These are my Mother-in-law's one ounce silver bars, and I was wondering if they are worth anything more than melt as a collectible. If anyone can help me out that would be great since I don't know much about these. Also, I told her not to clean them since I assumed these art bars are like coins, but let me know if it would be better to take the tarnish off. The last picture (US Silver Corporation) is the reverse of the Secretariat bar.
cleaning art bars are not a bad thing. They are not treated like coins in that aspect because lots of people clean them for a nice shine but I never clean my bars before selling them, i'll let the buyer decide that.
Some bars are strictly melt value, and some have heavy premiums... They vary a great deal. Another point is finding the 'right' buyer for an art bar with a supposed premium. I can tell you up front that a silver bar taken to just about any dealer will get you melt, no matter the bar.
The "Star of David" was minted by Patrick Mint in 1973. It is a common-minted silver art bar and I will say that it will fetch a conservative winning bid of anywhere between $5 to $10 over spot silver (11-25-2011 spot silver = $30.98) on ebay. Most Patrick Mint silver art bars will fetch about that amount on ebay. The "Secretariat" was minted in 1973 by United States Silver Corporation (USSC). This is also a common silver art bar. I will also say that it will fetch a winning bid of between $5 to $10 on ebay. This is a conservative estimate. It could always fetch more than that but a winning bid of between $5 and $10 over spot is a safe bet on this particular USSC silver art bar. I do not see anything wrong with cleaning silver art bars. I do not like heavy toning and when I buy one that has a lot of toning on it, then I just take it to a local dealer to get it cleaned (dipped). Silver art bars are not treated in the same way as numismatic coins.
What are some of the more sought after 1970's silver art bars? I picked up the Franklin Mint's "Boy Scout Law" set in 2005 and watched it go up in value (above melt).
Some of the more sought after 1970's (and some '80's) silver art bars are the Coca-Cola silver art bars that were minted by World Wide Mint from 1975 to the early '80's. Those are always in high demand and bring a decent premium on ebay. Those are hard to find and some of them are so hard to find that it might be several months to a year for those very rare ones to show up on ebay. Coca-Cola bars in general will always do well on ebay IMO. Adult themed silver art bars are also in high demand. Some adult-themed bars include Crown Mint Beauties, Crown Mint Holiday Beauties, Nude Marilyn Monroe art bars to name a few of the adult-themed bars that came out in the '70's and early '80's. There are also other adult-themed bars that came out in the '70's but those are very hard to find anywhere. If priced right, the Greathouse bars and the Green Country mint bars will bring in a hefty premium on ebay. I have seen some of the Greathouse bars that are priced way too high (usually BIN's) and they usually do not get any bids but the demand is there for them.
A lot of the Franklin Mint art bars are sterling and it seems to me that, generally speaking, sterling silver seems to be hard to sell for a good price. The only Franklin Mint bars that I am familiar with are the 1000-grain sterling silver art bars with names of various banks on them that represent each of the 50 states.
I bought "The Spirit of Scouting" in 2005 for $80. Being an Eagle Scout myself, I really like the Norman Rockwell artwork. They seem to be fairly hard to find nowadays and sell for quite a bit more than $80. Here's the only listing I could find...it looks like the one I have. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Norman-Rockwells-Boy-Scouts-Silver-Coin-Medal-Set-Franklin-Mint-/200657190361?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb819bdd9
