Investment Bullion Portfolios for Your Needs - 1
An Overview
Considering the previous articles in this series, it is desirable that investment bullion portfolios holding gold and silver form a part of one's total wealth assets.
 As prices of gold and silver have risen over the years, they have kept well ahead of inflation. Traditionally in India, there has been the accumulation of gold in the form of jewelry and bullion. The widely seen British gold sovereign (also commonly known as 'guinea'), has had the oldest history in India as being part of investment bullion portfolios.  However, its popularity has been its downfall also. This has been the most copied coin in India--both openly and in the way of forgeries.
Some are clearly not meant to fool anyone into thinking it is the real article, especially as it is offered in smaller sizes as 5 grams and 1 gram such as this specimen. The difference is easily seen when you compare this to the real coin issued by the British Royal Mint. The most important bullion metal
In all the previous articles, we have not focused on the most important precious metal for a personal investment bullion portfolios. It is, in a way, more important than gold. That metal is silver. You may be surprised by this. We can plot this on a chart to see how these precious metals have performed relative to each other.
This chart shows that over the past ten years gold and silver have appreciated more than 200% on a rupee basis. The interesting thing is that silver (yellow line) has had a greater volatility in price than that of gold (blue line) in times of economic uncertainty, such as in 2006-07. The Gold to Silver Ratio
 The gold-silver ratio (ounces of silver required to buy one ounce of gold) is a reference of the relative performance of these precious metals. A couple of years ago the gold to silver ratio was 75:1. Recently it has dipped below 50:1. The lower the ratio, the greater the appreciation of silver relative to gold. It also means that silver is becoming more 'expensive'. Optimistic xperts believe that the ratio would eventually approach 16. Historically, over centuries, that has been the most long-held stable gold to silver ratio. I do not know that this ratio will be achieved in a hurry. It might get there if there is a major collapse of world economies. The current recent historical gold-silver ratio has been between 50 and 70. In any event, given the current depressed economic scenario worldwide, gold and silver continue to be superior assets. More so as paper money that has no real value backing it up, it continues to get shredded. - The ratio is likely to continue improving in favor of silver, making silver a great long term investment. Of course the upward journey of both these metals will not be a straight line. The path will be up and down, but the overall trend will be upward.
Gold-silver appreciation
If we look at the chart below for the first three months of 2008, we find that the silver price (yellow line) has in fact been rising at a greater rate than that of gold (green line).
2008-2009
The gold-silver ratio has been favorable for buying silver compared to gold for a while now. From January 1 to March 18, 2008, gold has appreciated by about 22%, while silver has gone up by about 45%. In that same period, the stock market got a 26% haircut--the S&P CNX Nifty dropped 1611 points from 6144 to 4533. The precious metals, then, have outperformed the stock markets by 46% (gold) and 71% (silver).
July 2009 the gold-silver ratio is between 68 and 72. This means that silver is 'cheaper' in comparison to gold. The sample investment bullion portfolios given at the links below keep this in view.
To 'Attract Wealth' article from Investment Bullion Portfolios for Your Needs
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