Picturing the end of the world and the collapse of global economic stability leads many bullion stackers to think what are the best silver coins for survival. Numerous scenarios could lead to financial collapse. Whether it’s nuclear warfare, unsustainable trade feuding, or a natural disaster, an end-times level event is always possible. No one wants to see the systems of the world come crashing down. But it’s always important to consider that this eventuality is a distinct possibility.

If the economy collapsed and the world as we know it were to end today, would you be prepared? How would you secure necessities, such as food, water, or even weapons, for yourself and your family? There are many ways to prepare for a potential apocalypse. But a growing number of savvy doomsday preppers are buying gold, silver, and other precious metals. Buying silver coins for survival is one great way to make sure that you and your family remain safe and secure, no matter what the future holds.

If the world were to end, then the currencies of governments would certainly lose any claim to objective value. This is why knowing the best silver coins for survival is imperative. Without a country to back them, how would United States Dollars be worth anything at all? The same is true for Canadian Dollars, Great British Pounds, Japanese Yen, and all other major currencies of the world.

But gold and silver maintain their value, even after the apocalypse. No government needs to assign value to these rare assets in order for them to have purchasing power. Whether you’re trading for food, clothing, water, or even luxury/entertainment goods, the value of precious metal is universally known, making it essential to know the best silver coins for survival. For the modern skeptic, collecting silver for survival is an important task for ensuring long-term survival in nearly any conceivable event.

But best silver coins for survival and what makes silver coins such a good way to amass silver for survival? Is silver better than gold? And what specific silver items are worth collecting? This guide for the “Best Silver Coins for Survival” will teach readers of the Bullion Academy everything they need to know about collecting silver coins for survival.

Remember: being prepared for every possibility requires preparation and diligence. Nobody is truly prepared for the end of the world. But with the help of smart silver investment, consumers can hedge their bets against even the most bleak of futures.

Top 5 Best Silver Coins for Survival

Below you will find our list of the 5 best silver coins for survival based on a few criteria outlined below each one of our picks.  Full disclosure; we did include 1 oz silver rounds even though they aren’t technically “coins” but their versatility and practicality makes them a lock for silver you need to own in a SHTF type situation.

1. 90% Silver Dimes:

   – Easily Recognized
   – Real US Currency – Has a Face Value
   – Small Denomination
   – Easy to trade for 1 loaf of bread or 1 Gallon of Milk and other Everyday Essentials

2. Junk 90% Silver Quarters:

   – Recognizability because it is US Currency
   – Real US Currency – Has a Face Value
   – Small Size – Less than 1/4 ozt
   – Trade for 2 loaves of bread or 2 Gallons of Milk and other Everyday Essentials

3. Junk Silver Half Dollars:

   – Recognized World Wide
   – Real US Currency – Has a Face Value
   – Small Size – Less than 1/4 ozt
   – Trade for 4 loaves of bread or 4 Gallons of Milk and other Everyday Essentials

4. 1 oz Silver Rounds:

   – Not technically considered a “coin” – No Face Value
   – Not minted by a Sovereign Government Mint
   – Essentially 100% Pure
   – Easy to Calculate Because it is 1 oz of Silver
   – Easy to Trade for Goods and Services

5. 1 oz American Silver Eagles

   – Most Recognized Silver Bullion Coin in the World
   – Minted at the US Mint
   – Essentially 100% Pure
   – Easy to Calculate Because it is 1 oz of Silver
   – Easy to Trade for Goods and Services

Why Collect Silver?

Silver coins and rounds are two of the most effective ways to financially prepare for long-term survival. There are a few reasons why silver is such a sound choice for investment. For one thing, silver coins and rounds are relatively cheap, and therefore important to collect the best silver coins for survival. Especially when compared to gold and platinum, collectors can amass a far larger collection if they look for silver coins and rounds.

This is especially important because trading bullion for commodities will become more difficult if the cost per unit of the bullion is high. Take gold as an example. Even relatively small units of gold hold considerable value in the status quo. Trading expensive gold coins for small commodities like food and water would be a tremendous waste of value. But with silver, the low spot price means that survivalists can purchase small commodities without sacrificing a high amount of tradeable value with each purchase.

Due to its availability and its relatively low price it is important to buy and stack the best silver coins for survival. Silver is a precious metal, but it is also highly available, particularly in contrast with gold or platinum. Governments all over the world regularly mint their circulation coins using at least some amount of silver. In the United States, many coins minted before the early 20th century were made using high silver content. This high availability makes it even easier for people to amass a high quantity of silver items.

This isn’t to say that silver is the only thing that the savvy survivalist is likely to collect. In fact, some bullion experts might even advise that consumers diversity their portfolio and collect all the best silver coins for survival. Doing so can make it possible to buy a wider variety of commodities when the need arises.

But for bullion collectors who want to maximize their ability to quickly increase the value of their collection as a tool for survival, silver is a nearly unbeatable option. Consider buying and collecting the best silver coins for survival because there is a wide availability of coins and the low spot price makes accumulating value simple, while silver is nevertheless sure to retain value as an asset in any scenario, even economic collapse.

Silver Versus Gold for Survival

As we explained above, the main advantage of buying silver is that it has a much lower spot price than gold. Both gold and silver will be capable of making purchases of key commodities in a world following a major apocalyptic event. But the startup investment cost for gold is great, and even fractional denominations of gold are relatively expensive. It can be difficult to barter for most common items using gold alone. And in a survival situation, these common necessity items are generally the most important objects to barter for.

