Precious Metals Spot Price Charts
New bullion collectors often have many questions about precious metals spot price. For the uninitiated bullion stacker, terms like spot price and premium can seem pretty confusing. We’re firm believers that investors should be completely informed about precious metals before they consider buying gold, silver, or platinum products. Understanding the current precious metals spot price is an important part of building a flexible, profitable portfolio. This page is going to be your guide to everything a collector needs to know about precious metals spot prices, including the current spot price of various metals, information about how to buy gold and silver products, and more. Keep checking back to get the most up-to-date information available about the value of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.
Precious Metals Spot Prices Today
To get the current precious metals spot prices for today, check the top of this page. Our chart is always updated to reflect the latest prices for the world’s precious metals. Over time, the value of gold and other precious metals will shift significantly. After all, precious metals markets are historically very volatile. Spot price refers to the current value of a precious metal. This value is usually stated in troy ounces. One troy ounce of gold can be worth a different amount from day to day, and this amount is tracked using the spot price of gold. The same can be said for any precious metal. But spot prices aren’t the only thing you need to know about before you buy precious metals.
What are Premiums over Precious Metals Spot Price?
Premiums are also an important financial consideration for investors. Without an understanding of how premiums work, you might be shocked when your precious metal product costs more than you anticipated. Precious metals are sold for a combination of their spot price and an additional premium on top. There are several factors that contribute to the premium charged for a particular bullion product. Some precious metal items are sold for higher premiums over spot than others. One good example of this phenomenon is the Silver Britannia from the Royal British Mint. Other bullion products are sold with relatively small premiums, such as silver and gold bars.
Why are Precious Metals More Expensive than Spot Price?
Premiums over spot for precious metals are determined both by the cost of production for the product in question and the overall demand/volatility in the market. Premiums shift and can be different each month, week, or even day. Premiums help bullion distributors to ensure a profit for themselves. If all gold was sold for spot price, it would be much harder for distributors to continue making enough money to offer their precious metal services.
What is “Buying the Dip” in Precious Metals?
‘Buying the dip’ refers to purchasing more precious metals when the precious metals spot price decreases. This decrease is called a ‘dip,’ or a brief price decline before an eventual rise. In other words, buying the dip allows investors to follow the most important rule of investment: buy low and sell high. Investors who closely monitor the precious metals spot price quotes at the top of our page might eventually develop the skills to recognize when the price of gold, silver, or platinum hits a brief low. When this happens, buying high quantities of a given precious metal product can help you build your portfolio while also saving money. The cheaper your initial gold or silver investment is, the more money you’re likely to make after you sell for a higher price.
How Much Precious Metals does Spot Price Refer to?
When we talk about precious metals spot price, we’re referring to the cost to purchase one troy ounce of pure bullion. The spot price of gold, for example, shows us how much it would cost to just purchase one troy ounce of the bullion. This doesn’t take premium into account, though. Expect to pay quite a bit more than the spot price of gold for a 1 oz American Gold Eagle.
Factors that Influence Precious Metals Spot Price
Spot price for precious metals is determined by several important factors. Like all assets and commodities, the value of silver, gold, and platinum is highly dependent on supply and demand for these precious metals. When large stores of silver are discovered, increased supply means that spot price will likely decrease. Alternatively, new technological and industrial demand for platinum might mean a higher spot price than usual. Precious metals spot price is also determined by invisible factors, such as market speculation. Large investors with knowledge of hard-to-spot key indicators may buy or sell large stocks of silver or gold, causing the supply on the market to increase/decrease and value to drop/climb.
What is the Spot Precious Metals Price Today?
The spot precious metals price changes daily, so we can’t give any kind of evergreen estimate. However, the top of this page includes a price chart for all of the major precious metals that Hero Bullion sells. Keep checking back to track price trends over time. In doing so, you can start to buy the dip and sell at higher prices, securing additional gold, silver, or platinum for your investment portfolio.
Does Cost of Production Influence Precious Metals Prices?
Cost of production is indeed a component used to determine precious metal prices. However, it’s important to note that cost of production influences precious metal premiums – not precious metals spot price. Mints that use a sophisticated, expensive design and minting process are usually forced to charge higher prices for their bullion products. Major mints like the U.S. Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint might charge higher prices than small mints charge for their rounds or bullion bars. Cost of production isn’t the only value in the total cost of a precious metals investment. Precious metals spot price is also influenced by overall market demand, investor speculation, and a number of smaller key indicators.
Investing in Precious Metals
If you think the current precious metals spot price is favorable and you’re ready to buy, it’s time to look into some of the main advantages – and risks – of investing in precious metals.
