wren Posted January 17, 2009 Report Share Posted January 17, 2009 I got a china panda today, nicest coin by far imo. I would recommend getting one for your collection if you haven't got one. Great coin, but I think the Australian Kookaburras, Koalas and Chinese Year Animal ones are on a par (at least on the animal side). Some general questions for any experts: What's the term for the dark grey and silver effect of these coins due to the raised surfaces? (Depends on the angle of the light, of course.) My Australian coins all have a "P" on them. Does this refer to the Perth Mint? Under the Queen's head is "IRB". Is this the artist's initials? The Koala has "SB" as do my Silver Maples at the base of the Queen's head. Again is this the artist's initials? How many coins do not have milled edges? My silver Philharmonikers have none. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dietcolaaddict Posted January 17, 2009 Report Share Posted January 17, 2009 Here is a chart showing the daily distribution of gold-to-silver ratio for each day since Jan 1 2000. The ratio currently favours buying silver instead of gold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azazel Posted January 17, 2009 Report Share Posted January 17, 2009 But I gave my wife a Panda pendant some time ago. Gold or silver?!! I like the panda from a design and engineering point of veiw. The the contrasts between the polished and frosted areas works very well and the detail and layout is excellent. The diagonal edge milling is different too. My previous favorite coin was a Brittania. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Here is a chart showing the daily distribution of gold-to-silver ratio for each day since Jan 1 2000. The ratio currently favours buying silver instead of gold. I believe this to be a more imporant chart. It shows the amount of above ground gold and silver in ounces since 1900. Use the chart to extrapolate the amount of above ground silver in 2020 and then tell me what you believe is going to happen to the price of silver. image from http://www.bullionmark.com/2008/12/how-muc...r-is-there.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziknik Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 I believe this to be a more imporant chart. It shows the amount of above ground gold and silver in ounces since 1900. Use the chart to extrapolate the amount of above ground silver in 2020 and then tell me what you believe is going to happen to the price of silver. image from http://www.bullionmark.com/2008/12/how-muc...r-is-there.html I guess that chart is not including recoverable silver in old / unused / broken / dumped equipment. Silver is not destroyed industrial use (?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixel8r Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 I guess that chart is not including recoverable silver in old / unused / broken / dumped equipment. Silver is not destroyed industrial use (?). A lot of silver is used in photography, most of which is recovered, so I think that this graph does include that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 A lot of silver is used in photography, most of which is recovered, so I think that this graph does include that. A roll of photographic film contains about 1/100 of an ounce of silver. Film is not recycled after use. The low price of silver makes recycling uneconomic, so much of the silver used in industry is lost forever. From the same web page I took the chart - 'The first chart shows that 1 billion ounces of gold existed in 1900 versus 5 billion ounces today in 2008. This makes sense. Gold is valuable, therefore hoarded and its industrial uses are largely reclaimed through recycling. Roughly new mine supply adds to the ounces in existence. However 12 billion ounces of silver existed in 1900 but only 1 billion remain in 2008. Yes thats right less than 1 billion ounces and there is 5 times more gold available than silver! Why is this so? Well silver has far more industrial uses than gold. It is critical to electronics, whitegoods, medical technology, solar technology, industrial equipment, water purification, photography, nano technology, military weapons etc etc. Silver is critical in our daily lives. However the low price of silver makes recycling uneconomic, so silver used is silver consumed and lost forever. Secondly, silver is mined as a bi product of other metals such as zinc, lead, copper and gold. Silver is scarce in the earth and very expensive to mine. World silver mine supply could decline substantially in the next 2 years as economic conditions worsen around the globe. Silver mines themselves are going bust (ie Macmin silver in Australia) but also the base metal miners who mine some silver as a bi product have now become uneconomic and closing at an accelerated pace. Peak silver is with us!' Some facts about silver - '# Silver has superior bactericidal qualities. Small concentrations of silver or silver salts kill bacteria by chemically affecting the cell membranes, causing them to break down. Bacteria do not develop resistance to silver, as they do to many antibiotics. # Silver is the best conductor of heat of all elements. Its uses in solar panels and automobile rear window defoggers take advantage of this quality. # Silver is the best conductor of electricity of all elements. In fact, silver defines conductivity - all other metals are compared against it. On a scale of 0 to 100, silver ranks 100, with copper at 97 and gold at 76. Silver is commonly used in electrical circuits and contacts. Silver is also utilized in batteries where dependability is mandatory and weight restrictions apply, such as those for portable surgical tools, hearing aids, pacemakers and space travel. # Silver has the highest degree of optical reflectivity of all elements. A silver mirror can reflect about 95% of the visible light spectrum. (most mirrors are silver). Besides vanity uses, mirrors are important components in telescopes, microscopes and solar panels. # Silver is more ductile than any element except gold. One ounce of silver can be drawn into 8,000 feet of thin wire. # Silver is more malleability than any element except gold. One grain of silver can be made into a sheet one hundred and fifty times thinner than a piece of paper.' From http://www.silverusersassociation.org/silver/facts.