Question About Pricing Old Foreign Silver Coins
Walkerguy21D
Posts: 11,469 ✭✭✭✭✭
At a small show today, shopping for silver, and my favorite dealer had a small lot of US 'junk' Merc dimes, Wash quarters, and walkers at 10.5 x face that I bought. Best price on the floor, as usual from this fellow.
So later I'm walking the bourse, and the dealer tracks me down, and said he had another lot he bought from a vest pocket friend of his, was I interested? Sure...
Another very small lot of US in one bag, then a much larger bag of foreign silver coins.
The outside of the bag was marked "9.717 Oz Pure". Within the bag were smaller bags where someone had sorted the coins by silver content (80%, 90%, 50%, etc), weighed each bag, determined pure silver weight, and totaled them up to arrive at the net pure oz on the bag.
Anyway my dealer acquaintance claimed he paid $90, and since I was a regular customer it was mine for $95 if interested....which I took.
I spot checked some of the % silver figures used and whoever put in the work appears to have been right on.
So finally to my question - is 9.7 oz net pure silver for $95 a great deal, even if it is in foreign coins? Or are these just considered no touch unless very deeply discounted?
Thanks -
Comments
Here's today's silver value of Canadian coins. Hope it helps.
The government is incapable of ever managing the economy. That is why communism collapsed. It is now socialism’s turn - Martin Armstrong
Silvers is silver, Ive been filling small flat rate boxes with world stuff of no value to be refined.
Disagree. Try selling silver war nickels and 40% Kennedys. They general sell below melt value because of added refining costs..
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
Thanks for the replies so far....
Cmon you know nobody is melting any of that crap. Bag it up and sell it out the door.
Id process the silver myself but it creates large volumes of waste and takes longer to clean than gold.
For the most part, we are melting it. Hell, we melt $1-$20 gold pieces why wouldn't we melt junk world silver. Its sorted for better material, rest is made into nicely stacking bars and shipped to a refiner.
I'm not saying nobody anywhere melts it . But why ?
You buy 40% halfs someone will buy them from you too. As is.
Gonna melt silver coins so some fool can make ASE's ?
Every form of struck .999 silver out there is garbage. ASE's , maples , you name it, its all garbage. I don't mean bars , bars are efficient as long as they aren't 1 oz bars obviously . Its all silver sure but it doesn't mean anything to anyone the way coins do. I admit no one likes war nickles , but if you toss them in a sack they sell so why do the work? Much easier to pass the stuff to the next guy up the food chain than do work on it .
1oz. 999 bullion is boring garbage , its right up there on the excitement scale with a gallon of unleaded gas .
Right now an ASE costs about the same as a sheet of 1/2 plywood in my neck of the woods. Plywood is useful. Plywood is boring too.
ASE's had a pretty good run but they are over , they are done. Melt down war nickles to make the 650 millionth ASE ? I'll pass . At a discount to spot I'll take a sack of 40% halfs rather than ASE's at a premium any day.
Coin shops aren't all that bright anyway right? A guy near me sells colorized ASE's for spot , whats a quart of acetone cost , 4$ ? He could buy a quart and uncolorize 500 of them. He's a dummy .
I do think the market now at 15.50 feels different than it did 6 or 7 years ago at 15.50 , I think there were a lot of new buyers excited about silver then. Now I don't think thats true , its mostly people wondering if the bottom is in yet. Guys on the rinse cycle that have seen an up and a down and think they learned a few things.
I think the physical market is evolving differently this time around. I think the ,999 guys are going to get it handed to them this time. There isn't a big enough supply of idiots to absorb all that ugly 1 oz. dreck. Premiums , undeserved all of them, are going to fail you , they won't be there one of these days , lay in a few boxes of kleenex you'll need them .
You 5 oz giant silver quarter guys shouldn't feel jealous though , you guys are way worse off
If you get a good up then back down there won't be 3 people left in the country dumb enough to take that garbage. Best thing that ever happened to those 5 oz quarters is APMEX. People here are still crying about that but they learned the wrong lesson I think 
If any silver should be melted its ASE's and they should make 10 and 100 oz bars out of them.
"Coin shops aren't all that bright anyway right? A guy near me sells colorized ASE's for spot , whats a quart of acetone cost , 4$ ? He could buy a quart and uncolorize 500 of them. He's a dummy ."
Dummy? What's his time worth to him? Have you ever tried to remove the sh!t they put on those ASE's? It's far more effort than it's worth.
As someone who refines and has 999 silver returned to them it doesn't matter 1 oz or 1000 oz it's all the same coming in. The premium is what a customer is willing to pay over melt. We charge more for 1oz because there is a demand. If that person were to buy 100 oz bars they pay less of a premium....less demand. Average Joe isn't buying 100 oz bars, hes stacking 1oz bars and rounds with leftover savings.
