Owning precious metals such as gold and silver is extremely wise for people in every country of the world, but especially for Americans right now as the U.S. Dollar finds its ultimate value - zero.

But how should you own gold and silver?
Taking physical delivery of gold and silver has risks. So do you put it in a safe deposit box? Not in this country. Switzerland, fine, but not everyone is in a position to do that.

One precious metals dealer lives in Colorado and states simply
“I can’t keep it at home because people know what I do for a living; let’s just say that I live in the Rocky Mountains where there’s a whole lotta rocks.”

Good advice, if you live in the Rockies. What about the rest of us?

You can buy gold and silver certificates from a variety of institutions, but some investors have flown to those companies in foreign locales and asked to see the metal. “What metal?” they’re told “you bought a certificate, not metal”. So it’s imperative that you know what you are buying. And I recommend that you check it out thoroughly.

Even the GLD ETF has a lot of holes in the prospectus. GLD and other ETF’s might be a way of handling short term profits, but it is certainly not disaster insurance if that’s what you’re looking for.

Certain online purveyors of gold and silver offer you the opportunity to not take delivery of your purchases. Certainly that is safer than keeping it under your mattress, eliminates transportation costs and makes it more convenient to sell. But there again I highly recommend you go through the cycle of buying, selling, and asking for your profits to be returned to you a time or two before you ever even begin to feel comfortable.

COMEX gold's recent sharp selloff has continued and even the most ardent gold bulls are getting nervous. Bearish sentiment is very prominent and the level of fear in the precious metal markets suggests that a low is likely in the coming days. Leveraged players in the futures market are dumping paper positions wholesale while astute contrarians are using this as an opportunity to buy physical bullion at firesale prices.
Wholesale panic selling in all markets on massive deleveraging is leading to gold (and silver) prices way below their fundamental value and smart money continues to accumulate gold and silver bullion on this most recent correction. While inflation risk has indeed abated and deflation is currently feared by the market, the hugely inflationary implications of the Federal Reserve and Treasury's injections of billions and billions of dollars into the international financial system will be realised in the coming months.
Gold and Silver Investments remain confident that gold and silver remain in bull markets and this is just another counter trend sell off (a very sharp one nevertheless). We believe that that once the election is over, we will see a sharp rally in gold as the dollar's recent strength and oil's recent sell off comes to an end.

Speculators will continue to be decimated by the current and likely to continue massive volatility and market turmoil. Investors who continue to focus on real value and the medium to long term will be richly rewarded in the coming months and years.

DUBLIN, Ireland - October 25, 2008 - A surge for demand in gold and silver has resulted in an unprecedented shortage of the metals for retail investors in recent days, according to Gold and Silver Investments, a Dublin-based firm that allows retail investors to speculate on movements in the value of precious metals.
Gold and Silver Investments director Mark O’Byrne said the supply of gold and silver available for small retail investors suffered a dramatic deterioration within hours on Friday, as wholesalers reported that government mints and refiners, the primary suppliers of the metals, had stopped offering new supplies.

”It’s absolutely unprecedented,” said O’Byrne, who said the shortages were likely to drive up the costs of gold and silver in the secondary market.

”This did not happen even in the 1930s and the 1970s, and will result in markedly higher prices in the coming months.”
According to O’Byrne, gold and silver were now only easily accessible in the primary market, which consisted of central banks and other major traders of the precious metals.

However, he said that minimum transaction sizes in this market were out of reach for most retail investors - at approximately $350,000 for gold and $135,000 for silver.