The best-known precious metals are gold and silver, and it's not hard to understand why they're good assets to add to an investment portfolio. Gold is a key material for jewelry, and investors around the world also use it as a repository of wealth. Rounds are popular with new investors, and many choose to set up a Gold IRA to diversify their portfolio. Most cartridges are made of silver or copper, but you can also find some gold cartridges on the market. Cartridges usually weigh between one and five troy ounces, making them reasonably flexible when it comes to choosing the amount of metal you want to buy at any given time.
Most of the rounds also have beautiful designs, making investing in precious metals a little more enjoyable than it already is. Copper has a wide variety of commercial and industrial uses. Most copper is used in electrical applications because metal is a great conductor of electricity. Copper is also commonly used in components that keep engines running.
Gold is the best-known and most invertible precious metal. It is unique because of its durability (it does not corrode), its ability to mold and its ability to conduct heat and electricity. While it has some industrial uses in dentistry and electronics, it is mainly used to make jewelry or as currency. It has long been a store of value.
For this reason, investors seek it in times of economic or political turmoil and as a hedge against rising inflation. Aluminum is probably the most recyclable of all waste metals, and aluminum recycling has an established track record of success. Food and beverage containers are a major source of aluminum waste, but they can also be found on doors, mosquito nets, window frames, auto parts, computers and electronic devices. Advantages include the ability of physical gold to track the price of the precious metal and the potential for gold stocks and ETFs to perform better.
