Buying a silver coin

I bought a silver coin this week as a small token of appreciation for someone. Having never done it before, here’s a quick and dirty of my experience. I don’t remotely pretend to be an expert in buying and selling precious metals so please feel free to comment if you have anything to add to buying silver or physical gold.

I bought my coin at Scotiabank’s main branch at Scotia Plaza. They have a separate foreign exchange and previous metals desk. If you are not a customer of the bank selling you a silver or gold coin, you will have to bring two pieces of id (one of them has to be photo id). I am sure you have to pre-order for much larger orders (there is an item in the bill for “armoured car” charge; I wonder how much gold or silver you have to buy to be charge with that charge!).

I bought a 1 oz silver maple coin. Here is the catch. Even though the coin is Canadian (hence, a maple coin), the price is quoted in U.S. dollars. I am told bullion and coins are quoted in USD no matter the country of issuer. In other words, factor in the exchange rate.

The price per oz was $20.41 that day. Exchange as at 1.115%. Commission is $5.00 up to $2,000 then, according to the employee behind the desk, from $200.01 to $5,000.00, commission is another quarter of a percent and then an eighth of a percent above $5,000.00.  Sales tax of 8% was also charged. The total ended up being $30.60.