Let's be straight about the metal first: an ounce of silver is an ounce of silver. A figurine does not contain more silver than a round of the same weight, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling you something. Melt is melt.
What a figurine has is everything sitting on top of the melt.
A round is worth spot. A figurine is worth spot plus whoever wants it.
Generic bullion tracks one number. A well-made figurine tracks that same number and a second one — what a collector will pay because it's a fox, or a dragon, or a piece with a name stamped on the base. Two markets instead of one.
Scarcity that's actually real
Mints strike rounds by the million and will strike more tomorrow. A sterling animal made in a small Italian workshop in the 1970s was made in the hundreds, and no one is making more. Hand-poured work is scarcer still — each pour comes out slightly different, and small studios close.
It's a gift that doesn't lose its floor
Silver as a present is a strange thing to give. A silver figurine of someone's dog, their instrument, their favorite animal — that's a gift. It just happens to have a metal value underneath it that never goes to zero.
The honest trade-off
Here's the part most sellers leave out: figurines are less liquid than plain bullion. A generic round sells in a day at close to spot, to anyone. A figurine needs the right buyer, and finding them takes longer.
So if your goal is a fast, frictionless hedge you can dump in an afternoon, buy rounds. We mean that.
If you'd rather own silver you actually want to look at — silver that holds its floor while being worth more than its floor to the right person — that's what we do.
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