I'd forgotten about this little batch, which will be short and sweet: LOT - 20 SILVER COINS .800 DIME & QUARTER (CANADA ) I don't ordinarily venture outside ordinary US domestic coinage, but I somehow stumbled across this one. What I was thinking was actually pretty simple: "$60+ of silver for just over $50? Sure, why not?" Details of what I found tomorrow evening, with a photo or two if I can manage it. Nothing astounding, but more than I bargained for.
He started the lot at 99c probably to take advantage of reduced insertion fees. Not enough people saw the auction who wanted the coins. Sometimes in eBay auctions you are a fire hydrant and sometimes you are a dog. You were fortunate your bid didn't het "sniped". Once in a while we get lucky on eBay. That's the purpose of bidding. IMHO gary
OK, CAD$1.10 face value in Canadian silver dimes, and $2.50 face value in quarters. Total of 3.60 face value. Current US buying price for Canadian .800 silver is around 14X face, or a little over $50 for the group. The seller probably thought he would get a better deal selling the coins directly to collectors. However, his photo was next to worthless, and he paid the penalty for it with a lower final bid, minus associated fees.
This highlights an important fallacy, one that I took a while to figure out: you can't just use "silver value" (i.e., as reported on Coinflation) as an indicator of value. The "silver value" of these coins was over $60 at the time of purchase, but as you say, it would be difficult or impossible to realize that value. Discounts for 90% silver are small, but for 80%, 40% or 35%, the overhead of refining increases. On the other hand, the market for 40% Kennedy halves on eBay is still pretty robust. Go figure.
It's not really that difficult to figure out, I think. 40% Kennedy halves are American coins and the largest collector base in the world is the United States. They are old enough now that most Americans alive today never saw one in circulation, so that gives them a sort of exotic aspect. Their fineness is known by all US dealers who are worth their salt, and their weight can easily be looked up in the Redbook if the dealer doesn't know it by heart. Plus, the coins honor a popular President who was cut down in his prime. Also, I have my doubts that many of them actually get melted-- their weight and fineness are already well established, so as long as they remain in the United States, they will be able to trade parallel to the silver market in their present form.
Okay, this was a small lot, so it bore only small surprises. A couple of the quarters and dimes look like very nice uncirculated specimens. As far as I can see, though, they have none of the "cartwheel" luster common to American business strikes -- they appear to have mirrored surfaces like American proofs. Is this normal for Canadian coinage (early 1960s)? There were also a few older, well-circulated quarters -- one from the 1930's, and one or two from the 1940's. For the toning fans, here are two of the older dimes: Alas, I've lost the color profile I used to use for converting RAW images from my camera before exporting them as JPEGs, so these look a lot duller than they did in the original photos, which in turn look duller than the actual coins. That blue is really electric and lustrous. I'm still not sure I'm a toner fan, but these, particularly that 1952 specimen, really grabbed me.
I've got a '64 Canadian dime that probably has the same colorful toning as that last coin in your pics.