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bakachu Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Forgot 1 : #The price of Silver is incredibly volatile and may loose 50% of its value very rapidly! hehe What we need is for someone to use these properties and find a massive new industrial use for silver, that would be very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixel8r Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 A roll of photographic film contains about 1/100 of an ounce of silver. Film is not recycled after use. The low price of silver makes recycling uneconomic, so much of the silver used in industry is lost forever. From the same web page I took the chart - I am a professional photographer so know a bit about this. The silver in the film is removed into the photographic processing chemicals while the film is being developed. Professional labs all have the waste chemicals collected as the silver can be recovered out of them. I know this is the case as I am in daily contact with a professional film developer, he tells me that he gets paid for the waste chemicals as the silver can be recovered from them. These chemicals are picked up by the barrel load, so it is economical. BTW it is not only film, it is also a lot of the print technology used. I think about 90% of the silver used in photography is recovered. Things have been massively changing in the photographic industry over the last few years, these days the silver use is decreasing a lot, with digital photography and inkjet prints. I am a silver bull (see avatar), so please don't take this as me trying to put a downer on silver, just trying to correct your statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziknik Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 However the low price of silver makes recycling uneconomic, so silver used is silver consumed and lost forever. # Silver is the best conductor of heat of all elements. Its uses in solar panels and automobile rear window defoggers take advantage of this quality. Icarus, your knowledge of silver is astounding. I really look forward to you posts. A couple of points. Recycling will become viable as the silver price increases. This will slow the price rises. Rear heated windows do not use silver (because it’s too good a conductor). Rear heated windows are resistors. They get hot when you pass a current down them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixel8r Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 A roll of photographic film contains about 1/100 of an ounce of silver. Film is not recycled after use. The low price of silver makes recycling uneconomic, so much of the silver used in industry is lost forever. From the same web page I took the chart - To back up what I mentioned above you might want to have a look at this link; "The largest component of recycled silver comes from spent photographic film, paper, and solutions." Silver Recycling in the United States in 2000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 To back up what I mentioned above you might want to have a look at this link; "The largest component of recycled silver comes from spent photographic film, paper, and solutions." Silver Recycling in the United States in 2000 That is a good paper, thank you. As this is your area of expertise, your knowledge is bound to be greater than mine. The article you provided says that a roll of film contains, on average, 0.254 grams of silver, which is silghtly less than 1/10 of an ounce (troy). Furthermore, as you correctly pointed out, some of this is recovered - 'On the basis of the above figures, about 630 t of silver was contained in photographic products in the pipeline for delivery to consumers, on the shelf, or in the cameras of consumers. An estimated 420 t of silver was retained on negatives and photographic papers and was irretrievably lost.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Icarus, your knowledge of silver is astounding. I really look forward to you posts. A couple of points. Recycling will become viable as the silver price increases. This will slow the price rises. I hope so. It is a shame that we waste so much of such a valuable commodity. Rear heated windows do not use silver (because it’s too good a conductor). Rear heated windows are resistors. They get hot when you pass a current down them. Maybe the site is out of date. It was refering to the old fashioned strips, described on wikipedia this way '...electrically conductive lines are composed of a silver-ceramic material which when fired on glass becomes bonded to the glass and is highly resistant to abrasion. There is no danger of electric shock, because of the low voltage, and no danger of burns as the elements are only heated slightly.