Don't Go For The Gold

I spotted this article while looking over the Yahoo! Finance home page this morning: Three Reasons Silver Is Likely to Shine.

I buy silver rather than gold, in part because of three valuation factors mentioned in the article: silver is a more useful metal in industrial applications (it is consumed and must be replaced); silver at present is still priced lower than historical highs; total silver supplies (refined and unextracted deposits) are diminishing (increasing scarcity).

Not mentioned in the article is a fourth reason I prefer silver over gold: liquidity. If conditions go south, then as an item of trade one ounce of silver (presently about $18.02/ounce) would be easier to exchange for an equivalent amount of goods than even one tenth of an ounce of gold (presently about $118.10 for 1/10th of an ounce, which would not be an issue if the counterparty has enough desirable goods to offer that would be worth that much).