90% silver. What's your preferred denomination, and what's your preferred type?

Weiss

Inspired by @hfjacinto 's "constitutional" post.
My world famous treatise on physical silver ownership favors US 90% above all other forms of physical silver.
That treatise is easy to refute (though I've never seen a valid refutation ). But agree or disagree, gun to your head: what would be your preferred 90% silver vehicle? Dimes, quarters, halves, or dollars?

Follow up: Would you rather have average circulated obsolete coins with maybe a little numismatic value, or BU rolls of more recent 90% silver coins?

SaorAlba

Buying - dimes. Selling - halves In all fairness I haven't paid more than face value for 90% in over 20 years. I get all I can from mining coin rolls etc from banks.

derryb

90% JFKs

Soldi

JFK halves then Franklin halves and I like looking at a pile of Mercury dimes in a box. I don't know it just does something to me.

jmski52

I have mostly halves, but any denomination works for me.

blitzdude

@derryb said:
90% JFKs

This. BU for maximum gutter content. RGDS!

CoinHoarder

@Weiss said:
Would you rather have average circulated obsolete coins with maybe a little numismatic value, or BU rolls of more recent 90% silver coins?

Answer: Average circulated obsolete coins with maybe a little numismatic value

My first choice when pawing through 90% at my LCS, are nice, problem free for the grade, "junk" Barber Half Dollars.

Although I also stack the more recent, brilliant BU "junk" silver as well.

thefinn

A great buy is Sterling. Higher silver percentage at a lower price.

Estil

With silver now down to <$20/oz the silver bug has been kinda biting me lately; anyone here wanna help me fill some holes in my silver FDR dimes and silver GW quarters album?

pragmaticgoat

traded all my 100oz Engelhards that I bought 20 years ago for three bags of 90% halves, quarters, and dimes about ten years ago and have added 1964 BU JFK's that I cherrypick from the LCS gutter metal bins whenever I can get them close to melt, been a few years now

Meltdown

I ain't too picky though If I had to choose, I prefer BU, full weight 90% in rolls.
I really like filling up albums with the circulated stuff mainly because I can buy a few dates here & there and it feeds the habit on the cheap.

ricko

Half dollars (WLH, JFK and Franklins) and dollars. I like big silver. Cheers, RickO

Weiss

That treatise on 90% silver...

**
Pre-1965 US 90% silver coins –the very best way to own physical silver. Period.**

Pre 1965 US 90% silver is the best choice for investing in physical silver for the same reasons it's always been the best choice. We’ll take a look at some of the reasons below. Consider that these points are valid during relatively prosperous and stable economic times, and that they become even more important in dangerous political or economic environments.

A) Recognition. Everyone in America, and a large percentage of the world’s population, recognizes and are familiar with the US dollar and US coinage--even people who don't know anything about precious metals. But the majority of the US population has no idea what a gold eagle or gold buffalo is, let alone an Austrian Philharmonic or Chinese Panda. And they’ve probably never interacted with a silver eagle, either. They don’t understand what it represents or how it relates to everyday goods and services. And if the average person can’t recognize foreign bullion coins, or even US bullion coins, how could they possibly recognize one of the thousands of generic silver bars or rounds?
But they would they recognize a United States dime or quarter in a heartbeat.

B ) Divisibility. US 90% silver is already roughly 1/10th ounce (dime), 1/4th ounce (quarter), ½ ounce (half), and 1 ounce (dollar) increments. A half dollar contains twice as much silver and is therefore valued at twice as much as a quarter. A half dollar contains five times the silver of a dime, and is therefore valued at five times as much as a dime. You don’t need to estimate, cut, and weigh a piece from a larger bar to create the fraction you need, or re-weigh and agree (or disagree) on the weight for each subsequent transaction. One silver dime is the same as the next silver dime, this transaction and next transaction, and the next and the next. And this pre-established, fractional nature of US 90% silver plays just as important a role in scenarios where you’re selling US 90% rather than exchanging it directly: What if the market spikes and you want to take some profit, or you have an opportunity you want to take advantage of? What if you have an emergency and you must exchange your holdings for cash? If you have US 90% silver, you can simply count the exact weight you need from your US 90% silver holdings to the nearest .07234 of an ounce (the weight of a 90% silver dime) without touching the balance. You can’t do that if you only have 10 ounce or 100 ounce silver bars, rolls of silver eagles (or even a single silver eagle), without cashing in more than you need to. Now consider that if you’re forced to sell because of an immediate need, you may be selling at a loss. Selling more than you have to means taking more of a loss than you need to. And when the need is passed and you can finally reacquire the silver you sold, you may be buying at a higher price to replace the amount you didn’t need to sell in the first place. Owning US 90% silver allows you to move very small, precise amounts because of its divisibility vs. most other silver vehicles.

C) Purity. The alloy and silver content of US 90% is hallmarked by one of the largest and best-known assayers in the world: The US Mint. Their product purity is unquestioned going back to their first release in the 1790s. And the 170-year old ratio of nine parts silver to one part copper is tried, tested, and proven for its stability and durability.

