Everything you need to know about buying gold/silver for the first time!

 
Investing in (physical) bullion is new to many people. For example, one is advised to invest in gold or silver through various social media channels, hear friends and family talking about investing in gold or silver or someone wanting to prepare for uncertain times.
 
All in all, investing in precious metals brings with it many questions. Some questions we regularly hear are: which ratio of gold and silver is best for me or which product should I choose, but questions about the payment and delivery process also occur on a daily basis. In this blog article, we discuss the most important considerations you need to make as a customer when you want to invest in precious metals and answer some common questions. Apart from this blog article, we also have several guides in which we discuss in detail everything you need to know when investing in gold and silver for the first time, as well as what the purchase process looks like.
 

Purchase amount

First of all, it is important to have in your mind an amount you want to convert into precious metals. The most common orders of silver coins are mainly dictated by the available budget. Common purchase amounts are EUR 2,500, 5,000, 10,000 and 25,000, -. For all silver coins, a graduated scale indicates the price for larger quantities.
 
In our experience, gold is often purchased to preserve wealth and purchasing power, while silver is used to speculate on higher returns. Our customers therefore often choose to convert part of their assets into gold to preserve purchasing power and part into silver to speculate on possible price increases.
The silver market is a lot more volatile. As a result, it carries more risk, but there are also higher returns to be had in the short term. Investors who have been in the precious metals market for a longer time also look at the gold-silver ratio. This ratio helps investors decide when it is a good time to buy gold or silver.
⇒ We update prices on our website every three coins to ensure you can order at the most recent price!
 

In hand or storage

Within The Silver Mountain, you also have the choice of having your products physically delivered or stored. Delivery of the products can be insured via transport or by collecting the products from our offices in Baarn or The Hague.
For storage, it is important to mention that the products are stored fully allocated. This means that everything you store with us must be 100% yours - in the form of separate physical products - kept in its own locked space and only claimable by you. With us, it is not possible to be partial owner of the physical product stored. If, for example, several people own one gold bar (often these purchases are made through a bullion bank), storage at Edelmetaal Beheer Nederland is not possible. This is because you must be able to store the physical product in its entirety.
 

Coins or bars

When investing in precious metals, you have the choice of coins or bars. Here, the larger the denomination, the lower the production costs.
 

Gold

For gold, both product types are suitable as investments. The advantage of gold coins is that they are easy to trade in the future and the advantage of gold bars is that they are often cheaper to buy. The investment coins we sell have a weight of 1 troy ounce, which is equal to 31.1 grams of pure gold. So if you want to buy more than one troy ounce of gold, you will be cheaper with gold bars. However, an additional disadvantage is that you will also have to sell the gold bar in its entirety again in the future.
Many investors therefore opt for investment coins or Combibars when they want to retain flexibility. Combibars are gold bars that can be broken up into small denominations, giving you the option to sell (part of) your investment in the future.
However, as an investor, it is important to take into account our buy-back guarantee. We have a buy-back guarantee of 100% of the current gold price for gold coins, and 98% of the current gold price for gold bars.
 

Silver

With silver, things are slightly different from gold. Silver bars are taxed with 21% VAT because silver is considered a commodity. However, this does not apply to silver coins, as they are traded under the margin scheme. If you want to invest as an individual, we recommend choosing silver investment coins or VAT-free silver. These are silver bars that are stored in Switzerland, so they are never physically delivered to the Netherlands. As a result, you do not pay VAT on your silver bars and they are safely stored in a customs depot in Zurich, Switzerland.
 
If you wish to invest in silver for business purposes, you can opt for silver bars. If you as a company buy these silver bars then you can usually reclaim the VAT and thus invest in silver cheaply. The moment your company sells the silver again, you must also charge 21% VAT.
 

Small or large denominations

When one wants to invest in physical silver, 1 troy ounce silver investment coins are often chosen. These investment coins have, compared to gold investment coins, a relatively low market value which still gives you the flexibility to trade. In addition, if you purchase privately, silver bars are subject to 21% VAT.
 
