rich-investing-in-silver/18816085/

Silver: Investing Essentials!

Mankind has been mining silver for more than 5,000 years. It is believed to have first been mined in what is now Turkey. 

Through the centuries it became an important trading component especially along the Asian spice routes. Today, silver is not only important for the value it holds but for the vast array of usages derived from its versatility.

What is silver and why is it important?

Silver is a soft and shiny metal that has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all the metals, as well as being the most reflective.

Because of its physical properties silver has a range of industrial usages. It's used to make coils, solar panels, water filtrations, electrical contacts and conductors, specialize mirrors, window coatings as well as being used in photographic film and X-rays. In 2012 44% of the world's silver supplies were used in industrial application while another 5% was used for photography. 

In addition to those uses silver's natural beauty is why it is used to make jewelry, ornaments as well as high-value tableware and utensils, hence the name silverware. Jewelry making consumed 17% of the silver supply in 2012 while 4% of the silver supply was used to make silverware.

On top of that silver has value as a precious metal. As an investment it's found in coins or bullion bars as a storage of value. In 2012 nearly 9% of the silver supply was used to make coins and metals while investors scooped up 15% of supply as it was turned into physical bars to store wealth and act as an inflation hedge.

What is the history of silver?

Silver was an important metal to the ancients. Greece mined silver and used it to grow its empire. Later the Romans mined it and used to for trade. But silver really took off in 1492 when the New World was discovered as it was loaded with the precious metal. 

The Spanish found more silver in the Americas than they could have ever imagined. Between 1500 and 1800, Bolivia, Peru, and Mexico accounted for 85% of the world's silver production and trade.

Since then new silver discoveries have been made around the world along with new uses for the versatile metal. Currently Mexico leads the world in silver production as it produced 169.7 million ounces of it in 2013. It was followed by Peru, China, Australia, and Russia.

Silver's price is largely a result of supply and demand because more than half of the world's silver supplies are either for industrial uses or for other practical purposes. 

But because it is a tangible asset and recognized as a store of value its price can be affected by other factors such as inflation, currencies, interest rates, and global economic fears. This has caused its price to have notable peaks as investor demand has pushed its price higher at times of fear and inflation as noted on the following chart.

How many ways are there to invest in silver?

While buying bars of silver and having them locked in a vault is one way to invest in silver it's not the most practical investment method for the average investor. Buying items made of silver like silverware, tableware, ornaments, or jewelry, for example, are very practical purchases that also act as an investment in silver.

In addition to that buying silver coins is another way to invest in silver in small doses. In Canada, for example, the Silver Maple Leaf coin is legal tender, while in Utah silver is also legal tender and can be used to pay debts.

Silver coin. Flickr user Sprott Money

In addition to that investors can buy Exchange Traded Funds that are invested in physical silver. This saves an investor from the inconvenience of storing physical silver bars as well as providing them with daily liquidity to easily sell their silver holdings when the need arises. 

Silver exchange-traded funds have become popular with investors because of the ease of buying and selling.

Finally, investors can also invest in the stocks of silver mining companies. These companies typically mine silver and other metals like gold, copper, and zinc so there is some added diversification. But there is also added risk as these companies might not trade lock step with the price of silver as miss management or higher costs could impact the investment.

Why invest in silver?

In some ways silver is seen as an alternative to investing in gold because both store value. In fact, since the Roman times the price ratio between silver and gold has been closely watched to determine which investment is a better value. 

Because of this the same factors that drive investors into gold -- namely concerns about inflation -- also drive investors to silver. But because of its industrial value silver's price is affected by economic expansion, which is why the case can be made that it's a better hedge against inflation during times of expansion because of the increased demand for silver from industrial users.

Whether as a hedge against inflation or to profit from an economic recovery silver holds a lot of value for investors. But the combination of silver's industrial value with its value as an inflation hedge still creates a lot of volatility within the price of silver, especially in today's fast paced exchange-traded funds marketplace. 

That's why in many ways one of the best ways to invest in silver is to simply enjoy its beauty through practical long-term investments like jewelry, which is an investment that loved ones can treasure for years to come.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/08/11/silver-investing-essentials.aspx