The silver price in AUD cracked $20 an ounce last week, and has remained above it ever since. What does this mean for collectors? The main thing is that most of the precious metal coins we all take for granted are worth a lot more than they have been in recent times - take a look at this table for the values as at March 8th:

Is now the time to start taking profits, or are we just in the starting phase of the major bull run that the silver and gold bulls have been talking about for all these years?

PLATINUM: I saw too much volatility in the platinum market in the late 90's to really be an unrelenting bull on platinum at these price levels, so now may be a good time to take some profits on platinum if you've been holding out for a good price. If you're not decided, try reading up on the problems South Africa is having with their power to help yourself get clear on the cause of the most recent price rise.

GOLD & SILVER: Asking a mining executive whether the gold price will keep rising is probably a little like asking your wife whether you've had too much to drink - you know what the answer is going to be even before you ask it. So I don't place a huge amount in the bullishness about the metals markets coming from the gold & silver bulls - after all, what do you expect them to say! I do however place a little more weight in the comments made by men and women that trade for a living, and there's a few that aren't 100% optimistic about the world economy in the coming months. Jim Rogers of the Quantum hedge fund has had something to say, as have a number of fairly senior banking executives in this article in this morning's Sydney Morning Herald. I wouldn't know if their worst predictions are going to come about or not, but have read enough to believe that the fundamentals that have driven so many people to take a position in the gold & silver markets ain't going to be changing any time soon! We could all do a lot worse than to stack a modest amount of gold & silver aside just in case.