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Do you generally pay more for older series 90% silver?
Dave99B
Posts: 8,364 ✭✭✭✭✭
Just wondering what type of a premium do you generally pay (if at all) for older series 90% silver.
Any rule of thumb? 5% more? 10% more? Or in your mind is it all about the same....90% is 90%, and you assign no premium.
When I say 'older', I'm talking Barber coinage, Franklin/Walkers halves, etc. 90% silver.....vs the usual Mercury/Roosy/Washingon 90% mix.
Thanks,
Dave
Always looking for original, better date VF20-VF35 Barber quarters and halves, and a quality beer.
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In our area you would pay more for Barber coinage certainly unless they are just slicks. Otherwise no
Barbers are usually more. Sometimes there are premiums on walkers or Mercs, but not much lately. If outs bullion, it's more about weight
You really have to watch getting charged a premium for older series if you are losing a lot silver content because the older series are much more worn. Generally, if I just want bulk silver halves, for example, I want all '64 Kennedys. On the other hand, I have a whole Dansco circulated Franklin set (and a Walker short set) that is 95% derived from junk silver I purchased near melt.
By in large, it all has been picked over so many times, the "older" ones are just worn common stuff with no premium, except for the GEE WHIZ this coin is 100+ years old.
If silver goes back to $50 an ounce, ALL the stuff in the bag, from slicked out seated liberty to crisp quasi BU 1964-D Roosevelts will hit the smelter. At that point, the "worn thin as a dime" coins will be valued less, as the silver content has been diminished.
If you want GEE WHIZ examples, dating back to the bust coins, for a SLIGHT premium, you can buy a few individually out of dealers "dead" inventory, maybe a scratch or flaw, but still up to a 170 year old coin.
Most of the common date and slick 90% silver has already hit the smelter over the last 50 years. How much is actually left, compared to the original mintage?
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
The 1979-80 silver price run-up resulted in a lot of Barber coins in Fair through Good condition being melted. These used to be much more common than what is seen today.
So far as paying a premium for this type of material ... don't.
As a dealer, I pay slightly more for barbers than others because I can get more for them. So your blanket advice is not entirely accurate, especially if we don't know why the OP is buying the 90%. If he strictly wants bullion, the heavier the better which means slicks of any series are bad. If he wants to look through it, he might appreciate the barber series more than the others. If he wants to resell it, it's all speculating and there is a price difference, small as it is, right now.
Would you tell the OP not to pay more for 21 Morgans than 90%? Cull Morgans?
Seller's try to get premiums, but I would never pay for them. Barbers are always slick (thus not even worth it for the bullion) and Walking liberty and Mercs are infinitely too common to merit any sort of premium as bullion.
To me it is nothing but bullion. No premium above what bullion brings.
Barbers are the Rodney Dangerfield of classic coinage. There was a promotion a few years back where the US Mint used various dealers to sell one of their products. The dealer in Massachusetts added $6 in "melt value Barber Halves" to bring the value above where they wouldn't have to charge sales tax. Among my 12 coins were a 1904-S and 1908-S in solid original VG. Sure beats a 1964 Kennedy.
When I was working for Harlan Berk in Chicago, if I was not too busy and was breaking down collections or culling silver on the coin counter, I would toss VG and better Mercs and Walkers into bins. These would eventually get put up into $50 or $100 ziploc bags that I could occasionally sell for a small premium.
However, if we ever needed a $500 or $1,000 bag for a retail customer and we needed face value to complete the bag, in they went. And when things went crazy in 2008 the premiums for slightly better bullion disappeared and everything went into the bags except culls.
You are speaking of 21 Morgans?
The point is that any commodity trades on market. When HSN or someone is running a promo using Barber coins, or any other coin for that matter, there is a significant premium attached. So, it would be criminal of me to underpay for Barbers if I know I can get a premium - as a dealer.
As a collector, again it depends on what I'm doing with the material. If I want to buy bullion...well, I might want to stay away from 90% altogether...but if I want 22 karat bullion then I go by weight and don't care if they are all 64 Kennedy halves. I probably prefer 64 Kennedy halves as uncirculated and unworn. If I want to look through it or something, I have to expect to pay a small premium even for just Mercs or Walkers over 64 halves. There are market prices for these things.
I would pay more for Barbers, and sometimes you get a better date
BHNC #203