Silver prices have been steadily climbing over the past decade but especially, the past year. Why?

Economically, the dollar is in trouble as are most stocks. The housing bubble brought about the largest loss of wealth since the Great Depression. IRA's, 401K's, mutual funds and stocks took a beating and lost billions of dollars. Then it got worse. The stock market lost 4000 points. Big name companies started closing their doors. The US watched ONE TRILLION dollars in accumulated wealth disappear seemingly overnight.

As the economy goes, so goes the value of the U.S. dollar. Considered the backbone of the world economy, the dollar was already beaten up, then the Federal Government started basically printing more of them to stave off larger economic problems such as propping up failing businesses and buying failed companies. The dollar grew weaker.

Now it gets more interesting. Silver, long used as the basis for real money, had been gradually adopted for industrial applications which resulted in most silver mined over the past 200 years converted to uses other than currency. This left a shortage of silver and the value, naturally has climbed.

Things developed into a perfect storm as investors wanted to move away from the dollar and found silver in short supply.

So can a savvy investor do?

First, as always, diversify. Next, they should consider adding junk silver to their portfolio. Junk silver means common date pre-1965 U.S. silver coins, namely, quarters, dimes and halves. There are still millions available, but many are now in investors hands and not available for sale.

A coin or jewelry exchange should have bags of junk silver dimes, quarters and halves available for sale. There are also reputable online retailers. An investment can be as simple as a roll of Mercury head dimes or a $1000.00 face value bag of quarters or halves.

Regardless of the type, junk silver coins are real money and becoming more rare every day. It might be worth your time to consider investing in junk silver today.