Gold, on the other hand, is a lot more expensive and valuable. With gold, 1 troy ounce investment coins or larger denominations of gold bars are often chosen when it comes to preserving wealth. However, we also see many clients opting for smaller denominations to make it easier to trade in the future. Alternatives to this are our Combibars, 1/2 troy ounce coins or 1/4 troy ounce coins. However, the cost for smaller denominations is higher than if you go for one large denomination, so it is important for you as a customer to weigh whether you value the flexibility of being able to resell a portion in the future. This is because the advantage of a smaller denomination is that you are not forced to sell the entire coin or bar when you had really only wanted to sell a portion.
 

Shipping or picking up

The Silver Mountain makes online gold and silver ordering safe, easy and fast. You can easily buy gold and silver with us and have your order delivered to your home, fully insured. Would you prefer to pick up your order yourself? That is possible by appointment at our office address in Baarn or The Hague.
 
All shipping methods are fully insured from The Silver Mountain. We also employ an external courier company, our house courier. This is a courier company that specializes in anonymous, unobtrusive and discreet delivery for valuable shipments. An overview of all delivery methods and their costs can be found here.
 

Ordering process

On our website you will find the complete range of gold, silver and platinum coins and bars. All our prices are up-to-date and updated every 3 minutes with the most current exchange rate, this way you buy precious metals at current market prices. We work with a minimum order value of €500 per order.

When products are in stock, we usually ship your order within one day of processing your order. In the event that products are not in stock, we will provide an estimated delivery time.

Placing an order can be done through our website, by email or by phone. At the moment you place the order, the price is fixed and you enter into a payment commitment. You will receive an e-mail with the confirmation of your order and payment instructions.
 

Right of Withdrawal

A purchase at The Silver Mountain involves a course-related product. In this case, the right of withdrawal that we are familiar with in “normal” webshops does not apply. The value of precious metals depends on fluctuations in the financial markets that are beyond the control of the selling party, so legally the right of withdrawal cannot be used.
 
In article 6.5 of our general terms and conditions you will find that the right of withdrawal is not valid for purchases linked to fluctuations in the financial markets.
 

Delivery process

At the time of ordering, we set the price and process the order. You will receive an automatically generated confirmation email from us as soon as your payment is received and as soon as the package is shipped. At the time of ordering, you as a customer enter into an obligation to pay (and we an obligation to deliver). Therefore, it is not possible to cancel orders afterwards - as we also purchase the precious metal at the same time.
 
You can read more about what the status of your order means here.
 

Aftercare

Your gold or silver coins are best stored in the tube or capsule in which the coin is delivered. A half-full tube is best supplemented with soft packing material to keep the coins in place.
 
When you do want to remove the coins from the capsule or tube, we recommend grasping them with cotton gloves.
 
 

Sell

Almost all products sold by The Silver Mountain come with a buy-back guarantee. This means that you can always easily offer your precious metal back to us and sell it at fixed formulas relative to the then current gold and silver price. We always buy in, regardless of the volume you sell and regardless of the height of the gold or silver price.
 
For the most up-to-date bid guarantees and to sell your coins or bars, please visit Inkoop Edelmetaal. Here you can easily, safely and quickly create a sell order online.
 
Disclaimer: The Silver Mountain does not provide investment advice and this article should not be considered as such. Past results offer no guarantees for the future.
 

The Silver Mountain was established in 2008 by Rolf van Zanten. At the time of its founding, we had a clear goal in mind: to make the purchase of physical silver and gold possible in an accessible, safe, and transparent manner. 
 
We are proud to say that we have since grown into the largest and most reliable bullion dealer online in the Netherlands. In the precious metals market, we offer full-service solutions for the purchase, sale, and storage of your precious metals. This is also reflected in our reviews.