Is Gold Better Than Silver for Stacking?
Comparing gold to silver is one of the most important things a new investor can do. As you start planning to invest in precious metals, deciding which metal you want to invest in is step one. We’re here to help. In today’s guide, we’re going to answer an essential question that many new investors have: is gold better than silver for stacking?
To answer this question, we’ll have to start with an overview of what stacking is. Before this guide ends, you should understand the basics of how to stack gold and silver, as well as which one is better for precious metal stacking. Is gold better than silver? Read on to find out.
What is Stacking?
Stacking refers to the process of consistently buying cheap precious metals over a long period of time. You can stack any precious metal. Some people stack gold and platinum, while other investors prefer silver and palladium. Some collectors even stack copper, hoping that it might become more valuable in the future.
Why do people stack gold? Stackers have differing motivations. Some investors view their stack as a way to save for the future. Others are interested in preparing with bullion in case there’s a natural disaster or apocalyptic scenario.
Whatever your motivation, it can be difficult to navigate the world of stacking if you’re a new gold consumer. Is gold better than silver for stacking, or is silver a cheaper alternative? As we get closer to approaching this question, let’s take a look at how to stack gold and silver.
How to Stack Bullion
For stackers, value is everything. The cheaper you can manage to buy your gold and silver, the better off you’ll be. Stackers are usually in precious metals for the long haul. It’s uncommon to see a silver or gold stacker who has a short term time horizon.
Investors who want to get started stacking silver should have a good understanding of how silver premiums work. Premiums are small fees tacked onto the melt value of a silver or gold product. If you’re paying high premiums, that means you’re getting less silver for your money.
Is gold better than silver for budget investors? That’s tough to say. The better investment for stackers should depend on the specific products you’re looking at. Next, we’ll take a look at some of the best precious metal products for stacking.
Best Metals for Stacking
Is gold better than silver for stacking on a budget? Actually, investors working with a small amount of cash should worry more about premiums than the specific type of metal they choose to buy.
We’ll explain. The availability of fractional gold coins makes it possible for even investors with minimal capital to expand their collections with gold. Silver has always been quite a bit cheaper than gold, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the better investment.
Instead, focus your research on the product types you’d like to buy. What is the cheapest way to stack gold or silver? For many investors the answer is either cull gold coins or gold bars. Cull coins refer to gold coins that are not in excellent condition. In fact, most coins designated as ‘cull’ have significant damage, marks, or blemishes.
Because these coins aren’t in a great condition, they’re usually sold at a much lower premium than the Brilliant Uncirculated (BU) coins that most investors love to buy. Is gold better than silver if you’re looking for a cheap investment? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to find cheap gold bars and cull coins for sale.
Gold and silver bars are another great choice. Regardless of whether you go for gold or stick with silver, bars are a low-premium option that can help you build your stack without depleting your savings.
Comparing Gold and Silver Investments
So is gold better than silver for stacking? Let’s take a look. In the next few sections, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of how gold stacks up to silver for the average stacker. As always, make sure to take some time and do your own research after you finish reading today’s Bullion Academy blog.
Stackability
Stackability is a term that can have multiple different meanings. Generally speaking, stackability refers to how easily you can build a stack – or a large collection – of a precious metal. Is gold better than silver for stackers? Let’s find out.
Silver Versus Gold: Considering Storage Space
Many stackers tend to prefer silver because of its small price tag. During some markets, gold can be up to 100 times more expensive than silver. This makes it harder for you to build a truly massive stack if you choose to stick with gold. Is gold better than silver, despite its high price tag? Maybe not!
Gold comes with a little-known benefit of its own for savvy stackers. Because gold costs more than silver, you’ll need quite a bit of silver to equal the cost of one gold product. For an example, let’s say that gold is sitting at $2,000 per troy ounce and silver costs $20 per troy ounce.
In this scenario, you’d need to buy 100 1 oz silver bars to equal the value of a single ounce of gold. If space is a concern for your stacking project, gold might be the better choice.
Price
Is gold better than silver, despite its high price tag? Price is something that trips many new investors up when they first start stacking.
We won’t lie to you: gold will almost always be the more expensive choice when compared to silver or copper. However, it might surprise you to find out how affordable gold can be. Let’s take a look at how gold compares to silver when it comes to price and value.
Silver Versus Gold: Quantity Versus Quality
On the surface, it seems pretty obvious that silver is the more cost effective choice for stackers.
But when we dig a bit deeper, things aren’t so clear. If you’re working with a budget of $100, it might seem intuitive to buy several ounces of silver. But given the popularity of small fractional gold coins like 1/20 oz pieces, you could also obtain a much smaller gold piece for the same value.
