2011 GOLD high $1,500.00, SILVER high $24.00

I haven't been watching their inventory of bullion ASEs closely. How does Provident Metals comparison to these two?

Also check out this as mentioned in the article 2010 Proof American Silver Eagle from MintNewsBlog [11/18/2010]

 

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Currently in UK/EU markets for Friday 11/19/2010:

Gold: $1,352
Silver: $26.91
Platinum: $1,659
Palladium: $699​

US Market opening in approximately twenty minutes...

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Currently After the US market open for Friday 11/19/2010:

Gold: $1,344.40
Silver: $26.51
Platinum: $1,657
Palladium: $702​

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I noticed that there seems to be a shortage of Washington Quarters by the silver dealers. You guys seeing that too ?

gary

 

In this thread I don't distinguish the kind of bullion apart from government issued and generic bullion bars/rounds. I don't think this thread much gets into junk silver investments. Sorry I haven't monitored what you are talking about. Have you checked Provident Metals? They sell a lot of sorted junk silver.

 

I'm confused. If i understand correctly, junk silver is not considered bullion. Is that what you mean? I have looked up the meaning of bullion already. If junk silver is not considered bullion investing, which I guess it is not, then I apologize for trying to pick up info here. I have a great deal of 'junk silver', as well as the other p.m. (Pretty sure there is no such thing as junk gold.) I believed they were all one species. My mistake, and I too will look instead for info re: junk silver. Myself, I apply the pricing info to actual silver content in order to follow along. If I have 1k bags of Morgans (bullion I gather) and 1k bags of, say, pre 64 quarters, or dimes, or perhaps even mixed, (junk silver..) they really belong to different categories, yes? As do rolls of eagles, no matter their size, maples, krugerrands, down to the bittiest of swiss francs.

So today I have learned another interesting fact: junk silver is not a bullion investment, but rather, something else.

Almost like 'the other side of the tracks' !

I love the saying, 'you don't know what you don't know.."



L

 

Lucyray, perhaps definitions vary a little, but to me bullion is specific as to weight and purity, whereas "junk" has to be tested and validated perhaps by a chemical reaction, specific gravity test, authorized hallmarks, etc. Often "junk" is greatly downgraded due to risk of it being a lower grade than marked and such.

Bullion, whether an Englehard bar or a Credit Suisse, or coins issued by a government generally are what they say they are, except in the rare case of counterfeit. SO a ASE or AGE should trade based on spot and markup, a silver candlestick or a gold watch, although beautiful to the eye, might be classified as "junk" with a larger deduction if traded at all.

Jim

 

Hey guys, I always thought of as Junk Silver, those coins that were too worn to be considered collectible, but worth melt value, while Silver bullion was rounds and ingots that have no face value and are worth silver content only. Jim probably has the closest explination of items other than coins. Something Silver with an unknown purity. Whereas all bars are clearly stamped.

The term of bullion coins for gold I think is because South Africa, Canada and the US all minted 1 oz coins sold for gold value in more modern times. I mean they minted a coin with a very small face value that contained one troy ounce of gold and not meant as a collector coin. I was buying these at the broker's fees over spot and preferred them to ingots. But they weren't worth any more.

Anyway, I guess as long as everyone knows what the other person means, it doesn't matter a whit about the semantics.

gary

 

Nothing wrong with investing in junk silver, coins or scrap metals. There certain is 'junk gold', probably more often thought of as 'scrap gold' in old jewelry or e-scrap from devices and computers reclaimed usually in recycling operations. Details mentioned above by Jim and Gary demonstrate the differences in junk so no need to go on about it. I was just stating earlier that this thread doesn't get too specific on types of coin silver apart from government issued bullion and generic bars/rounds but instead is a thread devoted to monitoring daily spot prices and in projecting guesses of where prices may be headed, what is driving the dips and spikes and what we are doing about it: buying, selling, holding...

Breaking down junk silver to just US coins starts to get tricky in such a thread: 40% silver coins, 90% silver, slicks, good, AU or better,... and the bullion dealers like Apmex and Provident sell such silver sorted by 'grades' that approach numismatic categorization. It is that slippery area between bullion investing and applying numismatic terms and discussion regarding them by generalizing about 'junk silver' that draws the ire in posts from coin collectors unwilling to leave this to bullion topics devoid of numismatic discussion. I guess, I'm saying that things just get messy quick. I was trying to point out that the thread doesn't go there, so that we wouldn't go there and muck up the harmony of this thread or the bullion investing forum. There's nothing wrong with investing in junk silver, so long as you know how to liquidate it when you need to and understand the offers you may get for it. :smile

 

What is a 'slick'? Never heard the term.. Regarding knowing what one HAS, well I can say that I knew what the words on the bags, boxes, pails all SAID, but it has not been until lately that those 'words' actually mean something I understand. That statement may not make sense; I can't express it well. Suffice to say, there is emperical knowledge that only comes with time and experience, which is of course my goal. I thought from your post that perhaps you were saying junk silver doesn't belong here. And actually, that is true from your explanation above; it is another topic. But driving forces for metals does belong here, and I get that The 'junk' silver makes me nervous; gold does not. I did manage to get rid of a pallet of it; swapped for gold. (a few (4) years ago) But that remaining niggles at the back of my mind.. and then your post, well it made me wonder, what the heck to do?