You put acetone in a glass container , drop the colorized coins in and pull them out the next day . unless you are paying the jar 20 bucks an hour it doesn't cost anything
Dang. ..you should change your name to bucking bronco!!!
Gold trading under $1200 as I type this.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
I really enjoy and try to learn from this type of discussion.
Yes, a great deal,in my opinion. Also, I believe that a lot of the best opportunity in this type of deal is numismatic. There are many nice, world silver coins sold for right at or less than spot which do or should command premiums. There are also many US 90% coins sold for whatever amount x face which can be cherry picked and held for personal collections or sold to other collectors for a premium.
It does feel different. As for the stuff that comes with premiums, if you pick and choose wisely enough, you will come out ahead-maybe. Buy things you like. Buying the items that come with huge premiums as an investment is certainly a risk.
edited for grammar
That is a phenomenal deal. Most dealers I know sell foreign coins for the actual silver value X spot. Well done,
@ bronco2078 said: I do think the market now at 15.50 feels different than it did 6 or 7 years ago at 15.50
Agree.
@ bronco2078 said: Every form of struck .999 silver out there is garbage. ASE's , maples , you name it, its all garbage.
Disagree, the ASE market in particular is too large and well-established to consider it garbage.
@Walkerguy21D said: are these just considered no touch unless very deeply discounted?
I agree with Jinx86 to wit: "Silvers is silver" You may end up discounting it some, true - but I wouldn't expect to take a big hit on it.
I knew it would happen.
actually the only foreign silver I avoid is british 50% . I want to like the stuff but it just never works out well.> @jmski52 said:
There are too many ASE's now to rate a premium over spot. Might as well be philharmonics , nobody likes those either.
The US mint has been the main cause of the problem. Its obscene what they are asking for proof eagles for instance. Its the same exact coin but shinier and its 45$ over spot.
@bronco2078 said: The US mint has been the main cause of the problem.
Agree, they are the biggest whore in the market. However, the market will do what it wants to do - and even gov.com isn't bigger than the market, except for manipulated, short term paper proxies for the real thing.
I knew it would happen.
@cohodk said: Gold trading under $1200 as I type this.
i.e., the dollar is up.
Here's one for ya, cohodk - a person I was talking to recently expressed the opinion that "the US had to change" with a knowing, self-satisfied smirk on her face. My takeaway from this conversation was that everyone in the world disagrees with the US (which is what she actually said) and that the US will be brought "down to size" with a concerted effort by the globalists/socialists.
This seems to contradict your current opinion on the US economy and strength of the dollar. Comments?
I knew it would happen.
I disagree wholeheartedly with your acquaintance. Sounds like the rantings of an ignorant conspiracy theorist that wants to place her misfortune or lack of fortune on soneone or something else. The world is full of jealousy and fear of success.
Do you agree with her?
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
@cohodk said: Do you agree with her?
lol, you really don't know whether or not I'd agree with her? lol, that's funny. For the record, I disagree with her 100%.
She was quite condescending about the US in her comparison of Americans vs. Europeans without even knowing that she was. What's the term? Oh yeah - an "effete snob".
She made no connection between her idea of her government's liberal policies and her own complaints about how the youth of today are lazy and ignorant (with which I also disagree, mostly - as with any demographic, it depends on the individual).
My visit to the Canadian Mint was kinda cool! And my host was great. Interesting place, Canada.
I knew it would happen.
I thought it was funny that you would even consider her view. Lol
And I agree with your comments. You and I ain't much different, except that maybe I believe and trust myself more than others.
Knowledge is the enemy of fear
Since seeing this thread I have been quietly searching for foreign junk in quantity and its very scarce. On ebay the number of lots is very low.
You used to see quite a bit from mexico , like a lot of 20 or 50 or supposed roll quantity f the 72% silver pesos or 50 centavos . I've bought larger lots of 83% silver francs and such , Aussie shillings or bags of phillipino 75% silver . Its not really for sale in roll or bag quantity anymore.
I don't think its been melted so much as withdrawn and listed individually because of the low spot price. I think people are treating it as premium silver , sellers I mean . Buyers still want lot quantities but are not willing to pay 12 bucks for coins with 6$ worth of silver in them.
Some of it might be due to changes in Ebay though. Its not really safe to put things up for auction that one used to have confidence would seek the right level, you see a lot of high priced buy nows on more thinly traded material . Obviously sellers have to protect themselves.
Even if you wanted canadian 80% silver its not very common to see it auctioned to where you could just bid and get it around spot