Pros of Investing in Precious Metals
There are three main benefits to investing in precious metals directly. The history of value appreciation, the physical nature of the asset, and the opportunity to hedge against inflation are three commonly cited reasons why financial advisors recommend adding precious metals to your diverse investment portfolio. To begin with, consider the historical value appreciation offered by precious metals. For thousands of years, cultures from the Ancient Egyptians to modern Americans have used gold and silver as a store of wealth. Because gold, silver, and platinum items are scarce assets with a limited supply, their value tends to consistently increase over time. While stocks are reliant on the performance of the companies they represent, gold and silver hold intrinsic value and appreciate as supply slowly declines. Products like silver bars are also physical, tangible investments. Investors who aren’t satisfied with keeping their investments digitally or in a bank might benefit from holding assets in their own vaults or safes. It’s also very important for new investors to remember that physical assets can help to survive difficult economic conditions by holding their intrinsic value over time. Perhaps the biggest benefit of investing in precious metals is their ability to hedge against inflation. Regardless of the current precious metals spot price, bullion items are non-correlated assets. This translates to a unique class of investments that can withstand difficult economic times.
How to Buy Precious Metals
Green bullion investors might not even know where to begin when buying precious metals products. The current precious metals spot price is a good place to start researching, but you’re eventually going to need to figure out how to actually search for, purchase, and secure your precious metals investments. We’ve got you covered with a brief guide below.
Finding the Right Dealer
Choosing the perfect bullion dealer is an important first step in your investment journey. You never want to do business with a sketchy bullion dealer. Try to find an online or local bullion seller that is honest and upfront with you about prices, special deals, and popular products. Communication is key. Hero Bullion works hard to open lines of communication to our vital customers. We even offer an email group. Signing up allows us to email you when the precious metals spot price shifts so that you can be prepared to respond and improve your portfolio in the process.
Avoiding Scam Precious Metals Dealers
There are unfortunately hundreds of scam precious metals dealers all over the world. You should always research extensively before doing business with a new bullion distributor. Without this research, you might end up buying a counterfeit coin or being overcharged for your silver or gold products. Look for companies that are transparent in their prices, clear on communication, and positively reviewed by other bullion buyers. When you search for customer testimonials, look for reviews that deal with the types of products that you intend to buy. Some dealers might have great reviews for silver products but poor testimonials for gold or platinum. A comprehensive research process is the first thing you need to do before buying a new bullion bar, coin, or round.
Precious Metals ETFs
If you worry about keeping track of physical precious metals, consider investing in precious metal ETFs. With this special type of stock, investors can profit from increases in the value of silver or gold without actually holding the actual metal. In this section, we’ll dive into some of the advantages and disadvantages of holding precious metals ETFs.
Advantages of Precious Metals ETFs
The biggest advantage of investing in a precious metals ETF is that these stocks don’t require you to secure your bullion products. You can trade gold, silver, or platinum as if they were stocks, buying and selling as you please. Because these aren’t tangible precious metal assets, precious metals ETFs don’t require you to search for a buyer when it’s finally time to sell and take your profit. Buying the dip and selling freely is a major benefit of precious metals ETFs.
Precious Metals ETFs Risks
Like all investment strategies, spending money on precious metals ETFs comes with inherent risks. Precious metals spot price shifts still allow you to profit from changes in the value of your precious metals, but you won’t be able to make money off of numismatic value increases if you choose to buy precious metals ETFs. In addition, a major risk of a precious metals ETF is that the platform guaranteeing your investment might default or shut down. When this happens, portions of your investment might be unbacked by insurance policies, meaning you’d lose money. While it’s extremely unlikely, many bullion investors prefer physical precious metals because they are tangible, physical assets with intrinsic value. Non-correlated assets are a good way to diversify your portfolio, and precious metals ETFs are not non-correlated.
Precious Metals Spot Price and ETF Values
ETF values should correlate directly with the current precious metals spot price. When silver or gold is expensive, ETFs will also be priced highly. During times of low investor interest and diminished precious metals spot price, ETFs will be cheaper to buy. Ultimately, investors are still able to ‘buy the dip’ when they put money on precious metals ETFs. We recommend closely following the market if you plan to invest in silver, gold, or platinum ETFs. These stocks and their values are governed by the same forces of the rest of the market, and the investment mantra of buying low and selling high is still true.
Do I Own Precious Metals if I Buy Futures?
