By Jeff Clark
Silver has been sizzling and causing lots of buzz in the industry. Investors are excited.

Part of the hubbub is due to its current run. Since its February 8 low, silver has roared ahead 22.4% (through June 21) and has doubled from its November 2008 low.

This excitement has spilled over into greater investment demand – especially so for coins. The U.S. Mint sold more Silver Eagles in the first quarter of this year – just over nine million – than any prior quarter in its history. The Royal Canadian Mint produced 9.7 million silver maple leafs in 2009, also a record.

Take a look at the jump in U.S. Mint coin sales since 2007.

Silver bullion ETFs are growing, too, experiencing a five-fold increase in metal holdings since 2006.

There’s plenty we could talk about with silver, but our goal is to make money. So let’s focus on answering just two questions: Is today’s price expensive or cheap? And, what are the best silver coins, ETFs, and stocks to own?

We have all the answers straight ahead, including lots of actionable info, so let’s jump right in...

Why Should I Buy Silver?

There are several reasons to own silver in addition to gold.

First, it’s cheaper! Known as the poor man’s gold, those with limited budgets will find it easier to purchase. You might hesitate plunking down $1,200 for an ounce of gold, but you can pick up 32 ounces of silver for half that amount.

Second, silver has wide industrial use and this component can help or hinder its price. As its consumption increases across a growing number of industries, this should help place a floor under demand. And because of its unique properties, new uses continue to be discovered.

Third, silver is money and has served this role more than any other material on earth, save gold. Due to its historical role, silver will always have monetary value and offer similar protection as gold to the ongoing global currency devaluations, and will definitely benefit from the inflation hurricane we see as inevitable.

Silver is more practical as a currency used for everyday purchases. When the time comes, you can sell the requisite number of silver coins to cover a specific need, as opposed to being forced to liquidate a high-dollar-value gold holding. Silver is perfect when smaller amounts of cash are required.

Fourth and last, silver could possibly outperform gold before this bull market is over. The market capitalization of silver (and silver stocks) is much smaller, making its price more susceptible to demand spikes than gold.

In the latter part of the 1970s precious metals bull market, gold gained over 700% – but silver soared over 1,400%. If you’ve got a bit of Gordon Gekko in you, we recommend investing a portion of your dollars in silver.

Caution - Hot!

Like all things, silver has its drawbacks, two in particular.

First, the price is volatile. Over the past 12 months, silver has seen gains of 53.8% and 22.9% and drops of 21.9% and 19.6%, all within a period of months or even weeks.

If you’re going to own silver, you must be prepared for big price gyrations. The best way to do that: buy it and forget about it. And...

►Make price volatility your friend. Big price swings present the opportunity to snag silver at a big discount. We give some guidance on prices below.

Second is the storage issue. As your pile grows, the advantage to storing gold will become self-evident. At $1,200 gold and $18.50 silver, $10,000 will get you eight gold eagles that will fit nicely in the credit card slots of your wallet; however, it will buy 540 silver eagles, weigh nearly 34 pounds, and fill a small bank safe deposit box.

►How to store physical silver. There are several ways to solve the storage dilemma, even if you plan to buy like the Hunt brothers.

Spread your holdings around. Not only is it wise to avoid keeping all your physical silver in one place, diversifying your storage arrangements allows you to buy more. Hide some at home in several locations (no cookie jars, though), and obviously tell only one trusted person. Store some in a bank safe deposit box and use more than one bank as your holdings grow.

Buy bars. Silver bars take up less space than a pile of coins of the same weight. We wouldn’t start out with nor have all our holdings in bars, because you want the advantage coins offer. But the larger your holdings, the easier it will be to store some of it in bar form.

Use pool accounts and unallocated storage. With a pool or unallocated account, you’re essentially getting free storage no matter how big your stash. That’s hard to beat. You’ll pay fabrication and delivery charges if/when you convert your holdings and take delivery, but in the meantime, you save on storage costs. Great value for the large holder.

Private storage. Store your silver with a private vaulting company. The advantage is that it’s outside the banking system; the disadvantage is that it’s usually expensive, though it can be cost effective for large holdings. Do your own due diligence if you go this route because we can’t vouch for any facility, but you could start by checking out delawaredepository.com. Keep in mind that using a vaulting facility beyond a reasonable driving distance will mean added shipping/insurance costs and restrict quick access.

Is Now a Good Time to Buy?

With the gains we’ve seen in silver, would we buy right now?

Let’s first look at the big picture. The following chart shows how far silver is below its inflation-adjusted peak reached in 1980.

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