Where to Buy Silver: What to Know Before You Pay

Reviewed by the Silver Per Ounce Editorial Team · Updated October 7, 2026

Values on this page use silver spot at $59.76/oz · updated October 7, 2026

Quick answer: Silver is bought from dealers, mints' authorized sellers and online bullion shops, always above the $59.76 spot price. The premium, the product and what the seller pays you to take it back matter more than the logo. We feature one company, Augusta Precious Metals, which suits large purchases only.

GET THE FREE INFO KIT →

What you are actually buying

When you buy silver, you are buying a product that contains silver, and the product has its own price. The reference point is the current silver price per ounce, $59.76 as of October 7, 2026. The CFTC, the U.S. regulator of futures markets, defines spot in its consumer advice as the cash price for immediate delivery, quoted per troy ounce. What a seller charges for a coin, bar or round is spot plus a premium, and the premium varies by product, seller and market conditions.

Prices have moved a lot. Over the past month the change was −9.7%, and over the past year +26.9%. Over the past month silver has fallen 9.7%, so the recent direction has been down. The practical consequence is that any quote you read is only good for a short time, and any dollar figure typed into an article, including one on this site, would go stale. We calculate ours from the live feed.

Before you compare sellers, know what one ounce is worth at each of its three levels, which our page on how much 1 oz of silver is worth separates: the reference price, the price a dealer asks, and the price a dealer bids. It is also worth knowing the unit. Silver is priced per troy ounce, 31.1035 grams, and the page on troy ounce vs. ounce explains why the ounce on a kitchen scale gives the wrong answer.

Coins, bars and rounds

Three product types cover most silver sales. They can hold the same amount of silver and carry different premiums.

Coins. Government-issued bullion coins carry a face value, are legal tender, and are easy to recognize. The American Silver Eagle is the best known in the United States, with specifications set by statute. Our silver Eagle price page covers the coin and why it sells above its melt value. Recognizability makes coins easy to resell, and that is one reason their premiums can run higher than for other forms.

Bars. A bar is a stamped piece of silver that comes in sizes from one ounce to very large formats. The LBMA's Good Delivery bar, the size used among large dealers and refiners, is 1,000 troy ounces, roughly 32 kilograms. Smaller bars are sold to the public. Because there is less design work per ounce, bars are often a lower-premium way to hold a larger amount. Weight in grams and kilograms is covered on our pages for the silver price per gram and the silver price per kilo.

Rounds. A round looks like a coin and is made by a private mint. It is not legal tender, so a dealer prices it mainly as metal plus fabrication.

We do not print prices for any of these. A premium changes with the dealer, the product and the market on the day, and a figure that is right this afternoon may be wrong by tomorrow.

The premium over spot

The difference between what you pay and spot is the premium. It covers making the item, shipping and insuring it, holding stock and running the business. The CFTC's advice is to check a dealer's price against spot times weight. We walk through a labeled example of that arithmetic on silver spot price vs. retail price.

The same page covers the spread, which the CFTC defines as the difference between a dealer's buying and selling prices. A wide spread means that if you bought today and sold tomorrow at an unchanged spot price, you would lose the gap. That does not make a dealer dishonest. It means a purchase is not a round trip you can reverse without cost.

Ask for the premium in dollars per troy ounce, not a percentage. Ask which spot figure the dealer used and when. Then subtract spot yourself. If you are weighing something you already own rather than buying, the silver melt value calculator gives the value of the metal at the live price, by weight and purity.

Our featured company: Augusta Precious Metals

This site features one company. We may be paid if you request a kit through our link, and the disclosure on the About page spells that out. Here is what Augusta states about itself, with each fact attributed.

Augusta Precious Metals was founded in 2012 and has offices in Wyoming and California. It holds a BBB rating of A+ and has been BBB-accredited since 2015. The BBB profile shows one complaint in the last three years, and it is closed. Augusta describes its educators as salaried and not paid on commission. It states a $50,000 minimum for both cash purchases and IRAs, as stated by Augusta on its FAQ page.

On cancellation, Augusta states that you have up to seven calendar days to cancel after a transaction is confirmed, and that state law may differ. Read Augusta's own terms for what that covers, because we do not claim it applies to every product. Augusta also states that it lays out its account fee structure up front. We print no fee figures on this site, because fees are the sort of detail that changes, and you should read them from Augusta directly.

Augusta says it is not qualified to give financial, legal or tax advice, and we do not give any either. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or to hold silver.

What the button does. The green button requests a free Gold & Silver IRA information kit. The form belongs to Augusta, not to us. After you submit it, Augusta contacts you by phone, and the consent text on the form covers calls, texts and autodialed calls. That consent is part of the form and is not a condition of buying anything.

GET THE FREE INFO KIT →

Who Augusta fits, and who it does not

Be clear about scale. Augusta's stated minimum is $50,000, which at today's spot buys roughly 836.7 troy ounces of silver, and that figure moves with the market every minute. If silver rises, the minimum buys fewer ounces. If it falls, more.

That makes Augusta a company for a large purchase. It is not for someone pricing a single coin, a few ounces or a monthly stack. For those buyers, the sensible route is a local coin shop, a mint-authorized seller or an established online bullion dealer, with the questions in the next section.

If you do have a larger amount, Augusta's kit lets you read how it works before talking to anyone. You can compare it with other sellers on the same terms: the premium over spot in dollars per ounce, the cost to get the metal to you or into storage, and the buy-back price. We feature one company because we have read its facts, not because it is the only choice. Other companies exist, and a large buyer should get more than one quote.

Delivery versus an IRA

Augusta describes two paths. Cash purchases of physical silver ship to US addresses, insured and with a signature required. You hold the metal yourself, which means you are responsible for storing and insuring it, and for finding a buyer when you sell.

An IRA works differently. Metals held in an IRA go to a depository, not to your home. An account of that kind also involves a custodian and a depository, and Augusta names its custodian as Equity Trust. The structure carries account costs, which Augusta states on its own pages and we do not reproduce. Tax treatment, contribution limits and rollover rules are beyond what this site can say, and Augusta also says it does not give tax advice, so a tax professional is the right person to ask.

The difference changes the decision. Delivery gives you the physical metal at home and no custodial structure. An IRA gives you a depository arrangement and no metal at home. Neither is better in general, and the right choice depends on your plans, which we cannot assess.

How buying works, step by step

1. Decide the form and the weight. Coin, bar or round, and how many troy ounces. If you think in grams or kilograms, convert first with the gram and kilo pages above.
2. Check the live price. Use the current silver price per ounce at the moment you ask for a quote, so you know the spot figure the premium sits on.
3. Ask for an all-in quote. Include shipping, insurance, handling and any payment-method charge. Get it in writing.
4. Do the subtraction. Divide the total by the troy ounces, then subtract spot. The remainder is your real premium per ounce.
5. Ask the buy-back price. The CFTC recommends asking what the dealer would pay if you sold the metal back. That tells you how wide the spread really is.
6. Confirm what you will receive. Check weight, purity and mint or refiner name against the order before you pay.
7. Keep records. Save the invoice, the spot figure used and the delivery confirmation.

Questions to ask any seller

These come from the CFTC's advisory on buying physical metals, which lists ten things to ask first. They apply to every seller, including the one we feature.

• What is the spot price you are using, and when was it read? The CFTC defines spot as the cash price for immediate delivery per troy ounce. A stale figure moves the whole quote.
• How does your price compare with spot times weight? The difference is the premium. Get it in dollars per ounce.
• What are all the fees? Get every fee in writing before you agree, not after.
• What is the spread? Ask what the dealer buys at and sells at for the same item. The difference between those is the spread.
• What would you pay me to buy it back? Ask this before purchase and ask for it in writing.
• How and when will it be delivered? Ask about insurance, signature requirements and what happens if it is lost in transit.

If a seller dodges any of these, that tells you something. A clear answer in writing is the baseline.

Why the timing question is hard

Many readers arrive asking whether now is a good time. We do not answer that, and no honest source can. The record daily close in our futures series is $115.08, set on January 26, 2026, and As of October 7, 2026, silver futures sit 47.9% below the record close of $115.08, set on January 26, 2026. Since the record the price has fallen 47.9%. Our pages on the silver price all-time high and silver price history show where that sits in ten years of data.

For the reasons behind the moves, read why is silver price going up. For how silver compares with gold, the gold-silver ratio is 68.7 today. And if you want to know what banks and analysts have published, the silver price forecast page reports it without adding a prediction of our own. None of those pages tells you what to do, and this one does not either.

GET THE FREE INFO KIT →

What this can't tell you

This page cannot tell you what any seller will quote today, whether Augusta suits your situation, which way the price moves next, or whether any product is genuine. It cannot give financial, legal or tax advice. Compare written quotes, read the seller's own terms, and use independent advice for decisions that depend on your circumstances.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Everything here about spot, spreads and fees comes from the CFTC's consumer advisory. The Eagle's specifications come from US statute, and the bar size from the LBMA. Augusta facts are as Augusta and the BBB state them, read on 2026-10-07 and subject to change.

Sources and further reading

• CFTC: the agency's ten questions for anyone buying physical metals
• US Mint: American Silver Eagle
• LBMA: Good Delivery and the LBMA Silver Price

Keep reading

• Silver spot price vs. retail price: the anatomy of an ask price and how to compare two quotes.
• How much 1 oz of silver is worth: the three prices one ounce can have at once.
• Silver price forecast: what banks and analysts have published, with dates and no prediction of ours.