I just started buying up some coins, both silver and base metal and mainly historical circulated stuff. I have a bit of silver now, but almost no pure bullion, just an old silver eagle that I found for around spot because it was beat up and not shiny, which I don't care about. I've heard different opinions on the matter, so I really don't know if I should get more .999 bullion. I really only like old coins, and I've found some great deals on Mexican and Canadian silver, so as a result I've got coins at .900, .800, .720 and various other finenesses. I've heard that buyers will pay less for coins with lower finenesses because of the higher refining costs. Is this true? Even though I don't plan on selling any of my stuff, you never know what may happen in the future. I'm just curious. Thanks.
I'm not 100% sure about refining costs and everything so I won't comment on that, but collect whatever makes you like and what makes you happy.
I have found by personal experience, anything less than .900 is harder to move. Just my experience. It seems .999 and .900 move a lot easier and are in more demand if wanting to sell.
But if you are directly sending it for melt it shouldn't matter what purity it is, selling in secondary markets is whole another thing.
This is what I was thinking. Whether you've got a 90% silver coin or a 72% silver coin, the copper still has to be separated out, so does it make a different what the proportions are? I don't know anything about refining.
72% silver does not mean 18% copper, the 18% could be a mix of anything. That is what drives up the refining cost. You are best off sticking to 99% or USA 90% coins where the alloy is known and common.
Yeah, but it's boring to just have 90% US silver. Some of the other types seem to go for a lot cheaper per ounce as well. Anyway, I believe all the Canadian coins that are .800 are also 20 percent copper. I don't know about the couple of .720 pesos I have. I tried to find the exact composition of those, but all I can get is the silver.
For the most part I like to stick to 999 925 or 900 for finess in my silver. I may collect a canadian coin or two same with mexican. But I try to keep the bulk of my collection 999 bullion or 90% US or 925 sterling.
Regular coinage is fun to collect and I like it just fine, but for resale I want government minted 999 fine bullion or better. Recognizability is important, and for me so is purity. If I need to melt it down I don't want to have to become a chemist. For bartering purposes I'm fine with junk silver and generic bars and rounds. I like four 9's on the maples because that's the purity needed for solar panels. Might not matter, but a longshot that it could potentially command a premium.
The only thing I would like to add is that Johnson & Matthey, Engelhard, and pamp suisse are just as recognizable or, world wide possibly more so then ASE and CML. While I agree with Inflex that ASE and CML are great pure rounds to have the other three are just as good and from a premium standpoint they command a higher one in todays market.
You may want to read this interview of someone in the business. Basically, he says that unrefined silver will bid lower in times of volatility because it takes longer for a dealer to get his money back and he takes a price risk if he has to send it off to be refined. He wants "exchange-ready" silver that he can turn over immediately. It doesn't say in the article, but to be safely "exchange-ready", I've always bought CMX-approved bars.
I especially like JM bars and really any bar that has a serial on it, less likely to be a counterfeit. This is also the reason I prefer government minted coins, because they are easier to verify the authenticity of. The combination of testing diameter, height, weight, and specific gravity is a pretty solid way to confirm a coin is real without damaging it. With rounds and bars the height and diameter aren't as well known or as consistent. Specific gravity and weight tests together are not as conclusive without the dimensions.
Indeed. it's their biggest advantage and why the premiums are higher. Government coins are self assaying as it only takes a few very simple tools for verification.
