Coin Newbie. What coin is this?

Hi, I'm really new to coins, mostly I am looking for something safe to invest in, I'm 25 and can't afford gold, so I figured the next best thing to invest in is silver, its affordable, easy to manage, and nothing has ever struck me as awesome as holding something of actual value, the only other time being when I held a gold brick at Fort Knox.

Anyhow, I bought my first Silver Coin from our local gold and precious metal supplier here in town, and I was wondering if this was some randomly struck coin. Theres no date on it, but it says Liberty, and Freedom on each side of the coin.

Thanks for taking a peek.

 

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Its not a coin issued by the us mint. Its minted by a private company

 

It is a variation of the Standing Liberty Quarter design that ran from 1916-1932.
I assume it is a silver round in saying that you can find silver rounds/bars with just about anything on them you want.
Personally I like this one, although the "FREEDOM" on the back doesn't fit at all.

 

I think you will find the real Standing Liberty Quarter much nicer in design than the generic one. A good start though

Welcome to the forum!

Jim

 

It is what is called a silver round. They are made by private companies, typically contain one troy oz of silver 999 fine and can be found in thousands of different designs. For the most part they have no premium value and simply trade at the value of the silver.

 

yes a round

People buy these strictly for their silver content although they come with different designs that are often based on some type of coin. You can also get something called junk silver which is coins traded for their silver content that may or may not have collector value. I have purchased coins at junk that have more value to a collector.

 

Welcome to CT! :smile You might want to consider American Silver Eagles (ASEs) if you are interested in silver bullion. BTW: You held a gold brick at Fort Knox. We need details and pics if you have them. :kewl:

 

The best advice I can give you is to research more into the things you wish to invest.
Wandering into a coin shop and buying a silver round because it catches your eye is definitely not advisable.
You say you can't afford to buy gold. Save up your $$$ and buy 1/10 oz American gold eagles.
I'm having a hard time swallowing your Ft. Knox anecdote though.

 

#1 Welcome to the CoinTalk forum!

#2 The post 5 by Conder101 is spot-on.

#3 There is a section here at CoinTalk called "Bullion Investing". You may find some of the threads in that section of interest.

#4 Here is a real Standing Liberty quarter which was the model for your posted piece.

 

Totally off-topic but a perfect example of one of the things that bugs me around here. Why did you need to say this? If he says he did it why not go with it. Either that's the last you'll ever hear of the story so no harm done either way or if it plays out long form and wasn't true, he would eventually hang himself with inconsistent details. I understand questioning second and third hand accounts but if somebody says they did something first hand that's not totally out of the realm of possibility then you should accept it unless there's incongruent follow up.

 

nothing wrong with buying rounds

They are not issued by a government to be used as currency that is why they are called rounds or medallions instead of coins. Many times you can get these at a lower premium than a government issued bullion coin like the silver American eagle or gold American eagle which makes them good to buy for their silver. If you didn't pay much over silver market price and silver goes up you can make a profit. The precious metal shop I shopped at also sells coins out of a book but it isn't their specialty it seems, they just pull out coins from junk silver I think. Buying junk silver I think is a good way to start buying coins when silver is down that way you don't risk buying a coin for much more than it is worth. I recently purchased a dollar face of dimes, half of them Mercury dimes for $21 and a VG 1898 Barber quarter for $5 in the junk bins. What I like about junk silver is that you get a piece of history along with your silver content. I have started buying coins though with more value to a collector and have bought coins out of the coin books that have just not been priced for a while so they might have been under priced which is good for me. I found Ebay a good place to buy coins sometimes since it gives you an idea what others are willing to pay for something. For instance I bought a large cent where I paid 25 cents more than the last person would pay and one cent more than the person before him. Plus you can look for price guides around the Internet. But to get more on topic, their is nothing wrong with buying a round as a silver investment as long as you didn't pay too much but this isn't something sold to collectors.

 

Knowing what little I know about Fort Knox, having been stationed there in the early 70's, unless he was employed in some kind of gold handling capacity, I believe that the OP never personally handled any gold there.

 

Buying silver does has its drawbacks. Prices can drop due to Wall Street trading of futures which is just a piece of paper stating you own this much silver. It goes up a little and everyone sells off just to make a profit. Big firms also manipulate the price buy selling of tons of futures once the price goes up to cause the price to lower and then buy them back when the price gets low enough. Coins with collectors value tend to retain their prices and aren't dependent upon Wall Street as much.

 

Because they don't allow visitors to the United States Bullion Depository @ Ft Knox. Only has happened once in the mid 70's when members of Congress were there.

 

I still don't understand why you can't call BS in your head and not write a comment. Who cares if he made it up? It was a comment made in passing, not central to the discussion and hurts no one. I feel like a defense lawyer here because I'm defending a statement I don't believe either. I just don't care and wouldn't take the time out of my day to play expert and have to write a snarky reply calling somebody a liar when it doesn't benefit you at all.

 

Because making a statement like that makes people tend to not believe anything you may say after.

 

You're right, the "freedom" don't look like it fits but it does because it's made by Freedom mint.

http://www.freedommint.com/

I just picked one up awhile back at my buddy's coin shop. They look kinda neat. I hear the 1oz ones are a bit out of reach. Mostly on eaby you see the 1/4 ozs but not any 1ozs. Except for the copper boppers.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-OZ-SILVERED-COPPER-ROUND-STANDING-LIBERTY-QUARTER-TYPE-/380402649895?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5891c3cb27

 

Ebay is not a good place to buy bullion

If he bought this from a precious metal shop, someone probably sold it at spot and the shop sold it at a slight commission. I wouldn't buy bullion on Ebay but have bought three coins, 2 seated liberty quarters and a large cent and they were a good price.

 

Probably for the same reason you feel compelled to complain and comment.

 

Welcome to this place . Nice coin Collect89