circulated silver as bullion

konsole · April 30, 2006 11:06AM

If I was to invest in silver by collecting junk or well circulated common date silver, then would it be wise to clean up the coins so they have no foreign material on them that might ruin the silver over time, or should I just leave the decent coins alone, for whatever numismatic value they have, and just clean up the bad condition ones?

Also do you guys have any idea how much silver is lost in a coin thats been in circulation for say about 50 years?

Coxe · April 30, 2006 11:11AM

My WAG is that any circulation loss is negligible or at least within the tolerance of alloy melt extraction. Most of the coin is there, right? Would be interesting to know what the mean and standard deviation of the loss is for large samples for each decade of circulation. Should be a doable thing, however tedious. Rigging something up might even be fun.

Weiss · April 30, 2006 11:34AM

No, it is not wise to clean the coins. It won't help in their resale, it could damage any collectibility they might have, and it will take your time and your money.

As to the metals loss: I've posted this pic before. One respondant (cladking, maybe?) said that most of the what appears to be metal loss is actually the flattening out of the raised rim. That may be true, but I am convinced that 1,000 AU-BU 1964 Kennedy halfs will have several ounces more silver in them than 1,000 G-F Walkers. With silver bumping up to $14 per ounce, that should be a consideration.

One stack of 20 G-VF walkers vs. the same number of AU-BU Kennedys:

claychaser · April 30, 2006 11:44AM

How about weighing the two stacks on a precision scale?

Coxe · April 30, 2006 11:45AM

Weigh the stack of Walkers; divide by the number of them, and see how far off from 12.5 grams you are.

Weiss · April 30, 2006 11:47AM

<< <i>How about weighing the two stacks on a precision scale? >>

Brilliant! Now if I only had a scale

SFDukie · April 30, 2006 4:29PM

FWIW most bullion dealer websites quote 715 troy ozs as the silver content of $1000 of circ US coins-they had 723 troy ounces of pure silver at minting.
Don

Coxe · April 30, 2006 4:52PM

<< <i>FWIW most bullion dealer websites quote 715 troy ozs as the silver content of $1000 of circ US coins-they had 723 troy ounces of pure silver at minting.
Don >>

OK. So they are claiming just a little over 1% silver loss. Interesting. Naturally, the real number would be dependent on the time in circulation.

SFDukie · April 30, 2006 5:09PM

Coxe,
its remarkable, actually, that webpage after webpage lists that 715 oz figure. I seem to recall reading that a circ bag of halves weighs more than a mixed bag as halves on average circulated less. here's the certified mint page
Don

MoeSzyslak · April 30, 2006 5:42PM

Just for my own amusement, I tried the weight test a couple of weeks back. I weighed a roll of AG-G Mercury dimes against a roll of XF-AU silver Roosevelts. I repeated the experiment with all of the low grade SLQs I had vs. an equal number of AU Washingtons.

Admittedly, my scale wasn't exactly "precision", but the difference in both cases was in the 2%-3% range. Given the large number of later date (and therefore higher grade) coins likely to turn up in "junk" silver bags, the 1% figure mentioned above seems reasonable.

circulated silver as bullion

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