Is there an equivelant of "90% silver" for "World Coins?"

zeebob

My dad, who collects mostly world coins, is coming to visit and "play coins" for a week.

He is actively preparing his for his trip. In the process of rounding up all the coins and tokens that he wants to catalog or list or whatever, he ran across a bunch of 90% USA silver and a bunch of similar (circulated, common date) World Silver Coins.

I know that for his 90% US silver it'll be pretty easy to sell. But do people readily purchase cruddy old circulated world coins based on silver content (as say listed in Krause)?

Cladiator

The most common silver coins for circulation (outside of the US) are made of .925 or 92.5% or Sterling silver. There are many, many, many, many of them from all around the world. My personal favorite are the 1959 Bermuda Crowns that have just a tab bit more silver than a US Morgan Dollar in them. That's my shameless plug as I happen to be selling a role of them on eBay right now You can see my auction link in the PM BST thread.

SLQ

Some older foreign coins were minted in the US and have a 90% silver content. Panama and Philippines are examples.

SilverEagles92

I've purchased 80% silver Canadian coins before.

zeebob

I think dad mentioned Canada on the phone the other night.

RedTiger

Darkside (foreign) circulated silver tends to be harder to move, so expect a lower price for the same weight in silver, whether buying or selling.

AgBlox

I like canadian 80% after 90% us.

MrOrganic

mexico 5 peso 1947,48 'cuahtemoc" or something like that lol .876 or .867

mkman123

darkside silver is harder to move here correct but very popular in their own country??

I would think that in a foreign country, 90% US would be a tough sell but the countries own 90% or silver coin is easy?

cohodk

Some foreign silver is very scarce with mintages, especially for proofs, being around 1000 pieces. These can still be purchased for just over melt and many have beautiful designs.

1jester

Polish silver: 75%

zeebob

1jester - Exactly. So how easy would you find that stack of 75% to sell? Would you take it to a B&M? Put it on the BST? How would you value it? I understand 90% USA stuff is currently like 12x face. What about world silver? Weigh it and compute 75% then multiply by "spot"?

mkman123

Like I said, I bet in 1jesters country he could easily sell his polish silver with no problems. Selling to someone here would be different. They would probably have to do some calculations on weight x percentage of silver x spot or whatever.

Silver coins are easily sellable in ones own country but out of the country may be difficult. Someone in China might have a hard time selling US 90% but I bet chinese real silver sells fast!

1jester

<< <i>1jester - Exactly. So how easy would you find that stack of 75% to sell? Would you take it to a B&M? Put it on the BST? How would you value it? I understand 90% USA stuff is currently like 12x face. What about world silver? Weigh it and compute 75% then multiply by "spot"? >>



Mkman got it right; I got these coins in Poland, and I doubt they would be easy to find in the States. In fact, they're not too common in Poland. I also doubt they'd command the premium (2-4 times melt) in the US, but they are scarce (not many minted) and that's why even "junk" silver like this costs much more than US buyers are used to paying for junk silver. I just have a thing for them and try to buy them when I can.

If you're looking for junk silver of other foreign countries, you might try Canada (should be plentiful and cheap) or Great Britian.