Futures are a relatively new way to invest in precious metals. When you invest in a futures contract, you’re functionally betting on the future value of a given precious metal. If your prediction is right, you’ll be able to profit from the difference between your buy-in and the current precious metals spot price of your asset. Long story short, you don’t actually own precious metals when you buy futures. However, some investors don’t understand that a futures contract means that you do accept delivery of the quantity of gold or silver you’ve agreed to purchase. If you don’t sell your futures contract before the agreed-upon date, expect to have to find a place to store all of the precious metals you’ve purchased.
COMEX Precious Metals Spot Price
COMEX is a major stock exchange. They regularly track the precious metals spot price. Following the COMEX price trends page is a good way for investors to develop a baseline knowledge of the value of silver, gold, or other precious metals over time. COMEX isn’t the only exchange that tracks the value of silver or gold ETFs, but most exchanged will have similar estimates of silver’s current spot price or the overall precious metals spot price.
NYMEX Precious Metals Spot Price
NYMEX is one of the most popular exchanges in the world and offers another resource for investors to quantify the price movements of precious metals over time.
Popular Precious Metal Products
If you’ve decided you want to invest in physical precious metals, the next step is to figure out which specific product fits your investment needs and objectives. There are a number of gold, silver, and platinum products available on the Hero Bullion website.
Bullion Coins
Bullion coins are one of the most popular ways to invest in precious metals. The price of a bullion coin is determined both by the current precious metals spot price for your precious metal and the premium associated with the item you want to buy. A few bullion coins might have higher premiums over spot; our American Silver Eagle offers high demand accompanied by an increased premium over spot price. A coin is a bullion product minted in the shape of a circle by a government mint. Products might look similar but be produced privately by a smaller minting operation – we call these products rounds, and we’ll talk more about them in a later section. Here, we’ll talk about the main reasons why bullion coins remain one of the primary investment vehicles for millions of bullion investors.
Advantages to Buying Bullion Coins
The biggest benefit to buying bullion using coins is the numismatic value they offer. Unlike utilitarian bars or unpredictable rounds, coins remain a recognizable and highly collectable precious metal category. Their intricate, detailed designs on platinum coins, for example, make them fun for collectors to add to their portfolios. Because of this, these coins might appreciate in value because of their numismatic importance to serial collectors. This makes bullion coins unique from other products, such as precious metal bars. When the precious metals spot price increases, every precious metal product becomes more valuable because of its silver content. But some bullion products, including gold or silver bars, only increase in value relative to the precious metals spot price. Coins don’t have this problem, as they also hold and appreciate in value on numismatic grounds. A coin might be worth far more than the spot price of its bullion years down the line – simply because of its rarity and beauty! Beauty is also something worth talking about regarding bullion coins, as the beauty of a coin directly correlates with its total cost and numismatic value. Bullion coins come with unique, beautiful designs backed by government mints and stamped with the work of expert artisans. While some bullion rounds or bars might also be aesthetically pleasing, it’s hard to match the beautiful depictions decorating the world’s most domineering bullion coins.
Bullion Bars
Bullion bars also offer their own advantages, but this class of bullion product is certainly different from the coins we just discussed. For the most part, investors tend to prefer bullion bars because of their lower premium over precious metals spot price compared to other precious metal products. Bars are not stamped with the intricate detail of coins like the American Silver Eagle, and mints kick those savings back to you. Most of the time, you’ll be able to secure bullion bars for close to their value in spot price. Gold, silver, and platinum bars are popular among stackers because of these savings. If you plan on collecting a significant amount of silver or gold, bars may be a better bet than coins or rounds. In the section below, we’ll discuss just a couple of the main benefits of buying bullion bars.
Advantages to Buying Bullion Bars
We’ve already touched on the low premium prices associated with bullion bars. While these bars can’t match the numismatic value provided by a beautiful silver or gold coin, bullion bars are a stacker’s dream come true. If you’ve ever seen images of thick silver bars stacked in a safe deposit box, you should already know that bullion bars are a solid no-nonsense way to invest in precious metals. The key to stacking bullion bars is to closely follow precious metals spot price charts. When the market hits a low, it might be time to buy the dip and expand your holdings of bullion bars. Remember, the limited numismatic value of most bullion bars means that the value of your investment hinges primarily on the price action of gold, silver, or platinum. Smart investors should understand their time horizon and buy/sell accordingly. Stick with your investment plan! We don’t want you to misunderstand: some bullion bars are beautiful works of art. Certain commemorative bullion bars might also hold significant numismatic value and could appreciate over time. If you’re looking for bullion bars that might be valuable to collectors, search for pieces with low mintage numbers and impressively detailed obverse artwork.
