Why I Like Silver

When I was about ten, my Dad gave me a 1 ounce silver round.

He told me a little bit about silver then, how the price is always moving around, and how it is used in lots of industrial processes, and how it's a soft metal, so when it goes in jewelry and coins that are meant to be handled, there's usually some other metal in there as well like copper.

Some time later, I think he followed the thumping noise to my room, to find me banging on that silver round with a claw hammer on the carpet of my bedroom. It was not perfectly round anymore, and though I don't remember what design had been on the face, I do remember that it was pretty messed up by all of the tools that I had tried on that soft, pure silver.

My poor shocked Dad took away the mangled slug and I never saw it again. Looking back, I'm just glad I didn't try that experiment on anything valuable or rare.

It took until after a divorce and a few other life lessons for me to start collecting silver a little more seriously. I hope that I'll have some of the little things I've collected for the rest of my life. But, the bulk of my collection is meant to be converted, at some point, into something better. Like possibly a house. Or maybe other metals. I don't know, but it works at least partially as a diversified savings account.

And, silver will generally keep up with inflation better than cash under your mattress. Silver was around $5.70/ounce around this time in 1987. Today, it's $21.85. I should have kept that ugly slug.