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90% Silver Your Opinion Which Denomination Is Best

I overheard part of a recent discussion and I am interested in what forum members think. You are buying 90% Silver. You have your choice of mixed, or buying only half dollars, quarters or dimes. With the half dollars, you have your choice of franklins, walkers or kennedys. In quarters the only choice is washingtons and for dimes you have a choice between roosies and mercury. All cost exactly the same per ounce. They are being sold by weight, not by face, so wear is not a factor. What is the best to buy and why?

Do you think one is easier or brings a better return when you have to sell.

Planchet

sorry my original post went off with just the header before I tryed in the question

Comments

  • Walkers...................
    Peace and Prosper.............
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭
    Half Dollars.

    Note to TBONE: Walkers is not a "denomination". image

    Russ, NCNE
  • tightbudgettightbudget Posts: 7,299 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Walkers................... >>



    image

    aka Walking Liberty Halves. Like Russ said, just stating the denomination. image
  • Russ and TheOnlyTbone, why did you make that choice?

    Planchet
  • fivecentsfivecents Posts: 11,207 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Halves.
    Because they are larger easier to count and deal with. Which would you rather count 20 halves or 100 tiny little dimes?image
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,747 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Mercs.

    There's more chance of getting premium coins and having them develop a premium.

    There more divisable in the unlikely event they are ever used as money again.

    Frankly I think there are a lot more and a lot better choices than these. You can get
    semi-numismatic US and world coins for the same price as bullion. Some of these are
    tremendous deals.
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • ZoinsZoins Posts: 34,401 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>With the half dollars, you have your choice of franklins, walkers or kennedys. >>

    Although the title says denomination, the text indicates you can choose type.


  • << <i>Halves.
    Because they are larger easier to count and deal with. Which would you rather count 20 halves or 100 tiny little dimes?image >>



    Fivecents

    With the half dollars, you have your choice of franklins, walkers or kennedys. All cost exactly the same per ounce. They are being sold by weight, not by face, so wear is not a factor. Which type of half dollaris the best to buy and why?

    Planchet
  • tightbudgettightbudget Posts: 7,299 ✭✭✭
    I picked Walkers just cause they're beautiful. Mercs would be second.



  • << <i>
    Frankly I think there are a lot more and a lot better choices than these. You can get
    semi-numismatic US and world coins for the same price as bullion. Some of these are
    tremendous deals. >>



    Cladking, please give an example of the semi-nusmatic silver US coins that you are thinking of?

    Planchet

  • BECOKABECOKA Posts: 16,961 ✭✭✭
    For me space is a premium. I choose Half Dollars. I choose Walkers because they are the oldest of the three choices and I believe hold the most numismatic premium of the three.

    I liked Clad King's reasoning for the mercs to. I they were bagged up I imagine they would not take any more or less space so those work too.


  • << <i>I picked Walkers just cause they're beautiful. Mercs would be second. >>





    I agree with this...................

    and Russ: Thanks for clarifying that for me................image
    Peace and Prosper.............
  • DorkGirlDorkGirl Posts: 9,994 ✭✭✭
    I agree with the Walkers. The older the junk silver the more you get for it. Just check the completed listings on Ebay.image
    Becky
  • RussRuss Posts: 48,514 ✭✭✭


    << <i>With the half dollars, you have your choice of franklins, walkers or kennedys. All cost exactly the same per ounce. They are being sold by weight, not by face, so wear is not a factor. Which type of half dollaris the best to buy and why? >>



    Kennedys, because you can get shiney ones. Shiney Walkers and Frankies cost more. image

    Russ, NCNE
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,747 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    Cladking, please give an example of the semi-nusmatic silver US coins that you are thinking of?

    Planchet >>



    OK.

