How to Stack Silver
For brand new precious metal investors, no concept is more confusing than silver stacking. There seems to be an entire subculture built up around stacking silver. But still, getting started can be tricky. The unique lingo and terms used by silver stackers to describe their favorite hobby can be impossible to decipher, especially if you’ve not started stacking silver for yourself. So what is silver stacking? What is a silver stacker? And most importantly, how can you start stacking silver to build your precious metal portfolio?
Hero Bullion’s always going to have your back with the tools and tricks you need to jump into the world of silver stacking. This guide is all about how to stack silver. On this page, you’ll find a complete list of all the tools you need to start stacking silver bullion with confidence. Whether you buy from us or another dealer, you deserve to know the tools of the trade.
Introduction to Silver Stacking
Before you understand how to stack silver, it’s important for readers to comprehend the basic concept of stacking silver. Silver stackers who know how to stack silver the right way understand concepts like spot price, premiums, and total cost.
What is Silver Stacking?
Silver stacking refers to the process of purchasing large quantities of pure silver. Silver stackers generally procure their silver over a long period of time. Usually, stackers target coins, bars, or rounds with the lowest possible premiums over spot. If you’ve ever bought silver bullion, you know that this struggle is a real one.
We’ll explain which silver stacking products give stackers the most bang for their buck later. For now, know that silver stacking is a numbers game. Stackers aren’t usually looking for the most beautiful silver coins or bars in the industry. Instead, their interest is in finding underrated coins that sell relatively close to spot. If a silver stacker is smart, they may be able to secure hundreds of ounces of silver without breaking the bank on premiums.
Why Stack Silver
Silver stackers stack silver products for a number of reasons. By stacking smartly, investors can secure impressive quantities of high purity silver for cheap. Sounds like a good plan? We could spend all day talking about the community of silver stackers, the beauty of a large silver stockpile, and more. But we won’t. Because at the end of the day, all that matters for investors learning how to stack silver is that this is a method that helps you get more silver for cheaper.
Benefits of Stacking
There are several benefits to stacking you should know before you can really dive into how to stack silver. We’ll highlight the 3 main benefits to stacking silver below: long-term investment stability, beauty of products, and ease of liquidation.
Long Term Investment Stability
Silver is a long-term investment. Every year, silver investors try to play their collection as a short-term profit machine, and they lose money. While some people may make some extra cash buying and flipping silver coins or rounds, others are destined to take significant losses. For the average investor, smart silver stacking means betting on the long term.
Still looking to learn how to stack silver smartly? We have some good news. Over the past century, silver has proven a profitable investment for millions of collectors around the world. Compared to gold, silver is easy to stack. Products are cheaper than gold coins or bars; stackers don’t have to worry about having to spend $2,000 for one ounce of silver.
Beauty of Products
Like we mentioned above, learning how to stack silver means sometimes buying cheaper products instead of the beautiful works of arts sold by some of the world’s most reputable mints. This doesn’t mean that you have to settle for ugly coins or bars with minimal obverse/reverse artwork.
Silver stackers tend to see the beauty in silver bullion itself. In some ways, a silver stack is its own product. The shine and prestige of hundreds of ounces of silver in a safe is beautiful. Perhaps even more importantly for investors looking to learn how to stack silver for the first time, buying frugally doesn’t mean that you need to sacrifice the look and feel of quality coins.
That’s right – collectors who know how to stack silver smartly can secure beautiful, underrated coins from around the world to enrich their collection. Buying with finances in mind doesn’t mean only buying coins that look cheap or ugly. By brushing up on how to stack silver, you can expand your stack with some of the world’s prettiest coins.
Easy Liquidation
Because silver stackers often build their stacks using a combination of different products, liquidating for some quick cash is generally no big deal. Non-stackers may put all their money on large kilo silver coins with expensive premiums. When an emergency happens and these investors need extra cash, they’re out of luck. If your portfolio is built with massive bullion coins, cashing out might mean losing a major chunk of your stack.
Instead, investors who are well-acquainted with how to stack the correct way have a massive stock of junk silver that they can quickly liquidate at a moment’s notice.
How to Get Started Stacking Silver
Ready to learn how to stack silver? We’ve got you covered. From start to finish, the next 3 subsections are going to explain how to get started stacking silver.
Setting Your Stacking Goals
Setting your investment objectives is an essential part of any new gold or silver purchase. It’s important that stackers learning how to stack silver first start by setting their stacking goals. Do you want to save up 100 ounces of .999 fine silver? Is your goal more ambitious? These types of questions can go a long way when you sit down to set a budget or plan your next silver stacking purchase.
Where to Buy Silver
On the surface, buying silver seems simple. But for a stacker who’s aware of how to stack silver the smart way, the place you choose to do business with is an important part of your stacking game. Below, we’ll outline 2 options: online silver dealers and local shops.
