Importing Silver Coins And Bullion Bars Into Thailand

[Maipenrai007]

I have brought some silver coins collectable and bars off E-bay, will I get charged import duty on them if they are posted directly into Thailand or am I better to have the posted in Australia and have someone bring them in in there hand luggage.

I am only taking about 2 Onces of silver and a handful of coins

Advice would be appreciated

[dynabob]

Are you mad,postal worker's,custom's officers and police,any of these would help themselves to your property.Hand luggage is the way to go.

[Maipenrai007]

Yes I am Mad!! Lol

But on your advice I take it also, I will get goods shipped to AU hand luggage will be hte way to go

Thank for your helpful advice

cheers

[dynabob]

well we are all a bit mad,glad to be of help

[Maipenrai007]

Clinically Insane but thats what a Thai Dr Diagnosed lol

BTW - buy some silver you might need it one day:)

Cheap

[khunjake]

Silver Sucks.. Stick with Gold..

[gregb]

I have to agree with Khun Jake.

Silver is not a monetary metal anywhere outside of the US. Almost every other country in the world punishes you mercilessly for it. Gold, by contrast, is tax free almost everywhere. According to what a friend told me, you will be charged 5% duty and 7% VAT on all silver. If the silver has a face value, it will be ignored for the purposes of this computation.

If I were in the states, I would consider silver as an investment. Here in Thailand I have come to the conclusion that it is a mistake. Gold is a much more fungible metal, and the possible upside in silver doesn't compensate for the dismal opportunities you have to actually sell it. There is way too little of it to ever be recognized as useful in barter in Thailand.

However, if you do pursue this opportunity, your best bet is to simply to carry it in coin form through the airport with the rest of your spare change. The advantage of silver having no widespread use as money, is that few customs inspectors would recognize that a $5 maple is not simply just another random foreign coin.

[Maipenrai007]

I have to agree with Khun Jake.

Silver is not a monetary metal anywhere outside of the US. Almost every other country in the world punishes you mercilessly for it. Gold, by contrast, is tax free almost everywhere. According to what a friend told me, you will be charged 5% duty and 7% VAT on all silver. If the silver has a face value, it will be ignored for the purposes of this computation.

If I were in the states, I would consider silver as an investment. Here in Thailand I have come to the conclusion that it is a mistake. Gold is a much more fungible metal, and the possible upside in silver doesn't compensate for the dismal opportunities you have to actually sell it. There is way too little of it to ever be recognized as useful in barter in Thailand.

However, if you do pursue this opportunity, your best bet is to simply to carry it in coin form through the airport with the rest of your spare change. The advantage of silver having no widespread use as money, is that few customs inspectors would recognize that a $5 maple is not simply just another random foreign coin.

Coins in the pocket is the way forward _ I agree with gold being more tungiable in thailand I might stick to buying gold from old mate down the road here, China is advising all of it people to start investing in gold

[lannarebirth]

Maipenrai007 said:

China is advising all of it people to start investing in gold

And they might be giving good advice too, but the first thing that popped into my head when I read that was Alan Greenspan encouraging everyone to take out floating rate mortgages when the Fed Funds rate was hovering between 1% and 1.5%.

[Maipenrai007]

lannarebirth said:

Maipenrai007 said:

China is advising all of it people to start investing in gold

And they might be giving good advice too, but the first thing that popped into my head when I read that was Alan Greenspan encouraging everyone to take out floating rate mortgages when the Fed Funds rate was hovering between 1% and 1.5%.

Who really know I might as drive down the road 160 kms and drive into a brick wall to make any sense out of the current world situation.

Matbe Thaksin should be running the whole fuc_ken show!!

[flying]

Silver Sucks.. Stick with Gold..

While I hold both I have no qualms saying Silver will outperform Gold ultimately.

Percentage growth wise Silver has ability

In fact at a 62/1 ratio Silver is still a buy even now

Edited November 16, 2009 by flying

[Maipenrai007]

Silver Sucks.. Stick with Gold..

While I hold both I have no qualms saying Silver will outperform Gold ultimately.

Percentage growth wise Silver has ability

In fact at a 62/1 ratio Silver is still a buy even now

I am hearing those noises more and more about silver

[flying]

I am hearing those noises more and more about silver

It was a downright steal at 77/1 last year Oct

[Naam]

I am hearing those noises more and more about silver

It was a downright steal at 77/1 last year Oct

and it is easy to store as roof tiles. a bit of oxydation should even add to the beauty

[flying]

Naam said:

and it is easy to store as roof tiles. a bit of oxydation should even add to the beauty

Mai Mee Oxidation

They store perfectly 20-1oz coins to a tube.

Then many tubes fit perfect in airtight 5.56 cal ammo cans

Better than the 500 per monster box method

But I will say you need a strong back when storing them

[gregb]

I am hearing those noises more and more about silver

It was a downright steal at 77/1 last year Oct

Possibly. On the other hand, if you look at the year 1932, during the worst of the Great Depression, the silver price was only 25 cents. Gold on the other hand, which was actual money, was fixed at $25. Thus a ratio of 100:1. This was at a time when gold was real money and silver was not.

I maintain this is still the case today. We are in a serious depression, and it is not inconceivable to return to this figure. In fact, I see it as rather likely. Silver is a commodity. It's advantage is you can buy it low during hard economic times and it will tend to rise dramatically when the economy recovers. A 77:1 ratio may not actually be a steal. It depends on how prolonged you think this depression will be.

