"Junk Silver" an insult?

I guess it takes all kinds , I go to Harlan Berks all the time and hear junk silver by the staff and customers , If a class operation like that can use it , especially with their staff I have no problem with the term . Plus that's what it is , coins that have no or near any numismatic value beyond their silver content . Now if you were talking about gold I'd get super upset . LMAO

 

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I asked one of the vendors at the local flea market if he had any junk silver, and he was quite offended. I didn't want to risk offending him further by offering him any money for the couple of coins I had my eye on.

Turns out the dealer around the corner had junk silver AND better prices on the other stuff I was looking at. I guess all three of us are happier now. :thumb:

 

The more snooty one is, the more they will be insulted by the term "junk silver"...

(that's why I love the term!)

 

:too-funny::too-funny::too-funny:

 

We get people asking for junk silver all the time... I can't say I've ever been insulted by that term. I buy a lot of junk... Haha!

 

Still is junk silver. That's the appropriate term as far as I'm concerned. If silver goes down, certain coins will no longer be junk and will have a numismatic premium. If silver goes up, some numismatic coins will be knocked down to junk silver.

 

I don't like the word junk. Silver is not a "junk" metal. It's a precious metal. Junk is more along the lines of steel or iron.

That said, any non-coin silver that's only worth melt, I call scrap silver. That's exactly what it is. Silver destined to be melted down and re-purposed.

I usually refer to the word "bulk", if looking at dimes, quarters, etc. Silver coins only worth melt are usually store in bulk.

 

The term came from numismatists, not pm buyers. These are coins, so are the realm of numismatists. To them, they are junk because there is no numismatic value beyond pm value.

The term was never meant to demean anything, so i seriously cannot fathom how it insults anything. Numismatically its junk, but still pm in our eyes.

Btw, i have heard of junk gold as well rzage. I have bought some actually.

 

I don't see anything wrong with the term.

 

Next time do not ask for Junk Silver, ask for Junque Silver.

 

I don't think its an insult as much as a purchasing strategy. Just like every commercial you see they wont to buy your "scrap gold", it softens the blow when they offer you 40% for it.

 

To add, you aren't calling their coins junk. You are asking if they have junk silver. If nothing to them is considered junk then the answer would be no, nothing a normal person should get upset about.

 

Thats funny you mention that OP because the same thing happened to me today when i walked into my LCS and asked for junk silver

 

Well it's junk silver when you sell it to them....maybe it gets better overnight when they resell it ?

 

I like "junk silver". That means whatever you get it's at say 22 x face value. I have gotten a lot of great coins that way. Most recently I picked up a 1813 Pillar dollar for 20x face. Nice. I like picking up coins for around silver value, because you can't go wrong with them. They are always worth at least melt, and maybe much more. One man's junk is another man's treasure.

 

the first time i came to this site as a noob with a silver coin i found in circulation, someone called it junk and i took offense. i was new to collecting and uneducated.

now i know a bit more, and i see no problem with the term "junk" silver.

 

I recently went to my local coin shop and asked if he had any 90 percent silver coins in bulk. He asked how much did I want. When I said "$100 face. He knew exactly what I needed. He split it up into '64 & earlier halves, quarters and dimes.

 

Perfectly acceptable where I'm from. Asking for silver only leads to a much longer, uneeded conversation.
I asked that at a pawn shop once & got truly junk. Mostly rings from Mexico & India, most plated.

 

Just say you came across the term in a well known encyclopedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_silver

Christian

 

Lets face it. 90% coins that are well circulated and contain copper are "junk silver." If they are .9999 silver and circulated they still contain .9999 silver and are not junk. If a coin has another metal melted into it and is beat up and tarnished, unless its a key date it is only worth the metal it contains in melt. This is all just my opinion.