D) Face value. 90% US silver has been, is currently, and always will be accepted by anyone taking US money in exchange for goods or services, because the US has never devalued its currency. A dollar minted in 1797 is still legal tender and can be spent. And though its metal value and numismatic (coin collector) value are worth substantially more than its face value, that face value of $.10, $.25, $.50, and $1.00 provides a bottom below which the value of US 90% can never fall—because if you have to, you can simply spend these coins for the amount indicated on each coin. That never devalued, always honored face value adds to the desirability of these pieces in a way that generic or foreign bullion will never benefit from.

E) Numismatic value. Not every piece and not every grade of every coin has numismatic value--at least not yet. But many do. And almost all have that potential for one very good reason: Despite its many positive attributes, US 90% is constantly being melted. A major reason for this melting is that, for those who deal in futures and options contracts on the rapidly expanding major global precious metal markets, only massive 1,000 ounce .999 pure silver “Good Delivery” or “LBMA” (London Bullion Market Association) bars are traded. These bars are impractical for the average silver investor for the many reasons stated in this treatise (not to mention their minimum cost currently in the tens of thousands of dollars each and sheer weight approaching 70 pounds!) Nevertheless, these large bars are a requirement of international silver commodity transactions. That means more of the finite supply of US 90%--now over 50 years since it was last produced--makes its way to the refiner’s crucibles every day to satisfy the growing demand for these massive bars. Sadly, mass-meltings are nothing new. There have been several periods of mass meltings in the last 40 years, coinciding with each run-up in the value of silver. It’s clear that the supply of 90% US silver is declining rapidly. And brilliant uncirculated and/or early 90%, like Barber coinage, walking liberty half dollars, and even Franklin halves, is much more scarce than most people realize. The pool of extant 90% US silver will continue to shrink as it’s melted to produce these LBMA bars and all of the other needs of the silver industry. And that creates a dichotomy that most investors fail to grasp: The finite and dwindling supply of US 90% silver decreases every day as it’s melted (making it more rare), while the supply of all other new bullion pieces increases as more are produced (making them less rare).

F) Low premium. Despite its numerous advantages, 90% US silver doesn't usually carry a heavy premium—that’s the amount dealers charge to make a profit over the value of the metal itself—relative to other forms of silver bullion. It can even be found with no premium at times because some dealers don’t appreciate its benefits and unload it at the first opportunity. And even when it is sold with a modest premium, 90% US silver dimes, quarters, and halves carry a much smaller premium than fractional silver bullion pieces carry.

G) Low minimum investment. US 90% silver is literally one of the lowest minimum investment vehicles in existence. Even those on a limited budget can buy small quantities of US 90% silver for the price of a cup of coffee. It’s easy to add to a physical stockpile over time with these small investments.

H) Trustworthiness. Because of its small size, ease of recognition, and relatively low value per piece, 90% US silver is one of the least profitable and therefore least tempting targets for counterfeiters here and abroad. That’s not true of gold coins, gold bars, or silver bars, which have all been “drilled & filled” (drilled out, metal removed and filled with base metal). That type of deception would be difficult and much less cost-effective with 90% US silver coins. And because of how familiar we are with US coinage, any suspect pieces that are produced would be much easier to distinguish than fake silver bars or gold coins, which fewer people are familiar with.

Those of us who have experience with US 90% silver are familiar with its attributes. But even those who are less experienced with it can learn these attributes quickly and easily. With no special equipment, balance beam, scratch or acid test or water displacement, we can tell to a very good degree if US 90% silver is real. We can check visually: Is it a US coin? Is it the same size and shape as every other coin in the series in our possession? Are the surfaces uniform? Is there any pitting, flaking, or any other indicator of tampering or inauthenticity? Does it have a pre-1965 date? Is the edge of the coin solid silver in color (as opposed to the sandwiched layers of later non-silver “clad” coinage)? We can check by touch: Does it have the right heft, the same as others we know to be authentic? Are the reeds--the small lines along the outer edge--all present? This feature was added to coinage centuries ago to thwart “shaving” minute amounts of metal from the edge of coins. We can even tell, with some practice, by sound. US 90% silver coinage makes a distinct high-pitched ring when dropped on a hard surface. Fake or base-metal coins tend to make a “thud”.

While none of these tests alone may be 100% fool-proof, combined they give us a powerful and highly accurate series of tests which require no special equipment and which are virtually instantaneous. That’s not the case with any other precious metal vehicle.

And it's no coincidence that these factors are there. These built-in tests have come about from literally thousands of years of trial and experimentation, representing untold billions of transactions with silver coins in virtually every society on earth. Weaknesses exploited by the most cunning criminals in the world, corrected, improved, tried, corrected, improved, etc. until they are as perfect as can be and where all of these factors function automatically without us even thinking about them. They are, to a very large degree, why we value silver in the first place: Its rarity and difficulty to counterfeit makes it a valuable and desirable vehicle for holding or transferring wealth.

