Was just going through the latest offerings on the bay and saw a few items Which came with Assays and they werent large items by any means, thought most of what goes into bar is already stamped on it ? for instance .999 silver 1 troy once for an example, why would you need a paper to tell you that, plus if there is no serial number listed like most silver bars dont, how would you know that there connected ?? just my two cents..LOL
Several years ago when the price of silver was sky-high, "Pawn Stars" ran an episode in which a man sold the pawn shop $100,000+ in silver. One of the items was a huge ingot that was made from melting silver coins. To check it, Rick drilled out a sample to make sure that the core wasn't lead. Chris
When I started investing in gold I once considered buying RCM gold Maple Leafs in a sealed assay. My reason was because I was very disappointed in the first gold maple I ever received that looked a little dinged up due to its very high purity. My hope was that something sealed from the rcm would be in better shape. This was many, many years back. Since then, I have learned that a 99.99+ ounce of gold is just worth spot, dings or not. And most buyers simply do not care if it's slightly dinged up. Therefore, paying a higher premium for a coin in a sealed assay is just a waste of money. I have also learned that bullion buyers don't care about assays, certificates of authenticity, or serial numbers. For something like a government produced bullion coin, there is very standard appearance, weight, and size. These are all recognizable by those in the field who may buy your bullion from you without the need for a superfluous assay. