How to buy silver

The main ways of investing in silver are:

■ Silver bullion: silver can be purchased in the form of bars, as official coins and as medallions – round pieces resembling coins, although not legal tender.

■ Exchange-traded funds: investments can also be made through exchange-traded funds, which allow diversified holdings and ready liquidity in combinations that can include the physical metal, silver miners and refiners.

■ Futures and options: investors can buy futures or forward contracts, which are exchange-traded agreements to take or make delivery of silver at a fixed future date, although investing in futures is generally the preserve of major players or industrial users. Silver can also be traded as an option, which provides the right, although not the obligation, to buy or sell within a specified timeframe.

■ Mining shares: a key advantage of investing in silver through mining shares is that these often benefit from a gearing of the silver price on their reserves in the ground. This can boost the share prices of silver miners more strongly than silver itself when the metal price is flourishing.