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With silver so high will lesser liked coins become more collectible

VetterVetter Posts: 961 ✭✭✭✭✭

Just wondering with the high price of silver will 40% Kennedys and 35% war nickels become more acceptable as a means for buying silver coins? They always seemed to be frowned upon.

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Comments

  • cladkingcladking Posts: 29,829 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Vetter said:
    Just wondering with the high price of silver will 40% Kennedys and 35% war nickels become more acceptable as a means for buying silver coins? They always seemed to be frowned upon.

    I doubt it.

    They may get collected more and shunned less though. War nickels and 40% have always had a discount at the refineries and most or all of this discount is usually justifiable because of the cost of processing but dealers tend to discount them even further because they are "debased" metal. The hatred for 40% is even more palpable. Sometimes these discounts that dealers pay are passed on to customers and especially when they are awash in metal.

    There are lots opportunities in both because they are so unloved. Varieties abound and in the case of 40% chBU examples can be elusive but still bring no premium.

    What's left of these coins will be the first to hit the melting pot but with war nickels over $4 each who's going to want to set aside dirty, ugly, heavily worn specimens which is what's typical.

    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • Morgan13Morgan13 Posts: 2,301 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thats a tough question to answer.
    My first thought is where do you go with them?
    I don't know if dealers or silver buyers want to deal with 40% or 35% silver.

    Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
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  • cladkingcladking Posts: 29,829 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 26, 2025 7:21AM

    @Morgan13 said:
    Thats a tough question to answer.
    My first thought is where do you go with them?
    I don't know if dealers or silver buyers want to deal with 40% or 35% silver.

    One of the problems was that $1000 worth of war nickels in 2016 cost a huge amount of postage to ship and required hand truck to get to the Post office. But at $4 now you can get $1000 worth easily in the small flat rate box.

    I always told people the storage problem with silver would correct itself. So too will the problem with shipping and handling.

    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • Cougar1978Cougar1978 Posts: 9,573 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited December 26, 2025 8:15AM

    I would say yes - but That’s a moot question for me. I don’t do junk box coins. Or bulk junk silver. I do investment grade slabbed coins.

    I do think the demand for affordable slabbed bullion coins Mexico silver Libertads, ASE, GB Britannias, has increased for many types of players. The CDN now has CPG and bid for these. A friend in the coin club (investor) showed me a beautiful MS70 CACG ASE he just purchased. Another wkg on collecting Mexico slabbed Libertads by date. Some of the better dates in thousands of dollars in the upper MS grades. At the very least IMO these slabbed coins above (2nd pparagraph) are worth BV plus slab cost (say$30).

    If you’re buying the bulk silver be sure you calculate its BV in evaluating the deal. Well gotta go - looks like it’s time to raise prices on my gold and silver material.

    Investor
  • cameonut2011cameonut2011 Posts: 10,438 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Vetter said:
    Just wondering with the high price of silver will 40% Kennedys and 35% war nickels become more acceptable as a means for buying silver coins? They always seemed to be frowned upon.

    Both were somewhat shunned and often sold for less than melt. With the large increase in bullion value, melting them has become profitable. I think many will end up in the melting pot.

  • cladkingcladking Posts: 29,829 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Cougar1978 said:
    I would say yes - but That’s a moot question for me. I don’t do junk box coins. Or bulk junk silver. I do investment grade slabbed coins.

    I do think the demand for affordable slabbed bullion coins Mexico silver Libertads, ASE, GB Britannias, has increased for many types of players. The CDN now has CPG and bid for these. A friend in the coin club (investor) showed me a beautiful MS70 CACG ASE he just purchased. Another wkg on collecting Mexico slabbed Libertads by date. Some of the better dates in thousands of dollars in the upper MS grades. At the very least IMO these slabbed coins above (2nd pparagraph) are worth BV plus slab cost (say$30).

    If you’re buying the bulk silver be sure you calculate its BV in evaluating the deal. Well gotta go - looks like it’s time to raise prices on my gold and silver material.

    In a BU roll of war nickels or kennedy half dollars you just might get a coin that can be slabbed. There are some rare and highly desirable varieties like overdates in these coins. All slabbed coins were raw at some point.

    People grossly underestimate the desirability of such coins.

    All over the world the same pattern repeats: When coins are debased the old versions survive in quantity and in quality but the debased coins despite their always higher mintage and usually lower quality are scarce in pristine condition. It's virtually an instinct to apply Gresham's Law even at the individual level.

    Wait till people start looking for clad in pristine condition!

    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • Cougar1978Cougar1978 Posts: 9,573 ✭✭✭✭✭

    There are people buying them for like birth year collecting (themselves, family).

    Investor

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