What we have, then, is a debate between quantity and quality. For stackers who like purchasing multiple coins and bars, silver is a much better call. But is gold better than silver for investors? The availability of small fractional coins in the gold market might allow you to build a solid gold stack while also saving both money and space.
Liquidity
In the precious metals market, we use liquidity to refer to your ability to quickly liquidate your collection of gold or silver for cash. Some products are more liquid than others. If you’re collecting old antique coins, it might be harder to find a fair selling price for these items than for, say, an American Gold Eagle.
Gold Versus Silver: Which is More Liquid?
Is gold better than silver when it comes to liquidity? Yes and no. On one hand, gold might be more appealing to investors in certain market situations. But as a general rule, the quantity of silver you can get for your money might make it easier to liquidate in a smart way.
If you’ve got one-hundred silver rounds worth around $25 each, you can sell just twenty and net about five hundred dollars. But if the same amount of money you spent on your rounds was converted instead to gold, you’d only have about 1.5 ounces. It’s quite a bit harder to split a gold stack into manageable chunks for sale, which means you may be parting with more than you bargained for when it’s time to sell.
Investors often wonder: is gold better than silver? When it comes to your ability to quickly sell for some extra cash, silver is the better choice in most situations.
Which is Better for Stacking: Gold or Silver?
While we won’t be able to give a comprehensive answer to the question, “is gold better than silver,” we have prepared a couple of factors that investors should consider when comparing gold versus silver for their next investment.
Key Factors to Consider
In particular, we recommend considering your budget and personal preferences before embarking on your stacking journey. If you haven’t noticed yet, we don’t think there’s a clear best choice between gold and silver. Your budget, aesthetic preferences, and risk tolerance all factor into the choice between gold and silver coins, bars, and rounds.
Budget
Budget should be your main concern. Is gold better than silver, or is cheaper the more affordable choice? If you’re on an extremely tight budget, it can be tough to justify spending thousands of dollars on a large gold coin or bar.
However, the increasing popularity of fractional gold coins might change the narrative on the gold versus silver debate. As popular mints like the U.S. and Royal Canadian Mints continue to release coins in fractional (below one ounce) weights, investing in a quality gold coin might be easier than you think.
Is gold better than silver? Generally, we find that investors who are working on a shoestring budget benefit more from a large quantity of silver than from a massive gold bar or one ounce gold coin. This isn’t always the case. But if you anticipate needing to sell your investment in the future to pay some bills, having a stack of silver might be your best bet.
Personal Preferences
This is the big one. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you much about what your personal preferences are. The information in this guide should give you a pretty good idea of the advantages and disadvantages of gold versus silver for stacking. Is gold better than silver for your portfolio? It’s tough to say without knowing your investment objectives, preferences, and time horizon.
Do you enjoy the look of a silver coin, or do you prefer the shine of gold? Do gold bars and their low premiums over spot entice you, or do you prefer to stick with classic silver coins like the American Silver Eagle?
We encourage investors to dig even deeper into the differences between gold and silver, too. Is gold better than silver as a hedge against inflation? Does silver offer more industrial utility? Questions like these deepen your understanding of the precious metals market, which is an essential skill to have if you want to begin stacking silver.
Price Outlook for Gold Versus Silver
Both gold and silver are volatile commodities. This means that their prices can swing easily from day to day without much warning. Even if you’re an expert on predicting supply and demand and monitoring other economic indicators, nothing is guaranteed – especially when it comes to these finicky precious metals.
We will say that, over time, silver seems to have been the more stable metal. Especially in the past three years, silver’s price trends have been relatively constant – despite a few major price movements. This trend may hold – and it might not. It’s hard to say.
For new investors, we’d recommend defaulting to the precious metal that you both like and can afford. As more and more investors turn to bullion to enrich their portfolios, any precious metal seems like a good bet moving forward in the new world economy.
Is Gold Better Than Silver? Why Not Both?
One last piece of advice before we sign off: you don’t necessarily need to choose between gold and silver. Any financial expert will tell you that diversification is the best thing you can do for your portfolio.
The same is true for precious metal stackers. Is gold better than silver? Our question to you is a bit different: why don’t you try investing in both? Diversifying your portfolio with multiple precious metals can keep you in the green – even in a bear market.
Final Thoughts: Is Gold Better Than Silver For Stacking?
So is gold better than silver for stackers? There’s no clear-cut answer. Instead, we’d recommend that consumers do their own research to figure out which investment option is best for their needs and preferences.
Gold might be more expensive than silver and offer less liquidity, but it’s also easier to stack and surprisingly affordable if you know the right strategies for how to find cheap silver. Ultimately, we’d recommend that investors get the best of both worlds by diversifying their gold and silver stacks.
You might also be interested in:
About The Author
Michael Roets
Michael Roets is a writer and journalist for Hero Bullion. His work explores precious metals news, guides, and commentary.