How much silver is in 100 Mil?

291fifth · November 14, 2003 6:54AM

An outfit called the National Collector's Mint offers items containing 100 Mil .999 Fine Silver. Does anyone know how much this is in troy oz.? (I suspect is isn't much.)

XpipedreamR · November 14, 2003 6:57AM

These coins are silver plated. 100 mil is about as thin a coating as you can have without having the underlying plastic or whatever they use show through.

XpipedreamR · November 14, 2003 6:58AM

Oops, I forgot to put "coin" in quotes. My apologies.

tjkillian · November 14, 2003 7:01AM

I think that 100mil means 100/1,000,000th of an inch or 1/10,000th of an inch, pretty thin.

Tom

mgoodm3 · November 14, 2003 7:07AM

Think of it this way. There's more silver in my fillings.

NoGvmnt · November 14, 2003 8:19AM

It's 100 Million dollars worth of .999 silver!!!

Actually it's the thickness of the silver plating on the "coin" that is in reality made of a copper core. The 100 mill thickness is actually thinner than the copper plating on the zinc cent.

As for weight, probably less than a baby chicks feather.

Jim

Conder101 · November 14, 2003 4:54PM

A mil is a thousandth of an inch. So a 100 mil plating is actually quite thick. 100 mil = 1/10 inch

dollardude · November 14, 2003 5:06PM

Actually, Conder101 is correct. The layer is pretty thick, but not much in terms of troy ounces. You'd have to do some slick geometry calculations to figure out how many grams (a measure of mass) of silver there are. Then, use the conversion of 1 gram = 0.032151 troy ounces.

bushmaster8 · November 14, 2003 11:32PM

Conder is correct about a MIL being 1/1000th of an inch...

BUT I have serious doubt that that is the actual thickness of the plating in this case. Common sense tells me that these coins do not have a 1/10 inch layer of pure silver...that would make the "coin" 2/10 inch thicker (1/10 on each side) than it would be without the plating...nearly a quarter of an inch. Why in the world would the manufacturer do that?

tjkillian · November 14, 2003 11:43PM

Is everyone sure that a mil is 1/1000th of an inch? I know plastic is measured that way, but is silver? 1/10th of an inch of silver plating is sooooo thick, almost easier to make it pure silver at that thickness. Gold can be plated pretty thin, but silver can go quite thin as well.

Tom

XpipedreamR · November 14, 2003 11:55PM

I'll eat my shoe if there is 1/10 inch of silver on those "coins."

Fortunately, my shoes are made of cheese...

Libertad · November 15, 2003 1:00AM

Metal plate is measured differently than most other things, here's a LINK to show how gold
plate thickness is measured, with some interesting comparisons to the thickness
of common items for perspective.

stujoe · November 15, 2003 1:56AM

Have you seen the way they market these things? It would not surprise me at all that they were using a non-standard or less than clear definition for the thinckness. It would be my guess they are actually a lot closer to 1/10,000th than 1/10th...

291fifth · November 15, 2003 2:47AM

<< <i>Conder is correct about a MIL being 1/1000th of an inch...

BUT I have serious doubt that that is the actual thickness of the plating in this case. Common sense tells me that these coins do not have a 1/10 inch layer of pure silver...that would make the "coin" 2/10 inch thicker (1/10 on each side) than it would be without the plating...nearly a quarter of an inch. Why in the world would the manufacturer do that? >>

I'm assuming that the 100 mil thickness refers to both sides of the coin. Each side would be 50 mil. That seems to make sense. I do have to wonder why they didn't just make it .999 silver. The difference in price for a quarter size item would seem to be minimal.

291fifth · November 15, 2003 2:56AM

<< <i>Have you seen the way they market these things? It would not surprise me at all that they were using a non-standard or less than clear definition for the thinckness. It would be my guess they are actually a lot closer to 1/10,000th than 1/10th... >>

While their wording is designed to make it difficult to calculate the weight of the precious metal used I would be very surprised to find that the pieces don't meet their stated standard. The "Certificate of Authenticity" that comes with the piece, in this case the unofficial Paul Jackson Missouri Quarter pattern, which states the composition, is signed by Barry M. Goldwater, Jr. I wouldn't my name on anything that does not meet the stated standard. If you recall the way the Franklin Mint used to operate in regard to precious metals you will remember that their pieces usually exceeded the guaranteed content. I wouldn't be surprised to find the same is true in this case. The last thing a company like this needs is for someone to assay their items and find them to be below the stated standard.

mgoodm3 · November 15, 2003 3:12AM

Again, I have more silver in my fillings than a 100 mil (1/10000 inch) silver plate.

stujoe · November 15, 2003 3:28AM

<< <i>The last thing a company like this needs is for someone to assay their items and find them to be below the stated standard. >>

Yet, they seem to have no problems playing loosey-goosey with what they are selling on their website...such as showing reverse pictures of their items on their website that are not the actual reverse's you will receive:

http://www.nationalcollectorsmint.com/morgan1889.htm

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2201341134&indexURL=2&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting

Notice how 'Copy' and the number are conviniently missing off the Reverse photos on their website? If they do stuff like that, I don't put a lot of faith in them worrying about the details of anything else. Just my opinion, of course.

Conder101 · November 15, 2003 7:34AM

Have you ordered one of these from the website and gotten something different that what was pictured or are you just making an assumption? There is nothing that says they HAVE to make all of thier "coins" the same and you may be looking at two different product runs. Possibly the first run did have Copy and a serial number on them but the word copy hurt sales so now they just use the stars at the bottom of the reverse. That keeps it from being a copy and they don't have to label it as such. Companies such as this tend to know where the law is and stay just on this side of legality. I would be very surprised to see them pull a bait and switch like you describe. It would be too easy to catch them and prove it. They aren't that stupid.

stujoe · November 15, 2003 7:54AM

Me, no, I have never ordered them but I know someone on rcc who did back in May of last year and they posted a copy of the ad (which was the same as the website) and pictures of what they got (which were the same as the Ebay Auction).

stujoe · November 15, 2003 8:00AM

I just checked and she still has the pictures up.

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=CWYG8.802%24yM6.525839%40typhoon.nyroc.rr.com

How much silver is in 100 Mil?

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