If you've never ventured into the land of buying gold or silver, you probably feel like I felt: intimidated.
There are few things I hate more than entering a situation where I feel like I could easily make a fool of myself by not knowing what I'm talking about.
I'm here to tell you that you can relax. For about $35-40 (at least for now) you can get started on the road to investing in gold and silver, and look like a pro doing it.
Find a local shop that you can go to, or a web site that sells gold or silver.
If you're in the Vancouver, BC area, I'd recommend checking out J&M either at 127 East Broadway in Vancouver or at Metrotown in Burnaby, or go to Vancouver Bullion & Currency Exchange at 800 West Pender Street downtown.
If you don't live in the Vancouver area, open up Google Maps, browse to where you live, and search for bullion, or collectibles. If you're not sure whether the businesses you see will sell what you're looking for, just phone them up and ask them if they sell gold and silver bullion, and what products they have available.
Tell the person at the shop (or search for, if you're online) that you'd like to buy "one Silver Maple, please."
The store person will say something like "my pleasure" or "no problem". Sometimes they'll ask you to pay for it up front. Then, they'll pull out a nice shiny Silver Maple from the display cabinet, or they might go to "the back room" where they keep stuff.
Success. That wasn't so hard, was it? You're now the proud owner of one troy ounce of fine silver. Next time, if you have a little more money, you could try asking for a 10oz Silver Bar, or a 1/10oz Gold Maple. No sweat.
Remember, you can check out the approximate prices for a bunch of bullion products on the home page.