Silver Bullion Coins

I am new to precious metals and have begun building a Silver holding as a hedge against inflation and as a potential medium of exchange. I am not interested in numismatics as this point and have formed a strategy around buying coins as close to the spot price as possible. My concern is true liquidity in an economic tumultuous environment. I have been buying APMEX rounds and have considered coins from Sunshine mint. I would like to get some feedback on the general recognition of these mints, and other good options that are out there.

 

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Silver coins are very liquid -- you can take them to just about any dealer, many jewelers, and a few other "we buy gold" kiosks. If this is purely an investment, then the key is to buy as close to spot as possible. Avoid Proof American Silver Eagles (for example) because you will pay a premium for the pretty coin. You could buy a bag of silver dimes much closer to spot.

 

or just purchase scrp silver.
its a lot easier and you pay below spot.

 

Hey Speck, thanks for the reply. I guess I just want to get some comfort level with semi-generick sliver rounds. I'm guessing that you regard APMEX as widely recognized and trusted.

 

Thanks for the reply Cerd. Pardon my ignorance but what qualifies as "scrap silver" and is it easily converted to cash?

 

scrap silver usually consists of old warn silver coins. usually quarters, halves but i guess it could be any denomination. lots of coin shops have bins of these beat up silver coins that dont hold the value of a high grade similar coin but they still obviously have there value in weight.

 

Got it. Is it worthwhile to filter the old silver out of circulation or has most of it already been filtered out?

 

of course its worth wile. i work for a bank so i come across a nice array of silver coins all the time. usually it is coins from the 40's-60's. its great to come across a roll of 60's quarters or dime. the nice part is i get them for face. there is still plenty of silver coins out there. these junk silver bins i speak about a lot of times have older coins in there as well like SLQ's and other silver coins of the time. usually the dont have dates and are worn pretty well. but that is why they are in the junk silver bins :thumb:

 

If silver is easy to find I'm sure it would be worthwhile. Tell you what Urbanchemist, I'm going to get $200 worth of quarters (800) and perform a test to see what % turn out to be silver (pre '65). I'll post the results later this weekend.

 

I figure you will probably find less than 5% of those quarters will be silver. You may get lucky however. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

I'm guessing less than 1/2 of 1% or just about 3 silver coins. Total WAG! Anyone else venture a guess?

 

quarters 1 in 6000
enjoy

if theyre junk theyre based only on silver value. pretty worn down usually date cant be seen.
Mainly dimes hlaves quarters. occasionally peace and morgan dollar coins as well.
Nickels arent desirable hard to find most were melted in the late 50's and early 60's
I prefer them since theyre based on spot prices.

 

It is difficult to find 90 percent searching rolls.
My opinion is that the sunshine rounds and such like them are not as liquid as a real silver eagle or maple leaf. Coins minted by the government have to be authentic in weight and composed of real silver. Stuff like silver bars and generic hunks of supposed silver are questionable.
90 percent us coinage is also a safe hedge.

 

I don't think you will find a single one. One thing to keep in mind is that you should concentrate on buying what can be easily sold, and not necessarily what is cheapest to buy. Generic silver rounds are less expensive to buy, but you will probably take a hit on the resale. American Silver Eagles cost more, but I can sell them in virtually unliminted quantities for $1 over spot at any one of several coin dealers within a few miles of my home. You won't be able to do that with any silver round regardless of the mint.

Edit: I checked today and ASEs are going for $350 per 20 coin tube near me.

 

You will find ONE max! Quakers are HARD..

The trick is.. Buy Silver when it hits 9.00 and sell at 20.00..It works for me.. LOL..
I would have been a bit better if I would have started the whole thing a few years earlier.. Dang!

 

I think buying actual coins is better than just silver rounds. They are more in terms of buy in costs, but you can also sell them for more so it evens out. Also in a REALLY bad situation you wouldn't want to sell the silver for cash because with in a day that cash would be devalued more... you would be trading the coins for things, and in that case Ill only be trading my ammo for coins, no silver rounds so you my friend would be SOL
My favorite silver coins are pandas and maple privy leaf coins- but for investment I go for just the usual maple leaf coins. Closer to spot than eagles, more interesting (I think) and just as easy to sell.


But anyways, back to your topic... apmex rounds are about the best you can do. Good for you for at least picking a good round to buy if your going to buy those. I just assume buy 100oz bars if im trying to get spot silver.
Best of luck!

 

well i guess it is easy for me because of working at a bank i have unlimited access to coins so i can search all i want. i guess i must just be lucky because i come across a lot of silver. its also having the right customer at the right time. i have gotten rolls of silver coins being turned it.

 

I appreciate the input Boxer. I started with 100 1 oz rounds from APMEX. My next 100 will be Silver Eagles. I'm working in some 1oz gold Maples here and there. On the ammo front I have lots of that too but I digress.

 

OK ... drum roll please. I went through 800 quarters from my bank and found zero (0) pre-1965 quarters so I guess Cloudsweeper had it right. So if my little anecdotal experiment is representative of quarters in circulation, the number of silver coins still in circulation could not exceed 1/10 of 1% or .00125. I wonder how many rolls I would have to go through to find my first 90% silver coin. I think Urban has the distinct advantage of working for a bank that makes his silver sifting a little more worthwhile than it seems to be for me. For now I'll keep checking my change until I make that first exciting discovery.

 

Finding a silver quarter in change is so rare that I wouldn't count on any. It's like getting a silver half $ in change. You'd be surprised to get any Franklin or Kennedy half in change. I spend the halves I go through, but that's not too many, and they're all post '70. Occasionally someone raids their dad's coins and spends them and they get into circulation for a brief period of time. Some times people spend the coins they've been hoarding for decades and just buy stuff, putting them in to circulation. That's the only way to get lucky with silver coinage from circulation. I went through more than a box of half $s and there were NO silver halves.

Good luck searching for silver,

Bruce