    A silver quarter right now has about $3.40 worth of metal in it. That means a piece of junk
    beat-up '64-D quarter which will never have a chance of getting a premium will sell for this
    amount. Three years ago a nice attractive VG/F '40-D quarter would wholesale around $3.40
    Today this is still about the price you'll pay. If silver goes down this coin will still probably be
    worth about this amount. If silver goes up some of these will be melted and the coin will be
    scarcer. It has a chance of increasing in value no matter what happens to silver but will always
    be worth as much as the '64-D.

    A nice choice BU roll of '56-D quarters, Spanish BU 100 P's, or nice AU Japanese 100Y coins are
    among the almost endless list of coins that can fit this bill. Just look for stuff that has always
    been worth about as much as its current bullion value. Much of this can be bought at a discount
    because it's esoteric and some is mainstream. Look at the silver eagles that had a premium at
    lower silver prices.

    It's not only a matter of protecting against loss but of standing to have more gain. If silver
    does go down you can trade the '56-D quarters for two rolls of '64-D's.
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • fivecentsfivecents Posts: 11,207 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>With the half dollars, you have your choice of franklins, walkers or kennedys. All cost exactly the same per ounce. They are being sold by weight, not by face, so wear is not a factor. Which type of half dollaris the best to buy and why? >>

    Planchet....I prefer problem free Walkers Mercury dimes, they have an ever so slight numismatic twist. I try to buy only problem free, no heavy rim dings corrosion, or overly worn. Now if it is cheap enough I am not picky....I will buy worn Roosevelt dimes and even worn Kennedys.
  • dohdoh Posts: 6,457 ✭✭✭
    Dimes because when the economy totally fails and paper money is little more than kindling, dimes are an easy medium. One dime per loaf of bread I suppose image Halves would contain too much silver...they'd buy, say a steak dinner. It's easier to put 5 dimes together to make 50 cents than to split a half dollar into fifths.

    Positive BST transactions with: too many names to list! 36 at last count.
  • morganbarbermorganbarber Posts: 1,821 ✭✭✭
    I have been through many bags of junk silver. Halves are a treat. Quarters are a chore but are fun. $1000 in dimes is a real test of your mettle.
    I collect circulated U.S. silver


  • << <i>I have been through many bags of junk silver. Halves are a treat. Quarters are a chore but are fun. $1000 in dimes is a real test of your mettle. >>



    image

    I think going through a $1,000 bag of dimes is what took the last bit of close up vision I had left.
  • 57loaded57loaded Posts: 4,967 ✭✭✭
    if you like mercs, then mercs, some love walkers, others say roosies

    but if it's just "which 90% silver is best?' - half's would be an answer as far as counting and probably storing them as well.

    i bought a big bunch of mercs...because i like to look through them.


  • Halves because they circulated less than quarters and dimes and look nicer
  • morgansforevermorgansforever Posts: 8,486 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Not really sure which is best, but I prefer cull Morgan and Peace dollars.

    A roll of 20 is 15.46 oz. of pure silver, easy for me.

    Guess it really doesn't matter 90% is 90%.
    World coins FSHO Hundreds of successful BST transactions U.S. coins FSHO


  • << <i>Not really sure which is best, but I prefer cull Morgan and Peace dollars.

    A roll of 20 is 15.46 oz. of pure silver, easy for me.

    Guess it really doesn't matter 90% is 90%. >>




    image
  • You got that right.

    90% coinage is 90% coinage.

    After so many years of buying so much of it and moving so much of it, it's all the same to me.

    Counting it?

    They have fairly cheap machines that will do that for you rather quickly.

    I used to love going through all those bags of 90% coins just looking for that rare find, but that was then and this is now.

    There aren't many needles left in the haystack anymore.
    "Lenin is certainly right. There is no subtler or more severe means of overturning the existing basis of society(destroy capitalism) than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
    John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
  • morgansforevermorgansforever Posts: 8,486 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You got that right.

