A Look at BIG Silver Bullion Coins

There is no doubt that collectors enjoy big coins. They seem to appeal to all facets of our personality – whether it’s our desire to have a great heft in the hand, or the belief that we have something truly valuable, that big coin does the trick. And this desire seems to be deeply rooted in us from childhood. For those who don’t believe, try this fun experiment: take a mixed bag of coins, a grab bag, if you will, and pass it around to a group of Cub Scouts or Brownies. It always comes back with far less big coins that how it started out.

The collective desire for big silver was for many years met by silver dollars. They were the biggest coin the United States Mint issued, and were right there in the running with many of the world’s crown-sized coins. Even now, many of us are quite thrilled with finding the best of the best when it comes to Morgan and Peace dollars. The more ambitious of us go back further into the realm of Trade dollars and even the Seated Liberty dollar coins.

U.S. Silver Eagle, 40.6mm

But in 1986, “big” silver in the United States got bigger, with the unveiling of the one-ounce silver Eagles. Collectors who remember those days may also remember the discussion about whether or not these were real coins, or just some Mint product. Well, the continued production of a huge number of them for more than three decades (as well as their gold siblings) ended that debate.

The United States Mint was definitely not the first nation to get into the bullion coin arena, nor has it been the first to go to coins that weigh in at more than one ounce of silver. But the America the Beautiful coin program (often abbreviated ATB) now includes 5-ounce silver bullion coins; and some of these big pieces are quite beautiful. Plus, for anyone who has been trying to assemble a full set of them as they came out of the gate, it’s no secret that they make for a very heavy collection.

As we get into the field of greater-than-one-ounce silver coins, let’s note two things. First, the just-mentioned weight could actually become a factor in this kind of collection, especially if we choose to collect more than simply the five-ounce ATB coins (although all of them could end up weighing quite a bit!). Second, we need to keep the cost in mind. For even though one-ounce silver bullion coins, of the U.S. as well as other nations, are often sold near the price of the precious metal in them, the bigger coins almost always carry some premium. This isn’t a reason to ignore big silver. But it’s worth knowing as we get into it that we should watch our wallets. So, weight and cost are factors to consider.

U.S. Silver Eagle, 40.6mm

United States 5-ounce ATB “quarters”

Many of us who are heavy duty collectors of United States coins might consider the 5-ounce ATB coins the beginning and end of what we want to do for big silver. That’s certainly no problem. The question then becomes how we want to direct a collection. Do we want to assemble one of every design in this series of 5-ounce coins? That alone will be a fun challenge. Do we want to see if we can assemble a set that is entirely in some third party, certified holders? That too could be quite a challenge. We’ll have to keep in mind that some of these do now command quite the premium. For example, while pieces like the San Antonio piece – meaning the Texas 5-ounce piece – can be found for only a bit over $100, there are several designs that will cost two or three times that much. To pick a few examples, the 5-ouncers from Hawaii, New Mexico, Alaska, Oregon, and Puerto Rico all cost significantly more than we might expect. Once again, that shouldn’t scare us off from the prospect. But we’ll have to plan for it.

Austrailian 2oz. Koala, 46m

Down under

Our Australian friends are no strangers to producing plenty of bullion coins to keep the world’s markets flush with metal. Australian silver and gold bullion programs have an established history, and some wonderful designs. Right now, these folks can claim that they have the United States beat, at least when it comes to weight. The Australian Kookaburra silver coins can be had as a 5-ounce piece, which is as impressive as our ATBs. But it can also be obtained in as large a weight as a 1-kilo piece! That’s a hefty coin! But Australia seems less than happy with just one silver bullion program. They have produced the silver Koala series as well. When looking at Koalas bigger than one ounce, we have 2-ounce pieces (downright lightweight for our purposes here), and 10-ounce pieces, and once again 1-kilo Koalas.

We did a bit of online searching for these truly big guns, and found that there are a couple of firms offering them up for sale. The lowest price tags we found were all close to $1,000; so none of these will ever be considered cheap. But wow, to have just one of these in a collection. It would be something to bring out and show to any collector pals.

5oz. Kiwi, shown actual size 76mm

New Zealand

About as close to Australia as anyone gets, it turns out that New Zealand has also gotten into the “big silver” game. Actually, we can be a bit more encompassing and claim that New Zealand has gotten into the commemorative coin game in a huge way. The New Zealand Mint has produced pieces with Star Wars themes, as well as any number of other images and ideas. But it has also produced some 5-ounce Kiwi pieces. As with the Australian big silver, we needed to do a bit of online searching to find any firm that is offering these, but they’re out there. They cost significantly more than the value of five ounces of silver, but they are available for the determined collector.

