I'm not too familiar with all involved in this but there are, I believe, some laws that you need to be aware of. It is illegal to horde money (physical currency) and gold as well, find out what amounts will be trouble. You may need to own your gold/silver in a collectible kind of way for it to be ok with the govt. IMHO such laws are constitutionally illegal, but hey when has that stopped our government!
Also remember when you have a something like gold or silver in your actual possession it is easy to steal. I hate to say this, but I'd strongly recommend not talking about stuff like this, especially in a public forum, there are clever, evil and generally greedy people out there who shouldn't know you're looking into something like this. Find someone who you can trust and knows there stuff. The fewer people know the better.
Are you referring to the 1933 law? No longer applicable. I am aware of no limit to the amount of gold or silver a person has on hand.
You can buy $500,000 of silver and more off of ebay any day of the week from private sellers.
To the OP--
The safest, best way to do this is to buy from a reputable dealer. Here are some considerations:
1. Some states tax sales of metals. For example, Indiana does. Illinois does not. 7% on $10k is $700, half an ounce of gold and a pretty good chunk. If you are in a state that doesn't tax sales, all the better. If you can travel to another state that doesn't tax metals, do that.
2. Online is a very reputable way to buy from one of the biggies. They also have some of the best prices you are going to find. Monex.com, Apmex.com, etc. You will have to give them a credit card or bank wire so if you are looking for anonymity, forget it.
3. Some people want to buy anonymously. $10k transactions require a 1099. Several transactions in a short period of time that total $10k require a 1099. (It is called "structuring" in IRS parlance--attempting to get around the reporting requirement.
4. Private sales generally have the best prices as the spread between the buy and sell are not as great as a dealer. This can contain a certain amount of risk if you don't know who you are dealing with.
5. Think about your purpose of what you want this for. That will probably determine what kind of precious metal you want. If you want it strictly for investment, then you will pay less of a premium for bigger weights. If you want it because you think that the world will disintegrate and you want to use silver for bartering for ammo and food, then you probably want something easily recognizable that will have a value. pre-65 US coins (referred to as 90% silver or "junk" silver) will probably be your best bet. You could buy bags of these from dealers. If you want to bug out with significant amount of wealth and don't care about dividing it into smaller amounts, a small gold bar or 7 krugerrands or eagles might be your best bet.
6. You will hear this often if you get into this sort of thing: If you don't have it physically in your possession, you don't really own it. People that buy paper gold, eft's, gold that is stored somewhere, etc, may or may not actually have what they think or be able to access it when they need it.
Good luck.