    It's also easy to keep track of 20 in a tube.
    World coins FSHO Hundreds of successful BST transactions U.S. coins FSHO
  • UtahCoinUtahCoin Posts: 5,366 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Over the past couple of years, we've gone through probably 100 $1000 bags of silver. We have found the following:
    1- 1916 D Merc AG
    2- 1942/1 Mercs VF ish
    1- 1938 D WLH F

    Then there was the bag of Halves that was sealed in 1980 just at the peak of the silver boom. It contained Barbers, Commemoratives, and a few Seated (in addition to WLH's Frankies & Kennedys)
    I used to be somebody, now I'm just a coin collector.
    Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
  • MilesWaitsMilesWaits Posts: 5,433 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I vote halves because of the way they sound, in 90%, smacking up against each other! Slightly hollow with a sharp ring.

    Miles
    Now riding the swell in PM's and surf.


  • << <i>Over the past couple of years, we've gone through probably 100 $1000 bags of silver. We have found the following:
    1- 1916 D Merc AG
    2- 1942/1 Mercs VF ish
    1- 1938 D WLH F

    Then there was the bag of Halves that was sealed in 1980 just at the peak of the silver boom. It contained Barbers, Commemoratives, and a few Seated (in addition to WLH's Frankies & Kennedys) >>



    I've made some great finds as well. It all depends on the source of the bags. I've never known a board member from around here to make such a mistake.

    Never picked any up at B&M shop that produced any results either.

    Sure, with smaller buys from regular folks, I always go through those.

    I once bought 20 Peace dollars and 17 of them were 34-S in various grades from VF to AU. But that was a most rare exception.

    I also found an 89-CC in a batch of 400 Morgans bought from an antique dealer in Canada. They found them in a false bottom of a chest. I was looking for antique radios and he asked me what else I collected. That was a while back as I think I paid him $7 per coin. His English wasn't too good and my French is pretty rusty, but he knew how to take a credit card and ship to the US.
    "Lenin is certainly right. There is no subtler or more severe means of overturning the existing basis of society(destroy capitalism) than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
    John Marnard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1920, page 235ff
  • sinin1sinin1 Posts: 7,500
    you ask what you should buy


    but we need to know how you plan to sell - or are you going to keep it until you die or need it for food


    what people are telling you are choices for when silver drops down to below $10/ounce

    and you are willing to split out and sell piecemeal


    if you have no intention of doing that ever, but will sell the bags intact

    it does not matter - but the older ones (Mercurys and Walkers), may have a premium at sale time vs now
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    What if you just want $1000 face silver? Wouldn't Franklins have less wear than the walkers? Wouldn't you get more silver with the Franklins? Also, wouldn't the Kennedy's be uncirculated or almost uncirculated and be virtually full weight?

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • dorkkarldorkkarl Posts: 12,691 ✭✭✭
    personally i'd pick the mercs. your chances of getting a occasional decent date/grade combination is probably highest of all the choices given. plus, you get alot more starter sets out of the deal!

    K S
  • ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    Hlaves or quarters IMO. The problem with halves is you get mostly 1964 Kenndy halves. With quarters you get 1932-1964 coins that can be fun to start a circulated set, although they aren't as in good condition as the Kenndy Halves but store just as well (both $10 rolls). The other factor would be what happens to the quarter at the end of the 50 states program. We may never see that design again.
  • vplitevplite Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭


    << <i>What if you just want $1000 face silver? Wouldn't Franklins have less wear than the walkers? Wouldn't you get more silver with the Franklins? Also, wouldn't the Kennedy's be uncirculated or almost uncirculated and be virtually full weight? >>



    image

    Ive gotten bags of mercs and some are are amazingly thin. Since this thread is about 90%, not numismatics, I always go for the silver content.
    The Golden Rule: Those with the gold make the rules.
  • rec78rec78 Posts: 5,873 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I will be the odd man out here -- I choose quarters because their are more varieties to search for. I would also choose newer coins (possibly uncs if available). My father took in a bag of mercury dimes and after the dealer counted them she wieghed them and subtracted $145. So he got less because of the wear. Also if you can get uncirculated rolls and the price of silver drops, the BU rolls will also drop but not as much. Having BU coins is an extra hedge. Bob
    image

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