http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-131-British-English-and-Commonwealth-Coins-1894-1967-NICE-NO-RESERVE-/161077879462?ViewItem=&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:US:1123&item=161077879462&nma=true&si=uPsenXwX3tElU6WDCMa47FuUZEs%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 Spotted at least 4 silver coins. Regardless, there over 125 coins here. Big step in improving the quantity of my collection.
When you factor in the price of shipping... I don't think it is a good buy. Looks like most British stuff that I sell by the pound (no pun intended!)... you can fish out half pennies, pennies, 3 pence, and other denominations from junk bins @ $0.10 per coin in far superior grades than I am seeing there.
I didn't know that France, Philippines and Germany were part of the Commonwealth - maybe those countries don't know either
Basically, you spent $26 for a lot of coins that you could probably get at your local coin shop for $7-$15. Not a good buy at all.
When you take into account that they will be delivered to your front door, it's a fair price. I'm sure you could have saved a bit if you went to a local shop. If some of those are actually silver, that makes it better.
Well. I found about $11 worth of melt from the photos, maybe less if the one coin is not. If it is, I will have ended up paying 12 cents each for the coins.
I suspect the silver coins were 'salted' into the mix, in order for that dealer to get rid of some low-end world junk... Nothing sells a mixed lot of world coins easier than a few silver coins sprinkled into the mix... the dealer got double the price of melt for that lot, because most dealers can buy world coins in 20 and 40 pound lots for about $8 a pound or less.
Tim, given how often you complain about world coins being valued lower than US coins, you should know that $12 melt in foreign junk coins won't get $12. You might get 25-40% less than melt for those, simply because no one will know that they're silver. Also, foreign silver standards are HORRIBLE. There are some 10%, some 30%, some 50%, some 80%, some 90%, some 92.5%, etc. In the US, most people collecting silver "know" that "pre-1964" (meaning pre-1965) dollars, halves, quarters, and dimes are 90% and that 1965-1970 halves are 40% (80% silver outer shell and 20% silver core, if I recall). Yes, there are other silver coins (silver Ikes, commemorative dollars/halves that are 90%, silver set coins that are 90%, etc), but the average person who knows little about coins vaguely knows the 1964 cutoff. The equivalent doesn't really exist for non-US coinage. Unless you're willing to carry a silver test kit every time you go to sell foreign junk-silver, you're going to basically be selling to dealers or eBay. With the shipping costs and fees, even if you get "spot" on the silver (which you probably won't), you should be expecting to lose about 30-40% of the transaction to fees/shipping, unless you're selling them in lots, in which case, your ending price will be lower, but shipping will also be lower. With dealers, you might be selling at 50% of melt, because "they need to make something too." The point is, as much as you try to rationalize this into a good deal, you really over spent by at least $10 (assuming all the coins you identified are actually what you think they are). If those coins aren't "silver," you overspent by an amount closer to $15.
Detecto if you enjoy these coins and you collect them in grades as you've them acquired then I see nothing wrong. I hardly comment on your threads and as often as criticism is directed towards your person with it being warranted many times, I don't think this to be the case here. Enjoy your coins.