Online Silver Dealers
Online dealers have changed the silver stacking game permanently. Instead of dealing with the limited stock offered by local distributors, smart silver stackers can now browse hundreds of silver products from the comfort of their own homes. If you’re looking for information on how to stack silver, what you really need to figure out is how to find the right sellers for your favorite coins, bars, and rounds.
Local Shops
For some stackers, there’s nothing that beats dealing in-person with a local coin or silver shop. Whether your silver stack is built from Silver Britannias or classic junk constitutional silver, local shops might provide discounts you can’t find anywhere else. But investors should also know that local shops typically can’t provide the kind of variety and stock offered by online dealers. We may be a little biased – Hero Bullion is a growing online silver dealer based out of Texas.
If you choose to purchase your junk silver bullion locally, be sure to shop around at multiple distributors before making a call.
Types of Silver to Stack
Still need more information about how to stack silver? Let’s take a look at three of the main types of silver stackers love to buy. There are several options for silver stackers looking to expand their collection. We’ll focus on 3: silver coins, silver bars, and junk silver bullion.
Silver Coins
Silver coins are a certified classic for a reason. These silver products offer exceptional obverse and reverse designs and are backed by sovereign governments from around the world. Popular silver coins include the Silver Eagle, Silver Britannia, and the Canadian Silver Maple.
For smart silver stackers, coins come with one big problem: premiums. Silver coins have some of the highest premiums over spot in the industry. This means fewer ounces of pure silver for your cash. For stackers who care about how to stack silver the smart way, there’s a way to stack silver coins without destroying your budget. Look for coins that are being sold on special from major online dealers to get the most bang for your buck.
Silver Bars
If you’ve ever read about how to stack silver, you know that silver bars are a bastion of the stacking community. There’s a reason for this, too. Silver bars are inexpensive to make, which means that they’re cheaper to buy than most other silver products. Expect to pay a far smaller premium for silver bars than you would for silver coins.
Remember: silver stacking is a game of quantity. While silver bars aren’t as beautiful as coins, they usually contain .999 or .9999 fine silver bullion. This means that they’re perfect for collectors who want to get as much silver in their hands as possible without spending too much of their hard-earned money.
Junk Silver
Junk silver is also referred to as constitutional silver. These coins were usually once released as circulation currency. They’ll bear marks of damage and normal wear and tear and don’t look as beautiful as the BU silver coins that some collectors love to see. Still, junk silver can be a fantastic way to stack pure silver without searching long and far for the cheapest coins or bars possible.
Over time, buying several ounces of junk silver at a time can exponentially increase the size and value of your silver stack. Investors wanting to learn how to stack silver should put their effort into finding affordable junk silver. If your goal is to maximize silver content and minimize premium costs, buying .90 junk silver is a good place to start.
Storing Your Silver Properly
Even if your silver stack is primarily made of junk silver, learning how to stack silver involves learning to store your collection properly. Generally, collectors have two main options when it comes to properly storing and collecting silver bullion: home storage and storing with dealers or banks. Both options come with considerable benefits – as well as drawbacks. We’ll outline these 2 main methods of storing silver below.
Home Storage
Storing your silver stack at home is definitely a possibility. In fact, most stackers hold their silver collection in home safes. The convenience of having your silver bullion close is tough to match. You can always check on your silver if it’s right at your home. And even more importantly, transporting your silver stack is always going to be easier if you cut out the middleman and don’t have to go to the bank or another silver dealer to move product.
But as you learn how to stack silver, keep in mind that there are clear risks to keeping your collection at home. First, note that some homeowners’ insurance policies might not protect the full value of a considerable silver bullion collection. Check with your insurance provider to see what their coverage limit is on qualified precious metals.
If your precious metal collection isn’t covered by your insurance provider, you might be out of luck if there’s a theft or natural disaster.
Storing with Dealers or Banks
Dealers and banks might also offer to hold onto your silver stack. This is an option that has continued to grow in popularity. Popular dealers have storage programs that allow you to place your entire silver stack in their insured, highly secured vault. This option nearly eliminates the possibility of your coins, bars, or rounds being stolen or lost. But it also comes with a cost; expect to pay some sort of monthly or yearly fee to keep your silver stack at a bank or dealer’s vault.
Final Thoughts: How to Stack Silver Smartly
Congratulations on taking the first step to becoming a silver stacker. Silver stacking has been one of the most popular ways to invest in silver for centuries. While regular investors tend to focus on the quality of their investments, silver stackers emphasize quantity. Targeting the most profitable and cheapest silver products, stackers who know how to stack silver the right way understand the benefits of cheap, quality silver.
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About The Author
Michael Roets
Michael Roets is a writer and journalist for Hero Bullion. His work explores precious metals news, guides, and commentary.