one negative for owning much silver is its weight. Invest appx $23k in silver (ten 100 oz bars) and it weighs appx 68 pounds. Not exactly what a lady in a nice dress with heels wants to schlep from place to place. Whereas the same money put into gold would be appx 17 ounces. (not considering any costs here except basic current spot, just for the sake of easy conversation. We all know lots more details apply). So you don't want to be hauling it around. You want to get it and put it where it is safe. And I doubt you'd want to be actively trading it, also for this reason.

Where is it safe? varies by individual preference. One good rule of thumb is "if it ain't in my hands, its not safe". That would of course apply to all the electronic traded funds and the metals held by others for you in a lot of variety of forms. Some claim "your" metal is held in a fungible site (meaning its dedicated as yours versus not yours"...but that also can be a lie on paper and not exist in reality. It can be stolen, sold and nothing but paper exists if they have it and you don't. Is a safety deposit box safe? Maybe. I've read talk of how thieves drill in from above into a bank's area, drilling through the boxes to get where they wanted. And, of course, government can freeze one out of them. Not to say any of that is going to happen. Just prudent thinking to consider them.

I agree with M. Investing in both gold and silver is probably the best idea. Keeping costs at a minimum means buying in larger quantity. IMO it would be foolish to buy any gold smaller than one ounce. Those part ounces really jack up the get in cost. And I personally think silver will out perform gold in percentage gains. And I like having a good sized chunk of small issue silver in the event it is actually useful for barter, considering our dire economy. (like the one ounce American Silver Eagles)And I personally favor holding physical silver and being in gold via mining equities. KRY for me.

Go Kry!