This does not mean that gold doesn’t have its uses. Survival experts recommend carrying a variety of different currencies. While there’s little reason why currencies like the United States Dollar would remain valuable after the fall of its backing government, this does not mean that some people won’t still prefer to hold the currency as something to barter with.

Gold also has a few big advantages. Specifically, gold is great for making large purchases. It would take a whole lot of silver bullion, silver rounds, or silver coins to pay for an expensive medical procedure or a car, for example. Paying in gold for massive purchases in a survival scenario might require a currency with a higher spot price, because these currencies require less denomination to make these purchases.

In our minds, this makes silver the first stop for collectors looking to stock up to be prepared for whatever the future holds. Big expenditures are sometimes necessary, so diversifying your portfolio is never a bad thing. However, most immediate needs in a survival situation will be better acquired by using silver items as currency.

Identifying Valuable Coins

Recognizable silver coins are going to be some of the most valuable trading commodities in any survival situation in the near future. While the design on a coin has little purchasing power on its own, certain coins already have an established value among collectors well-versed in the bullion economy. Both coins and rounds have popular series.

This is particularly helpful when it comes to verifying value. Unrecognizable coins might be composed of high silver content, but distrusting traders might not know this at first glance. In the absence of an infrastructure of verifying the legitimacy of a coin’s silver composition, recognizing coins known to be filled with pure silver is one way that traders can make sure that the silver they’re receiving is legit.

There are multiple easily identifiable coins circulating the American bullion market. The American Silver Eagle Coin is one surefire option. The U.S. government has long guaranteed the high purity of this silver coin, and it has been a favorite of some collectors for decades. Its image of the American bald eagle is instantly recognizable to anyone who remembers the history and majesty of the US republic.

The Morgan Silver Dollar is another popular option for silver collectors. Additionally, the Kennedy Half Dollar, Washington quarter, Roosevelt and mercury dimes as well as a few other denominations that are recognizable American coins minted with a 90 percent of pure silver. Coins minted in the U.S. before 1965 are almost invariably struck with high metal content.

America is not the only place that survivalist silver collectors should look for their rounds and silver investments. The Silver Canadian Maple Leaf Coins have been continually minted for over thirty years, and their silver content is .9999 pure. Similarly popular high purity silver items exist all over the world; the British mint also produces a number of pure silver annual release coins. The Silver Britannia Coin and the Silver Queen’s Beast coins are just two examples.

Collecting Junk Silver Coins

While we recommend first looking for highly recognizable and pure silver coin variations, looking for junk silver is another good way to obtain as much usable silver as possible before a survival scenario takes place. The easiest ways to buy junk silver are to either purchase low purity silver coins in bulk or to buy junk silver packages.

A number of local coin dealers and online retailers sell bulk cull coins. Cull silver coins are coins with a relatively high amount of silver that have been circulated and contain some kind of noticeable impurity. While these coins aren’t quite as pretty as uncirculated variations, they still contain silver and can be purchased at an extremely low premium. American dimes are particularly popular, but most older U.S. coins can be purchased in bulk cull coin packages.

Buying bulk silver bullion directly is another option. While silver bars might not have the same aesthetic appeal as recognizable silver coins, they still contain extremely pure silver and can easily be used as a form of currency in a world post-economic collapse.

Safely Storing Survival Bullion

Some investors neglect the importance of this step in the process of securing bullion coins and other products for survival purposes. Safety when storing gold and silver bullion is essential. In a survival situation, having high amounts of any currency can make someone into a target for robbery, or even worse. To hedge against theft, investing in a quality safe is always a wise idea.

But using safes to store gold or silver can also present its own problems. In a truly dire survival situation, time is always of the essence. It might be necessary to quickly leave your home in a matter of hours– or even minutes. Having to pull a large amount of currency out of a locked safe.

Some doomsday preppers recommend keeping at least some currency in a “bug out bag.” This is a bag filled with all the basic necessities of a survival situation. It generally includes food, water, first aid supplies, and various types of currency. Packing and keeping a bug out bag in your safe can help to save valuable time. A few experts even advise keeping a second bag in the car or in another place outside of a safe to save even more time.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section should give readers a good idea of the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about buying silver for survival.

Q: Will silver maintain value after economic collapse?

A: While it’s impossible to say for certain, it is extremely likely that silver will retain some semblance of value, even following an economic collapse. Before the creation of fiat currencies, countless ancient civilizations used precious metals like gold and silver to barter.

Q: Is silver better than gold for survivalists?

A: In some ways, silver is the ideal precious metal for survival prep. Because of its low spot price and value per unit, collectors can amass quite a bit of silver without spending very much. This low value also makes it easier for survivalists to purchase essentials following a survival event.

Q: Which silver coins are best for survival?

A: It’s best for collectors to target recognizable coins with high silver content. These include coins like the American Silver Eagle, the Canadian Silver Maple, and more. All American silver coins minted before 1965 contain a high percentage of silver.

The Bottom Line: Silver Coins for Survival

Stacking the best silver coins for survival with a high percentage of silver is a great way for the savvy doomsday protector to hedge their bets against inflation and currency collapse. In the case of a massive world event, it is important to have some way to pay for goods and services. If you believe that the world is heading for some sort of collapse, amassing bullion is always a good choice.

When it comes to survival bullion collecting, our advice is to look for silver coins with a high recognizability and silver content. Doing so maximizes the odds that the items you collect will successfully retain value in the distant (or not-so-distant!) future.

Hundreds of Ancient cultures appreciated the value of gold and silver. Put simply: silver was valuable before our civilization, and silver will remain valuable long after the collapse.