You can buy silver in all different sizes and shapes, but the one troy ounce coin is the most common international silver bullion minted product. After that it is probably the large silver bars.
The one troy ounce coin is the rough equivalent to the original Spanish piece of eight silver ounce coin in 1700's use as a global trading currency. The original US dollar was first issued against this currency. That's why the original quarter dollar was also known as two bits = one quarter of eight bits. This was done to give the US dollar legitimacy as an international trading currency. The US dollar could be exchanged at the mint for one ounce of silver bullion, on demand.
You can buy the coins individually. However, tubes, (or sleeves,) of 25 coins are very popular, as are boxes containing multiple tubes of coins. As with anything else, quantity earns a small discount on your per unit price, not to mention your per unit shipping costs.
.999 refers to the purity of the silver. Some mints refine silver coins with other metals mixed in. So you can get say .997, or .500. The Kennedy half dollars were .500 silver I believe, (50% silver.)
I stick to bullion coins, and .999 fine purity. This is the best you can get and is the most common modern standard.
Numismatic coins are a different animal entirely. They are minted with a dollar denomination stamped on the coin - so it has a numerical dollar value on it's face as well as a metal content value. Numismatic coins, theoretically, are for use as coinage in the general day to day economy. Their metal content is often mixed with other metals, like steel, aluminum, nickel, or copper, even tin. The idea is to improve their durability. These are the coins that coin collectors commonly buy and trade. Like stamp collectors collect stamps. Many numismatic coins go from production straight to the collectors, which also happens in the stamp world.
The numismatic coin's value tends to increase over time, especially with limited production runs. However, the value also degrades with the loss of fineness of the coin over time, and numismatic coin trades are usually taxable.
Bullion, on the other hand, is simply just metal. The fineness is important, and quality of appearance is nice, but bullion coins generate no collector premium values unless they are very old and very rare, like old Roman coins, or recovered Spanish treasure bullion. Bullion is often tax exempt for purchasing and trading, including across many borders, (but certainly not all.) Bullion trading is very heavily regulated in India, for example.
With bullion coins, what you are paying for is the metal itself. With the right equipment, you could melt down a silver Canadian .999 maple leaf bullion coin, and forge an American .999 silver eagle coin. They have the same metal content, and usually sell for a similar price..
Thank you for the explanation. I'll be researching more!
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