Bullion Rounds
To the untrained eye, bullion rounds might look almost identical to bullion coins. There are a few notable differences between these two bullion products, however. Most importantly, bullion coins can only be created by government mints. Bullion rounds, on the other hand, can be designed and poured by private mints. Because of this, there’s a higher variety of bullion rounds on the market today than bullion coins. This should come as no surprise; there aren’t all that many government mints in the world but there are tons of private mints. Hero Bullion even makes our own bullion rounds. We’ve recently released a series of 5 oz Hand-Poured Silver Rounds that add a unique historical twist to any bullion portfolio. But we aren’t the only mint producing quality silver and gold rounds on site. With hundreds of mints to choose from, bullion rounds offer investors the opportunity to take a risk on rare bullion pieces that might hold substantial investment value in the future.
Advantages to Buying Bullion Rounds
Bullion rounds are a bit harder to measure in value than bars or coins. Bullion bars are simple to evaluate because their value is heavily reliant on the current precious metals spot price. Coins might have numismatic value, but shopping around to see what other sellers are asking for their coins is a good way to get a rough estimate of total cost. Rounds are often sold on the secondary market, but certain bullion rounds can be rare and hard to find. This works to the advantage of bullion round investors, at least according to some experts. With so many mints making their own unique bullion rounds, it can take quite a bit of research to figure out which rounds might appreciate in value down the road. This time investment pays off for patient speculators, however, because premiums on discontinued popular bullion rounds can skyrocket years after the round stops being produced by its source mint. This fascinating type of privately minted bullion product also offers investors the opportunity to get their hands on unique designs and artwork. Some mints try to replicate the feel of existing coins, putting their own spin on a coin like the American Silver Eagle to capitalize on the popularity of the U.S. Mint’s most popular coin with their own silver round. Other mints take a different approach, instead highlighting underrated but beautiful cultural symbols or commemorating special historical events. Some of these coins are treasure troves for investors who crave unique bullion pieces they can’t find anywhere else.
Storing Precious Metals Safely
After you’ve used the current precious metals spot price to purchase a cheap and potentially valuable investment of gold or silver, your investment process isn’t over. Smart investors take deliberate steps to prevent their precious metal products from being damaged. In this section, we’ll cover some choices you can make to protect your investment – and secure your financial future for decades to come.
Safe Bullion Storage Methods
For low-volume silver or gold stackers, the easiest way to store your silver is in a safe. Don’t get cheap when looking for the right place to secure your investments. You’ll want a safe that is waterproof and difficult to break into. The more protections your chosen safe offers, the better off your investment will be. Keeping gold or silver in your home isn’t always a great idea; storing precious metals where you live opens your investment up to additional risks. If you plan to store your gold, silver, or platinum at home, we recommend considering buying an addition to your existing homeowners insurance. Some insurance plans might cover all of your silver or gold investments, but others might provide a limit to the amount of precious metal value they’ll cover for replacement in the case of disaster, accident, or theft. If this is the case, inquire with your insurance provider about purchasing additional insurance. You might never need to cash in on insurance policy for your investments, but it’s certainly better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your financial future. For investors with high quantities of precious metals, it might be worthwhile to explore a different storage method. Many mints and banks will allow you to keep your bullion products in their vaults. This offers an additional layer of protection, as bank deposits are generally covered in higher amounts than precious metals stored at home. Make sure to vet the business whose vault you plan to pay to use. Always make sure the company you give your silver or gold to is willing to provide proof that your investment is still in its safe upon reasonable request.
Protecting Your Precious Metals Investment
It should go without saying that the value of a precious metal investment decreases whenever your products are damaged, scuffed, or partially destroyed. Some investors might not be aware of the steps involved in getting coins professionally graded. Store your coins, bars, or rounds in a cool, dry place and avoid handling them outside of their protective cases unless absolutely necessary. The condition of some products, such as gold bars, might be slightly less important than the grade of your bullion coins when it comes time to sell. Still, it’s wise to always protect the value of your precious metal portfolio by taking precautions when handling, moving, or storing the products. The last thing any investor should want is to lose value on their precious metal products at a time when precious metals spot price skyrockets. You deserve to make all the profit you’ve worked hard for – don’t let bad storage practices ruin your chance at financial security.
How Often does Precious Metals Spot Price Change?
Precious metals spot price changes constantly. We’ll keep this page updated with the very latest information about the current spot price of precious metals. Please check back constantly and use this page as a resource to help you improve your investment efforts. Always do your research before you buy or sell a new bullion product. Because precious metals spot price is such a volatile market, you’ll want to think carefully prior to your first – or your hundredth – precious metal purchase. Buy low, sell high, and keep on stacking!
