Junk silver guys

[cubical]

Is this a decent buy?

http://cgi.ebay.com/JUNK-SHINES-201..._Individual&hash=item4cf524fac6#ht_2489wt_905

Are some of these coins 40% silver rather than 90%? Thanks.

 

[pmbug]

Half dollars from '65 to '70 are 40% silver.

There are some ("War") nickels that are 35% silver.

This is a good reference for calculating melt values (using the current spot price as a basis):
http://www.coinflation.com/silver_coin_values.html

edit: just looked at the auction - he's mixing in 35% silver war nickels with 90% silver coins.

THE LOT YOU WILL RECEIVE WILL CONSIST OF THE FOLLOWING COINS:

3 TOTAL MIXED WALKING, FRANKLIN HALVES and/or Kennedy Half Dollars

3 SILVER WASHINGTON QUARTERS

9 TOTAL MIXED MERCURY AND SILVER ROOSEVELT DIMES

AND

7 WAR NICKELS

According to my math, with the current spot value of $30.68, that lot of coins should be worth ~$81.91

You can find better deals at apmex.com IMO.

 

[cbc58]

couple of things to watch out for:

1.) most coins weigh less than coinflation estimates because of use - therefore less silver content. refiners, on average, pay 90% of value of material @ spot pricing.
2.) items marked "sterling" or .925% silver tend to actually assay out at .900% silver - rule of thumb deduct .025-.050% from stated silver rating.. and as much as 10% from holloware and jewelery scrap. Silver quality varies greatly from mfg. to mfg.
3.) refiners calculate a 2.5%-3% metal loss on material for melting/assaying.

bottomline - you can lose alot of money buying and selling scrap and coins - be careful.

 

[cubical]

thanks guys

 

[pmbug]

couple of things to watch out for:

1.) most coins weigh less than coinflation estimates because of use - therefore less silver content. refiners, on average, pay 90% of value of material @ spot pricing.
...

Further to this... if you are buying junk silver for investment/wealth preservation, you aren't planning to actually melt it, so you don't need to worry about the details of how refiners pay for metal. What you want to pay attention to is the premium (if any) that exists when buying/selling silver (ie. delta from spot). Most bullion dealers and local coin shops aren't going to be weighing junk silver to fine tune buy/sell prices according to metal content. They just fix a price based upon the face value of the coins (with the possible exception of when you are dealing with 'culled' quality coins).

 

[juvanya]

Use coinflation.com and round down to the nearest .x0 or .x5. Thats what Ive always done.

Dont buy war nickels. They look hideous. They are smaller amount of silver, but the ratio is wacky:
7 nickels to 9 dimes
35 nickels to 18 quarters/9 halves

I regret ever buying them. Silver is silver, but they are not as lovely as my dimes. At least the nickels still hold their silver value.