What Loyd said is a better explanation of my silver might by soup but only if there is soup for sale, the can of soup I put in the pantry will insure I have soup.
I would only worry about sinking money into precious metals if all my real world financial uses for the money were already addressed. If I want to insure food then stock the pantry, same for toilet paper, or ammo, or components or.... Even dental or medical costs could fit in that category. Recall the tooth that was sensitive when Tom Hanks left on his trip? Yeah when his stuff hit the fan that tooth he was going to get looked at darn near killed him.
If you weld how much rod do you keep on hand? Case of oil for the generator and chain saw? Or just a single 1/2 bottle left from your last oil change? Boots or shoes? Jackets and sweatshirt and sweaters. Whole lot of these items get more expensive with time, and extremely valuable if times are tough. Bunch of pretty metal would be really low on my list. Below better Kerosene heater and spare wick to go with another 5 gallon can of kerosene in the shed. I use it in the winter and having it on hand means I can keep the enough of the house above freezing to protect the pipes and be comfortable in a power outage. Or pile of pretty metal. Hmmm. Take care of needs before investments.
Scrap dealers will melt your whole batch of precious metal into one bar. Drill a sample and pay on the sample. At least that was what they did for a friend who took a batch down to Tenn. Him a dog, a shotgun in a motor home.