Need some advice on "junk silver."

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I am thinking about a small purchase of junk silver, 90%, coins. It seems that it is usually being sold via either a "full bag" or a "half bag." The dealers around here are selling for 4X the face value, or about $4,200 for a full bag. Not having done this before, is this fee about average, too, high, too low? How does the bulk bag coind compare to spending utilty to silver bullion, ect. Any thoughts from those with experience in this area would be appreciated.

-- smfdoc (smfdoc@aol.com), June 19, 1999

Answers

4.2 times the face value is a fair deal from a coin dealer, the best I've gotten is 4.3 times, with a ten dollar face value minimum purchase. In days gone by one could get various silver from auctions for a bargain but that seems to be over now. Check your buy for rare coins. I have found a few that are well over what was paid, I sold them and bought more.

-- Will (sibola@hotmail.com), June 19, 1999.

smfdoc, here are two links you can look into. I have used Blanchard and Company a number of times and found their services excellent. They are one of the largest coin dealers in the country. Blanchard and Company

Gold and Silver Bullion

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), June 19, 1999.


You will find some interesting resources here:

http://www.provide.net/~aelewis/gold/goldbear.htm

-- alan (foo@bar.com), June 19, 1999.


Check the daily Wall Street Journal in section three. Look for the commodies page. Look for cash prices and at the very bottom of that section will be the current price for a bag of 90% silver coins.

-- Gene on Cape Cod (carvgene@gis.net), June 19, 1999.

smfdoc:

I envy you. I don't have the cash for silver or gold. Whatever I earn is used for food and other survival provisions. I can't envision bartering junk silver coins in my small city. Most here are totally stupid regarding Y2K, and they aren't bothering to stock up on anything!

If you DO procure some silver coins, then please stash them in a secret cache known only to you and your loved ones.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), June 19, 1999.



Go to http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv/SILVER for some info about junk silver. The dealer price for silver depends on the going price for silver. As Gene mentioned the WSJ Section C usually around page 18 will list Cash Prices. Note that the spot silver prices are NOT listed in dollars, but the $1,000 bags are.

On occassion a dealer will sell "loose" silver (less than full or half bag) and might even sell them at a lower premium. Also some coin dealers sell "rounds", these are noncoin one ounce silver bars or circles. Blanchard is a good source, so are Franklin Saunder's The Money Changer, Burt Blumert's Camino Coin, and Ron Paul & Co.

The best use of silver or gold is for rebuilding after the crisis has passed, usually prices for everything are higher than normal during a crisis.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@EARTHLINK.NET), June 19, 1999.


On the coins versus bullion question, I favor coins simply because they are recognizable and already known and accepted by most people. You don't have to educate someone about bullion before using it to buy something from him/her. Also, it's easier to buy four chickens for a silver quarter than it is to carve up a bar into the precise amount you need. In a 10+ situation, bullion will be suspect simply because there's no assurance it's actually what you say it is, unless you plan to use it to back your own scrip. (Hey, now there's an idea. In the early-mid 1800s, quite a few banks issued their own currency.)

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), June 20, 1999.

WE may appreciate the difference between "junk silver" coins (those actually having silver in them) and the currently minted copper clad tokens, but will those you want to trade with? The average boob is clueless about coinage as well as the other government banking/credit/taxation scams.

Questions to answer and document, because you will be in the education (re coinage) business if you're going to try to use such coins and expect someone you are trading with to value the silver coins any more than they do the clad coins:
1) What was the last year of mintage of the 90% coins; what were they?
2) What was the last year of mintage of the 40% coins; what were they?
3) What is the average silver content in grams or ounces ( and how many grams in an ounce ) of each of the 90% coins (in average circulated condition?) Of the 40% coin(s)?
4) Other?

-- A (A@AisA.com), June 20, 1999.


The post above giving URL
http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv/SILVER
has a lot of information you will need to get people to accept junk silver in trade.

Can buy junk silver coins through merchant with e-gold account.
Scroll down a bit at
http://www.e-gold.com/news.html

-- A (A@AisA.com), June 20, 1999.


See also www.certifiedmint.com for lots of good educational info (and the answers to all of A's questions.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), June 20, 1999.


buy boullion!..from rep. dealers!J.M etc!MHOP!

-- eddy (xxx@xxx.com), June 21, 1999.

My son bought a half bag of junk solver in 1995 and paid $1500. The price of silver has not changed since then, so I thing you're getting ripped off.

Personally I think a silver dollar has much more claut than 4 quarters.

-- y2k ready (y2kready@aol.com), June 21, 1999.


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