Thanks for the PM. I often go out of town for work and most of the places I end up are primitive and have no net connection.
When I need to convert my gold and silver to cash i simply sell it back to the same folks in town I bought from. So now your asking "Well who the hell do you buy from"? I just get it from the local coin shops. they sell it at a bit higher price than spot and buy it back at about 3-5% less than the current spot price, so they make up to 5% profit when they resell yours. The only circumstances where I would sell would be for extremely important cash only settlements. You have to remember that gold and silver ARE wealth, not a representation of it like worthless paper. As long as there is inflation gold/silver will always increase in value. Historically Silver is at an all time low when priced against dollar devaluation ( Inflation). There is actually LESS refined above ground silver than there is Gold. We haven't mined enough silver to keep up with industrial use since the late 70's, every year the supply gets less and less. Why is the price so low? Market manipulation by shorting futures contracts on the COMEX. They actually Short more silver than exists, one day they will have to cover a short, or default and then the clearing house will have to guarantee the physical metal and will buy at any price. Then you may see silver selling for $100+/ounce instead of $13. I bought the majority of my silver back in November when it was $8.50.
There are several forms of gold and silver to physically hold. Starting with the bankers bars, these are 400 ounce ( Gold) and 1,000 ounce ( Silver) bars you always see in the big gold heist movies. its what the banks use to move large sums of cash around, they weigh alot so not very convenient for regular people like you and me. Next we have the 100 oz bars, they are about a large handful, stack well and are fairly easy to move around. Next are the 10 and 5 ounce bars and finally the 1 ounce or less coins that are minted. Of particular value is whats called "Junk Silver" Junk silver is not junk at all in fact its some of the most valuable because it has gauranteed silver content of 90% backed by the USA govt. All dimes, quarters and half dollars minted 1964 and earlier was all 90% silver. Now a days the most valuable silver of all is the US Govt Mints Silver eagle dollar coin. 99.99% pure silver of 1 troy ounce 31.1 grams. it is legal tender for $1, which is a big joke as it is worth multitudes more. They command a large premium over the spot price, currently Eagles can go for a s much at $5 over spot. People like them because they require no "Assay" to determine if they are indeed pure silver, just like "junk" silver also needs no assay. If your just selling back your silver to the same guy you purchased from more than likely he won't require any assay either, but if you went to some stranger in another city he may want to charge a small percentage to get the lot assay'd and verified of metal content. The coin shop owners in my neck of the woods(We have 4 shops in the local area) have been in the business for a long time, 2 of the shops of generational businesses. I stop in every payday and get as much as I can afford and then when harvest come in i get more. Some is buried, some is hidden in the house, some is in the safe deposit box, some is in a floor safe in the house and some of it resides at my folks place.