While I've been answering many of these questions in a piecemeal fashion throughout issues of the Resource Prospector, I thought I'd once and for all cobble the information together in one place.

Like anything, if you're just getting started in buying gold and silver it can be a somewhat daunting process.

That's because there are about as many different precious metal vendors as there are types of coins, and it can be a bit of a minefield if you don't know EXACTLY what you're looking for, how much you should be paying, and perhaps most importantly, why you're buying precious metals in the first place.

I recently received a question from reader David W. which seems to encapsulate just about every possible angle of this topic: