Bullion Silver dollars QUESTION

GoClones

Just a question that popped up in my head today while looking in my Krause catalog. Are the Silver dollars (1986-2003) that are listed as bullion, collectable or our they really just for investment purposes? I know that the 1996 is around 26 dollars to purchase which is way more than the others, that made me think maybe they are a collectable item, but whenever they are listed in the Krause or in the Red Book they are listed seperately from the other silver dollars i.e. the Morgans, Peace, etc. Can someone shed some much needed light on this subject for me?

Thank you-
Andy

baccaruda

they are probably listed separately as the SAEs were never intended to circulate. they're also .999 silver rather than coin silver (.900) thus are considered "bullion".

you'll also find that the prices move independently of the price of silver, but obviously they'll never be worth less than an ounce of silver.

kranky

Collectible? Yes. Many people collect the Silver American Eagles and Gold American Eagles which are bullion coins. The reason they are listed separately in most references is that they are strictly bullion coins and not intended to circulate. They are not issued at face value, but sold for the value of the metal content. They are frequently described as NCLT - Non-Circulating Legal Tender.

mrfred

Yes, they are collectible. I don't recall which, but due to mintage variation there are one or two that are actually a bit scarce. Same is true for the gold eagles (all denominiations, particularly the proofs). Premiums evolve due to scarcity in this case, I think.

Which brings up an interesting question -- Is there (truly) any coin sold only for bullion value? If there is any premium (at all) attached to the coin, then it is not only bullion but has some sort of numismatic increment. Even $1000 face bags of pre-65 circ US silver carry some premium -- and has been discussed here and in the coin press, those bags went up in an arc in the Y2K scare and (right?) back in the hype of the early 1980s. Just what is a 'bullion-only' coin anyway?

baccaruda

you can get silver war nickels for melt - even less than melt value if you're patient. other than that silver rounds are for bullion specualtion only.