I agree that Silver is not yet ready to correct from here. I would give it at least another month.

ML

I’m really sorry to hear about your situation. At no time will I put investment above day-to-day living. so the best suggestion I can give is to get a fair price for your silver by trying http://www.tulving.com or http://www.nwtmint.com and keep the proceeds in a high rate savings account.

You can consider opening a Zecco account with > $2k and buy some SLV, the silver ETF. That way you can have ready access to your money while maintaining the exposure to silver. You get zero commission trades with Zecco and the expense ratio of SLV is only about 0.5% per year.

ML

But as one with scant disposable income, occasionally (fortunately not more than once a year) some unexpected(ly large) expense arises and I scurry for cash.

Being bullish long term, I do not wish to sell my silver, and would rather borrow against it instead. Good luck with that! Pawn shops don’t want to loan on bullion, and would rather squeeze me into a lowball sale which I am unwilling to do. (They are happy to buy my coins for 5 or 6 x face.)

Any suggestions here? Should I just go ahead and sell out and convert my silver to cash for those times of penury?

Thanks for a very expert review of silver use in the electronics industry. I hope RoHS or something similar becomes more widely adopted.

I have some experience in basic device research. Silver is one of the easiest metals to deposit. Some cutting edge organic photovoltaic cells contain a smidgen of silver (angstroms). Unfortunately they are still at the research stage.

ML

Back on topic :I work in the Semiconductor industry and can confirm the silver increase with RoHS usage. One of the preferred solder compositions for leadfree is SAC (SnAgCu) where silver content is 3 to 4%. In terms of semiconductors the usage today may be small as it is Ball grid array (BGA) type packages that really use SAC (BGA has solder balls on the bottom of the package). The older lower tech surface mount devices (SMT) may use leadframe finishes such as NiPdAu that have no silver content. Btw: The Au content of NiPdAu is insignifant to get excited about (a few angstoms!). When Au is used is as bond wires and for older package technologies, is the largest piece cost of semiconductor package breakdown. However, compared to silicon and cost of test, it is also not that large.

Biggest users for RoHS will be on the solder paste and PCBs. In terms of semiconductors sold worldwide, Europe is in fact the smallest market. Even in EU, Car and Telecom manufactures were given a waiver to push out date of ROHS.

Whilst RoHS is European Union at this time, China is giving mixed signals on adopting something similar. I say mixed signals as they want to move but we cannot understand when !! Bulk of Electronics manufacture is in far East. When these guys move, that is when real demand of silver will happen from electronics point of view.

Japan also seems to be moving in this direction but with no Government mandate. Move seems to be product positioning of green.

On technology front, as advanced Semiconductors decrease in geometry they run hotter.

However, the higher the junction temp, the lower the operating frequency of the device. To get the heat off the chip requires innovative thermal management. One way is to take the heat from bottom of chip to copper slug that is soldered to the PCB. The “die attach” material has to be good adhesive but also good thermal conductor. One technique for a good thermal conductor comes from adding very finely milled silver. I am keeping my eye on this trend. May not be a big usage but may start gradual trend.

To my knowledge not of the electronic companies recycle silver. Gold maybe.

Glad to hear from someone who has 1st hand experience with the silver market then. I think the Hunts ran silver up to $50 but it lasted very briefly, so congrats for getting out early.

BTW, I like the name of your blog.

ML

http://1sttimeinvestor.blogspot.com/2006/10/selling-precious-metals.html

These days I don’t have much bullion, but I’m thinking of adding a small amount to my portfolio. I might buy a couple of kg bars for fun – they make cool paperweights!

Regards
http://enoughwealth.blogspot.com