I Was a Gold-Only Investor — Here's Why I Started Buying Silver
I used to think silver was pointless — gold was simpler, more efficient, easier to store. So why did I start buying silver? Three things changed my mind, and none of them were 'silver is going to the moon.'
I used to think silver was a waste of time. I’d see people stacking giant towers of silver rounds and wonder: why? You’re filling a closet with metal at $70 an ounce when you could just buy gold and be done with it.
Gold felt clean. One coin, serious money, done. You don’t need a safe the size of a mini fridge. You don’t need to track premiums on 15 different products.
Then I started buying silver, and realized I was wrong about a few things.
Where I Was Coming From
I’m a Boglehead. Index funds, keep it boring, don’t try to beat the market. When I started thinking about precious metals, I approached it the same way. What’s the most efficient way to hold metals as insurance? Gold. Higher value per ounce, lower storage hassle, better liquidity for large amounts. You get the most protection per square inch of safe space.
My first precious metal was a 1 oz American Gold Eagle. One coin, done. That was my metals allocation — go on, live my life, stop watching charts.
If you’re a gold-only person right now, I actually get it. That logic is clean. I’m not here to tell you you’re wrong. I’m here to tell you what I didn’t think about when I started.
Three Things That Changed My Mind
1. Divisibility. What if you actually need to use your metals someday — not sell them to a dealer, but use them? You pull out your gold eagle and it’s worth $5,000. You can’t buy groceries with that. You can’t make change.
Silver gives you small denominations. One ounce of silver is roughly $75 — something actually usable if you ever need to liquidate a small amount or trade in kind. Gold is the savings account. Silver is the wallet.
2. Premium recovery. I always assumed silver premiums were a rip-off — paying $5 over spot for a coin that’s only worth $70. But I didn’t account for what happens when you sell. An American Silver Eagle doesn’t sell at spot. It sells at spot plus a premium. If you bought at spot plus $5 and sold at spot plus $4, your real cost wasn’t $5 — it was $1. Government-minted coins hold their premiums in a way generics typically don’t. That changes the math considerably.
3. The gold-to-silver ratio. The ratio tells you how many ounces of silver it takes to buy one ounce of gold. Currently around 64. The long-term average is closer to 40–50. In simple terms: silver is cheap relative to gold. Or put another way, gold is expensive relative to silver.
That’s where my Boglehead brain kicked in. I’m not buying metals for upside — I’m buying them for insurance. But if I’m buying anyway, I might as well buy the one that’s historically undervalued. Right now, that’s silver.
What I Actually Buy
I stick mostly to government-minted bullion coins: American Silver Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, British Britannias, Australian Kangaroos, and Krugerrands. Widely recognized, easy to sell, and they do carry premiums but those premiums also help on the sell side.
I’ve started adding some generics as well. Within government coins, Maple Leafs are probably the best value — lower premiums than Eagles, recognized worldwide. Eagles are the blue chip option, highest premiums to buy and sell, but also the most recognized silver coin in the United States. The net cost is similar because of premium recovery, but there’s something to be said for holding a coin that everyone knows.
I avoid bars (divisibility problem) and anything with an unusual design. Skull rounds, novelty coins — I understand the appeal, but when you want to sell, unusual designs attract less interest and lower buyback offers.
How Gold and Silver Fit Together
Gold and silver aren’t an either/or choice. They’re doing different jobs.
Gold is the anchor — concentrated value. If I ever need to move my entire metals position in one coin, that’s gold. Something I hopefully never touch.
Silver is the flexibility — practical in small amounts, and because it’s cheaper per ounce, it’s also what I can keep adding to consistently. I’m not saving up thousands every time I want to buy. I pick up a coin or two when the price and premiums make sense.
Together, I target about 5% of my total net worth in precious metals. Not 10%, not 20%, not 50. Five. This is not my retirement plan. It’s insurance. And you don’t spend half your income on insurance.
If you’re a gold-only person and you’ve made it this far: I’m not telling you to dump gold and go all in on silver. I’m telling you that silver solves a couple of problems gold doesn’t. Ignoring it because it’s cheap was the same mistake I made initially.