recently I've stared buying up some small lots of 1 gram .999 fine silver coins.
The price is astronomical relative to the "spot" price on silver.
I've also been buying up a little bit of gold.(a few 1 gram bars)
The reason why I'm paying that high price on the silver is because those 1 gram coins are "usable" for making everyday purchases in the event of a financial collapse.
They 'might" make good dollar coins, after a collapse.
One dollars worth of gold on the other hand would be smaller than a pinhead and not very handy going in or out of ones pocket.
Gold is great for large purchases, or savings, but silver rules as pocket change
I figure if there's a collapse, I'll have a little bit of metal money to buy stuff with, and if there's no collapse I can leave em' to the ole' lady when I croak, or dump em' when spot gets higher than what i paid for them.
I can buy .999 fine silver shot much cheaper, but those pieces of shot aren't of any defined weight, and are unmarked, and thus not usable as money without a scale and potentially an assay to prove their purity.