© 2016-2022 Electrum

cohodk

Walkers.

I prefer coins that commemorate Liberty over dead presidents. Dimes are too small.

LukeMarshall

Not big on 90% , I always liked the mercury dime design though...
Alas the last sack of $100 FV in mercs I sent to a metal detecting club for a seeded hunt...

A couple years ago I purged alot of my "bulk" coins - not just 90% but Indian cents, buffalo nickels, and most everything else.
I find that having dozens or hundreds of the same coin, doesn't do it for me. If they are in an albulm, then its more exciting filling holes and having a great presentation when finished.

I do get some exclusively collect 90% for the plethora of reasons that weiss mentioned above so not knocking it.

If weiss held the proverbial gun against my head, I would probably go a different route then in the past and stack nothing but 1964 BU lustrous full weight washington quarters in packed tubes stacked neatly in .50cal Ammo cans.

Edit: I would actually rather stack the tubes of quarters in a .30cal can as the width of the can would be pretty close to the lenght of a tube, and the finished can would probably weight like 20lbs less so better on the back...

Mike59

Used to buy well circulated Washington quarters $1100 of them. Last 10 years only BU and any BU I find at LCS. Mainly JFK half’s but I’ve gotten a bunch of really beautiful 1964 quarter rolls and Proof state quarter rolls.

asheland

Typically Walkers and Ben Franklin halves...

JimW

I'm not sure it is the best bang for the buck, but a roll of Morgan/Peace is pretty cool just due to the size/weight

blitzdude

@JimW said:
I'm not sure it is the best bang for the buck, but a roll of Morgan/Peace is pretty cool just due to the size/weight

Morgans and Peace dollars are well past junk level. Technically 90% but it's a sin to even list them in the same category. Heck we can't even refer to those gals as Gutter Metal. Unless of course they exibit the nasty, AKA toning. RGDS!

ShadyDave

I can buy 90% at melt from a local pawn shop. There is usually a decent mix (when they have 90% available), so I usually go for barber stuff that is undamaged, SLQ's with dates and anything higher grade. Have built a nice 90% collection of barber stuff and use to regularly find better date barber dimes/quarters in the mix.

JimW

@blitzdude said:

@JimW said:
I'm not sure it is the best bang for the buck, but a roll of Morgan/Peace is pretty cool just due to the size/weight

Morgans and Peace dollars are well past junk level. Technically 90% but it's a sin to even list them in the same category. Heck we can't even refer to those gals as Gutter Metal. Unless of course they exibit the nasty, AKA toning. RGDS!

Well, I agree. I would note that the OP didn't include the term 'junk' - just preferences for 90%

Overdate

What would be your preferred 90% silver vehicle? Dimes, quarters, halves, or dollars?

My preferred 90% silver vehicle would be rolls of uncirculated Gobrecht dollars.

(For some reason these are usually unavailable, so my second choice is late-date uncirculated silver quarters or halves.)

hfjacinto

I only get dimes. And you may ask why?? And the answer I like dimes. Ben Franklin 50 cents are the ugliest coins ever and the Washington quarter is pretty fugly too and while the Rosee obverse is bad the reverse is nice and for generally the same price you can get winged liberty.

Dave99B

AG-G Barber dimes, quarters, and halves. A few large bags of Mercury dimes as well.

Dave

s4ny

Franklins

MrEureka

I don’t understand junk 90% coin at 30-50% over melt, so I stick with foreign silver at 0% premiums and rare US coins that don’t trade as bullion.

VTchaser

Walkers all day. They're still pricey tho.

TwoSides2aCoin

I prefer dollars

@ junk prices...

If/when I can find them. But that is rare , in being fair.

Estil

Well my grandma already got me started with 17 silver FDR dimes and six silver GW quarters that she happened to have saved (she only cares if coins spend though :P ) so naturally I hope to get as many of those as I can first. Now isn't that a lot better kind of silver to get from grandma than boring ol' generic silverware?

VanHalen

Halves for sure. Partial to Walkers but Franks okay. JFKs third.

Estil

@VanHalen said:
Halves for sure. Partial to Walkers but Franks okay. JFKs third.

Hey I'm partial to Walker myself!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj_HKjM1ILY

And I wish my local bank/credit union would get rolls of these JFK halves as my grandma occasionally gave me some back when I was a kid. And why can't modern political ads be this catchy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DoUiNxh6_0

PreTurb

Franklin halves. No need to check the date (as one would need to do when dealing with Kennedy halves).

johnny9434

franklin halfs f9ollowed by 90% jfk's. 90% quarters after that, fwiw

Estil

@PreTurb said:
Franklin halves. No need to check the date (as one would need to do when dealing with Kennedy halves).

Well how else are you gonna know where it goes in your album?

tommy44

Washington quarters, easy to read the dates with my old eyes when filling album slots. After that any 90% works for me.