Thanks for all of the explanations. It all makes me very nervous; and reminds me of being ill-equipped.

I wonder if junk silver is taxed at capital gains, or numismatically? No need to answer, I'll find out when I need to make a decision.

Happy pre-holiday weekend to everyone! Lucy

Krispy, you write well, like an english teacher..

 

I believe that silver coins, unless you have proof otherwise are considered by IRS to have a cost base of face. The profit subject to Capital Gains tax. So if you sell $1,000 face for $18,000 they are gonna hit you for the $17,000 difference. That's why it's so important to keep the records of purchases. At least that's the way it has been in the past from my experience.

gary

 

These terms are somewhat colloquial in the hobby for collectors and those who buy very low grade coins for investment in precious metals as opposed to their numismatic value. They are worth the investment because they have been coined and thus carry the authenticity of known purity of the government that minted them.

Slicks are very, very heavily worn coins, quite smooth or flat, missing a lot of original mass and lacking the details and quality a collector normally seeks. This to me is part of the problem involving coins of varying weights in a 'bullion investing' discussion. Basing junk silver on face value but for which the overall amount of silver you are buying is less than precise, and potentially problematic to such a thread. Values differ from dealer to dealer and are not what are being used to cite the daily bullion spot prices in the markets that this thread goes by. I can hardly write this explanation without gingerly navigating a mine field of a discussion about this, so I am trying to be a bit vague and keep a distance from going there, as I mentioned earlier.

Thanks for the nice complement on my explanations. I know my sentences run on and on, so I'm far from a formal English instructor, but I appreciate your thoughts.

Happy pre-holiday to you too Lucy. Hope you have a nice and enjoyable week.

 

Thank you Gary. I do have purchase records for everything I have, if capital gains is what I will have to pay when the time comes, then, yes it will be a big hit; bought when silver was low, very low. 50% of what I have (of the silver) has a stepped up basis to November of 2005. On the other hand, if I have good timing, I can try to sell silver when I must take a loss elsewhere I have done this once already (2006) , swapping the lions share into gold; paid the big hit for that but didn't understand it at all -- just signed what my cpa said to sign, being carried along like a 2 year old. My internal debate now is whether or not to 'upgrade' the nerve wracking remaining 'junk silver' for 'bullion silver', or get rid of it and take the hit, keeping gold. If I upgrade, I don't think I pay any gain (not until I actually get rid of it, in other words, like kind for like kind. Eventually I'll take the hit on gold, and quite honestly I don't believe "at this time" converting to paper dollars is a viable option -- dollar is so -- what to say--unpredictable? But the junk silver now has me worried.. Then the tax laws changing..maybe..

Thank you again. I must say, I think I hate it all! And sheesh, I can't even think about actually LOOKING into any of those bags, boxes, pails! :desk:

I have said before, I am coming along, kicking and screaming the whole way!
Lucy (I'm guessing this is off topic, so apologize to all. If I have any more questions I'll put them somewhere else.)

 

BNP Paribas raises its forecast for the price of gold at an average of $ 1,500 per ounce in 2011, compared with a previous forecast of $ 1,290 per ounce. The Bank writes in a report on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg News. BNP Paribas also raises forecast for silver, at 25:80 U.S. dollars per ounce from the previous 19:70.
Read more

 

I can only mention this; I was surfing around and checking out the dealer's on-line prices and noticed that Washington Quarter lots were "unavailable" or "out of stock" on a couple of sites. Got me to thinking, that it may be the time to hang on to those. To my thinking, demand for them has outpaced supply. Foolish maybe. But I read that since the introduction of the State Quarter series, the interest in collecting them really sparked. I believe the new ones are easy to get and not very expensive, so some of the estimated 25 million quarter collectors are going to expand their collections to the Silver issue ? Just a thought, still need the 32 D to complete mine. lol

Off the bullion part and back to the numismatic angle, but I decided not to sell any more of mine. I am going to wait before getting gold. Once the economy stabilizes, it could come down a bit ?

gary

 

Currently in Asia-Pac markets for Monday 11/22/2010:

Gold: $1,360.60
Silver: $27.67
Platinum: $1,677
Palladium: $713​

US Market opening in approximately nine hours, forty-five minutes...

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Is a cull the same as a slick?

Go gold go! and silver continues to march on too.

 

All slicks can be considered culls, but not all culls are slicks. For example, an otherwise uncirculated coin with full details would be considered a cull if it had a big hole in it, but it would not be slick.

 

Currently in UK/EU markets for Monday 11/22/2010:

Gold: $1,356.40
Silver: $27.45
Platinum: $1,664
Palladium: $713​

US Market opening in approximately on hour, twenty minutes...


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Currently At the US market open for Monday 11/22/2010:

Gold: $1,354.30
Silver: $27.33
Platinum: $1,661
Palladium: $703​

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