Sunday 20 December 2009

Tax on Silver but not Gold…?


Tax on Silver but not Gold…?
I’ve often wondered why there is a tax on silver in the UK but gold is tax free, the tax on silver at present is 15% but rising to 17% after the New Year does put some people of investing in silver bullion and so they would rather invest in gold bullion… The main reason that there is VAT on silver is that it is more of an industrial used metal and used by a variety of industries where as gold has a limited use due to cost, Unless your into silver for the very long term, it is better to buy silver in the UK rather than from overseas such as the US or Canada for example, this is because of the customs and shipping costs.

Buying Silver in the UK…

Firstly there are not very many silver bullion dealers in the UK. You can buy silver in the form of coins and bullion bars on eBay where individuals and dealers generally trade, the issue here is that the premiums can be high and if you want to buy silver for investment or to retain asset value, you need to look for that silver with the lowest premium, that’s not to say you cannot get some bargains on eBay as you can.

Old Silver Coins…

One way to buy silver cheaply is to buy old silver coinage whether its British, European or North American it doesn’t really matter as the premiums can be quite low on them, with a little bit of knowledge one can easily find and buy various types of silver coinage from early British .925 sterling silver from the pre 1920s to the debased silver British coinage after the 1920s at 50% silver (From 1947 silver was taken out of British coinage). A good point to make on silver coinage is that there is no VAT on this type of silver…

Wednesday 25 November 2009

New Britannia design for 2010…


A new design 2010 Silver Britannia will be released next year by the Royal Mint, the new design has been created by Suzie Zamit, since its release in 1997 the designs have been done by Philip Nathan… The Britannia comes in Silver BU and Silver Proof as well as a four coin Silver Proof set which consists of £2, £1, 50p and a 20p, produced in .958 silver as opposed to .999 silver this bullion coin is definitely one for the collection… Next years Britannia will come in a presentation box as opposed to the shabby plastic holder it has come in for the last few years this is a huge improvement and shows the mint is listening to collector and dealers…
http://www.silverbullionworld.com/britannia.html

Monday 23 November 2009

Silver the poor mans Gold…


Is silver the poor mans Gold…? Well in my opinion it is, silver rides the coattails of gold as gold rises so will silver and at a current ratio of around 62:1 it makes owning silver very affordable. The historic ratio for silver to gold was around 20:1 and this has held for much of human history until recent times… As the price of gold continues to rises so will silver and as the ratio of silver too gold closes silver seems to be the better investment long term, in uncertain economic times people run too gold pushing the price of a ounce of gold up higher to new levels and in doing so pulls the price of silver up with it… So if gold seems out of reach for your pocket then maybe you should consider silver as the next best option for a long term investment…