1 Kilo Libertad, shown actual size 110mm

South of the Border

Coming back much closer to home, we get to our southern neighbor, Mexico. For any of us who have stayed away from Mexican silver, for any reason, let’s start by saying that the land has produced a huge amount of silver for centuries. The first mint in the entire Western Hemisphere is the Casa de Moneda of Mexico City, which got cranked up all the way back in 1535. This is one source of the fabled pieces of eight – the big, eight reales, silver coins – that fueled the commerce of both the New World and the Old until Mexico won its independence from Spain. Even after independence, Mexican silver helped run the economy of a growing United States, and was sent by the shiploads to the Empire of China. And most recently, the Mexican Onza or Libertad program became one of the earliest silver bullion coins in the world. None other than the U.S. Geological Survey’s annual, “Mineral Commodity Summaries” (a free, downloadable document) indicates that one of the nations from whom the U.S. imports silver is still, you guessed it, Mexico. Basically, Mexico mines a lot of silver.

It’s probably better to call the Mexican coins Libertads instead of Onzas, although people do use both names, simply because the ones we want are much more than one ounce. And while Mexico makes and sells2-ounce and 5-ounce pieces, if we really want to go big, they have for some years now made a one-kilogram version of this silver coin. Now that’s big!

Okay, knowing that Mexico produces a bullion coin of this size simply begs the question of how much it will cost. We did some searching and found one website of a major firm which is willing to let an interested party have one if we in turn are willing to part with a mere $1,025 for that kilo of silver. Not pocket change, really. But then, we’re hardly going to put this coin in our pocket.

10 oz. Chiwoo Cheonwang,
shown actual size 80mm

South Korea

A nation that might not seem to be right up at the front of the class when it comes to silver bullion coins is the relatively small but bustling nation of South Korea. But in 2018 they appear to have gotten into the game with their silver 10-ounce Chiwoo Cheonwang. We might get away with calling this a coin, but since South Korea uses the won as their unit of currency, it’s probably fairer to call these medals. These 10-ounce pieces are available, again online, and again for rather a lot more than the value of the silver metal within them. But since this particular offering is so new, it might be worthwhile to jump in right at the beginning. It’s the sort of move that a person can be really proud of thirty years down the road. For anyone who wants to argue that point, think about what we’d have on our hands if we bought the 1995 gold and silver Eagle set right from the Mint. Talk about a great return on investment!

“And now, for something completely different.”

It’s not often we get to quote none other than the fine troupe of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but let’s add three “completely different” entries to our growing list of nations that produce and market silver bullion coins. Here, in no particular order, we have:

Armenian 5oz Noah's Ark, 60.2mm

Armenia

This ancient land that also qualifies as a new republic since the break-up and demise of the old Soviet Union has produced a series of Noah’s ark coins in a pretty wide variety of weights. Yes, there is a 5-ounce piece, but there are also apparently 1-kilo and even 5-kilo pieces.

As one might expect, not a lot of dealers and firms have these Armenian coins for sale, and one that did wanted over $3.1K for the 5-kilo coin, sporting a 20,000 dram denomination. That price tag probably side lines a lot of us, but wow, that would be an amazing hunk of big silver to put into a collection.

Somalian 1 Kilo Elephant,
shown actual size 100.3mm

Somalia

Here is another nation that is hardly known for silver production. In the U.S. we might claim it’s known for modern-day piracy, failed governments, and having been taken over by Italy, of all nations, back in the nineteenth century. Yet Somalia has also managed to produce a 1-kilo silver coin, apparently called an elephant based on the big pachyderm dominating one side of it. The Krause catalogs do list some of the older ones, meaning those made back in 2011, but don’t generally give an estimate of how many were produced. Whatever the number though, it seems that more than one company will sell us one today. The asking price is about $2Kfor this kilo of Somali silver.

Tokelau 1oz. Leopard Shark, 38.6mm

Tokelau

All of us can be forgiven for not knowing where on Earth this enormous fly speck of a nation is. Okay, it’s not even a nation, it’s a dependency of New Zealand. And it’s not even an island; it’s three coral atolls pretty centrally situated smack dab in the middle of nowhere in the South Pacific. And it does not appear to actually mine or produce any silver at all. And to top all that off, with a population of a whopping 1,500 people (really!), it’s a fair bet to think that nobody at all in Tokelau is using the 1-ounce silver bullion Sea Creatures coins, not to mention the 5-ounce, 10-ounce, or the 1-kilo silver bullion coins that are made available to the collector market. Yet again, finding one of these truly big guys will probably take some searching and some serious cash.

Making our collection even heavier.

We’ve just done a strange bit of globetrotting, and found that there are some big coins in both big and little places. But it’s worth noting that we have not even mentioned some of the other big players in the arena of bullion coinage. We’ll leave it up to any of us who are interested to see just how big and how heavy a collection we might be able to assemble. The best of luck to all of us who try it.

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