Coins, bars or rounds, which form is right?
Coins for recognition, bars for cost, rounds for the middle. Sovereign one-ounce coins resell most easily but carry the highest premium per ounce. Bars from accredited refiners are the cheapest way to hold weight but cannot be divided. Rounds offer one-ounce flexibility without the sovereign mint premium.
Every silver product is the same metal. What you are choosing is how much fabrication, branding and divisibility you want to pay for, and how you expect to sell later. The table below is the honest version of that trade.
| Form | Premium tier | Recognition | IRA status | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sovereign coins (Eagle, Maple Leaf, Philharmonic) | Highest per ounce | Widest, resellable to individuals | Meets the .999 standard | Long holds, divisibility, IRA accounts |
| Bars, 10 oz and 100 oz, accredited refiners | Lowest per ounce at 100 oz | Dealer market, plan to exit through a dealer | Eligible when the refiner is accredited | Larger positions where cost per ounce matters |
| Rounds, 1 oz, privately minted | Middle, below sovereign coins | Good among dealers, weaker with individuals | Meets the .999 standard from accredited makers | Fractional positions at a lower premium |
One practical rule: if the position is large enough that bar pricing saves you meaningful money, and you expect to liquidate through a dealer anyway, format should be a cost decision. If you picture selling a few ounces at a time to individuals, pay for the coin.
Which of this silver can go in an IRA?
The sovereign coins, accredited bars and .999 rounds on this page generally meet the IRS fineness floor, subject to your custodian’s acceptance. Pre-1965 junk silver, sterling and numismatic pieces are excluded regardless of their silver content.
The rule is a single number: .999 fineness, held by an approved trustee. That is why 90 percent “junk silver”, a perfectly good way to hold metal personally, can never sit inside an IRA, and why graded or proof versions of the same coins belong outside a retirement account too.
The full eligibility table, the custody requirement and the home-storage trap are in the silver IRA guide. If you are moving retirement money, the silver IRA rollover page covers the funding sequence.
Why are silver premiums higher than gold?
Because fabrication costs roughly the same per piece whether the ounce is gold or silver. A few dollars of minting and shipping is a rounding error on gold and a meaningful percentage of a silver ounce, so silver’s premium over spot is structurally higher, and narrows as the format gets larger.
This is the arithmetic no dealer page states out loud. A one-ounce silver coin and a one-ounce gold coin cost about the same to strike, ship and insure. Divide that fixed cost by a silver price and the percentage looks punishing; divide it by a gold price and it disappears. Nothing is wrong with the silver, you are just seeing the fixed cost in the open.
The practical consequence: premium discipline matters more on silver than on any other metal. Typical premium ranges by format are laid out on the pricing page, and how to read a quote shows the four numbers to demand before anything is funded.
How much space does silver actually take?
Far more than gold for the same dollars. At a typical gold-to-silver price ratio, the same dollar amount of silver is dozens of times the weight and many times the volume, a six-figure silver position is measured in hundreds of pounds and stacks of monster boxes.
For personal delivery this is a shipping and safe-capacity conversation. Inside an IRA it becomes a depository question: some storage schedules price by value, others by space or handling, and silver exposes the difference. Ask how your silver will be stored and billed before you fund, the questions are in the silver storage and depository guide.
What does Dormy source?
Sovereign one-ounce coins from the U.S., Canadian, Austrian and other recognized mints, bars from accredited refiners in 10-ounce and 100-ounce sizes, and privately minted one-ounce rounds. Each is quoted in writing with the premium shown separately from spot.