In my analysis, silver is not a monetary metal. Central banks treat only fiat currencies and gold as money. Outside of the US, silver is taxed heavily, making it unsuitable for use in monetary transactions. Until this changes, I would be very careful about getting caught up in the hype. I have a small amount of silver as a hedge just in case, but as I have learned more about the dynamics of the precious metals market, I have made the decision not to increase my holdings.

My feelings might be different if I lived in the US, but for Thailand I maintain that any possible upside in silver is dwarfed by the negatives.

[flying]

Possibly. On the other hand, if you look at the year 1932, during the worst of the Great Depression, the silver price was only 25 cents. Gold on the other hand, which was actual money, was fixed at $25. Thus a ratio of 100:1. This was at a time when gold was real money and silver was not.

My feelings might be different if I lived in the US, but for Thailand I maintain that any possible upside in silver is dwarfed by the negatives.

I believe you are a bit confused on those numbers. Or at least not comparing apples to apples or ounces to ounces.

From 1932 till 1964 the only silver that was worth .25 cents was a quarter coin.

Those quarter coins weighed 6.25 grams

BUT those coins were also 90% Silver & 10% copper

So lets say it held 5.62 grams of Silver

So a little over 5 quarters to an ounce or $1.25

Your $25 dollar gold piece was an ounce But the coin was a $20 dollar piece not $25

Although On September 8, 1933 almost four years after the October 1929 stock market crash, Franklin Roosevelt, raised the domestic price of gold by 44 percent from $20.67 an ounce, where it had stood for more than a century, to $29.82 per ounce.

So...............

$20/$1.25 = ratio of 16/1

But actually Gold coin was not 100% gold either soooooooooo

Perhaps a simpler calculation or more apples to apples is a 1921-1935 Peace silver dollar vs a 1932 gold $20 coin.

Roughly Same weight & make up % of their metal

So 20/1 is a more accurate calculation right?

Silver has been real money all during the time period you mentioned.

I do not know about the other possible drawbacks you mention taxes etc as I live in both US & Thailand. But I have no qualms holding what I do in Silver, While I do ion fact have twice as much capital invested in Gold. The only drawback I see to Silver is the sheer weight as mentioned before.

But percentage wise I will will not be surprised to see it maintain its advantage in profit % over gold.

This year it is up 59% compared to Golds 45%

Both are great hedges IMHO

Edited November 17, 2009 by flying

[gregb]

I believe you are a bit confused on those numbers. Or at least not comparing apples to apples or ounces to ounces.

From 1932 till 1964 the only silver that was worth .25 cents was a quarter coin.

OK. I will grant you I could be a little bit more accurate. Treating both items as a commodity in 1932 yields a ratio of 82:1. (Gold at $20.69, silver at $.254). These are averages over the whole year however, so at any point during that particular year the ratio would have fluctuated both above and below that figure.

You arbitrarily choose 77:1 on a few particular days in 2008 to support your hypothesis, but the average over the entire year was 58. By that same reasoning (since I don't have access to daily charts for 1932) I would expect to find short periods in 1932 when the ratio reached 109:1.

My point is, silver performs badly during depressions when gold is uniquely money and silver is not. This is the case we have today. There was no monetary component of silver in 1932, and there is no monetary component of silver today.

And I've already said, if I was in the US I might be more willing to invest in silver. However, in Thailand, I have come to the conclusion that silver is not as good of a hedge as gold. For myself, I would only consider silver cheap once the ratio exceeds 100:1, and even then the difficulties of selling silver in Thailand would still weigh on my decision.

If you are happy with silver then I support your decision as correct for you. My only reason for posting is to point out there is another side to the exuberance some people feel, and an inexperienced investor needs to get every perspective.

Don't ever invest in anything you don't completely understand.

[flying]

You arbitrarily choose 77:1 on a few particular days in 2008 to support your hypothesis,

I would only consider silver cheap once the ratio exceeds 100:1,

All else aside like I said before I own both.

I did not pick 77:1 arbitrarily I literally backed the truck up at 77:1 last year when it hit $9.45...It is not a hypothesis I am up 59%

As for your 100:1 I agree whole heartily that would be cheap & I would be there buying it too

But I will be trading gold for silver if it gets to 100:1 in my lifetime.

But if Silver gets back to 55:1 or less I will be trading silver for gold at that point

Good luck to you & I agree folks should invest in what they base their own premise on.

Edited November 18, 2009 by flying

[gregb]

Silver has been real money all during the time period you mentioned.

Sorry. It would be helpful to define terms. "No monetary component" means a central bank can not book silver bullion as a foreign exchange asset. It could not be done in 1932, and it still can not be done today. That is why gold is money and silver isn't.

It does not mean you can not make a coin from silver. The awful 2 baht coin in my pocket is cupro-nickel clad steel. That does not make copper, nickel, or pig iron monetary metals.

The fact that silver is not money is the reason silver is taxed in most countries and gold is not. If you tried to exchange silver bullion internationally in exchange for goods and services, your bullion would be subject to both duties and taxes by the receiving entity. No such problems exist with gold. You could easily ship a pallet of gold from the US to Thailand and receive the entire amount.