A smaller market that moves faster

The silver market is a fraction of the size of gold's, and roughly half of annual demand is industrial — electronics, solar panels, medicine. The result is a metal that follows gold's direction but exaggerates its moves in both directions. The gold-silver ratio (how many ounces of silver one ounce of gold buys) has ranged from under 40 to over 100 in recent decades; many investors watch it as a rough gauge of which metal is historically cheap relative to the other.

The VAT arithmetic

Unlike investment gold, silver carries 20% Bulgarian VAT at retail. That is a real hurdle the metal must clear before a position shows a profit — and it is why product selection matters more in silver than in gold. Larger bars (500 g, 1 kg) and coins bought in mint tubes of 20–25 pieces spread fixed costs over more metal and keep the total premium per gram down. Small silver bars are best treated as gifts, not investments.

Know your purities

Modern bullion silver is 999 fine (the Britannia and some others are 999.9). Older objects follow different standards: sterling silverware is 925, many European coins were struck in 900 or 835, and older continental silverware can be 800. The purity determines the fine-metal content and therefore the value — our buyback tables quote per gram for each standard, and our specialists verify purity by hallmark and instrument, never by guesswork.

Living with silver

Silver is bulkier than gold — the same value occupies roughly eighty times the volume — and it tarnishes in open air. Keep coins in their capsules and tubes, bars in their sealed packaging, and store the lot dry. Tarnish does not reduce fine-weight value, but untouched, well-kept pieces always sell more easily.