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defroster rather than the forced air type of defogger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziknik Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 Maybe the site is out of date. It was refering to the old fashioned strips, described on wikipedia this way '...electrically conductive lines are composed of a silver-ceramic material which when fired on glass becomes bonded to the glass and is highly resistant to abrasion. There is no danger of electric shock, because of the low voltage, and no danger of burns as the elements are only heated slightly.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defroster rather than the forced air type of defogger. Aha, it would work when mixed with a ceramic (resistor) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixel8r Posted January 19, 2009 Report Share Posted January 19, 2009 That is a good paper, thank you. As this is your area of expertise, your knowledge is bound to be greater than mine. The article you provided says that a roll of film contains, on average, 0.254 grams of silver, which is silghtly less than 1/10 of an ounce (troy). Furthermore, as you correctly pointed out, some of this is recovered - 'On the basis of the above figures, about 630 t of silver was contained in photographic products in the pipeline for delivery to consumers, on the shelf, or in the cameras of consumers. An estimated 420 t of silver was retained on negatives and photographic papers and was irretrievably lost.' I agree that the amounts aren't great per roll of film, but processors put thousands through their chemicals, so in the end it works out economical. It seems I was quite a bit out on my 90% recovery rate These days there is a massive switch over to digital going on in photography. The new digital cameras I am sure contain a lot more silver, on their circuits, which will never be recovered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziknik Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 CID have 2009 phillies at 7% VAT for UK customers!!! http://www.coininvestdirect.com/main.php?a=11&id=297 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HPCsoYESTERDAY Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 CID have 2009 phillies at 7% VAT for UK customers!!! http://www.coininvestdirect.com/main.php?a=11&id=297 aha! I thought they were cheap in comparison - good find Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moroboshi Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 CID have 2009 phillies at 7% VAT for UK customers!!! http://www.coininvestdirect.com/main.php?a=11&id=297 Nice! Although how does charging the lower rate work, er, legally ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziknik Posted January 20, 2009 Report Share Posted January 20, 2009 Nice! Although how does charging the lower rate work, er, legally ? They seem to do a 7% VAT rate for new products for a few weeks at then hike it up later. Legally your covered if you live in the EU because you’ve paid VAT in another EU country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpig Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Just so you know. If you are after physical silver you could try http://www.guernseymint.com they are very competitive compared to CID. I can't remember what CID charge for small volume P&P, but £7 rings a bell. So for 1KG... GM £312.00 + £46.80(VAT@15%) = £358.80 + £10 P&P = £368.80 CID £382.08 + £7 P&P = £389.08 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpig Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Can anyone recommend a silver bullionvault equivalent? I am only interested in silver measured in GBP and to be able to change the time frame of the graph, not too difficult a request, but I can't find one. Can anyone suggest a site I might have missed? netdania.com is close, but no GBP... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpig Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Just found this. This will do, but I'm still curious is there anything better out there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziknik Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Can anyone recommend a silver bullionvault equivalent? I am only interested in silver measured in GBP and to be able to change the time frame of the graph, not too difficult a request, but I can't find one. Can anyone suggest a site I might have missed? netdania.com is close, but no GBP... Goldprice http://goldprice.org/live-gold-price.html you can pick Silver in GBP from the instruments list. Note: It doesn't use the LBMA fixes, it calculates it's own data using GBP/USD and USD Spot silver so the old data is always changing (with the new GBP/USD). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpig Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 Thanks! I haven't decided which one I will use on a daily basis yet, both seem quite good. Goldprice http://goldprice.org/live-gold-price.html you can pick Silver in GBP from the instruments list. Note: It doesn't use the LBMA fixes, it calculates it's own data using GBP/USD and USD Spot silver so the old data is always changing (with the new GBP/USD). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixel8r Posted January 21, 2009 Report Share Posted January 21, 2009 UK seems to be putting a rocket to silver prices at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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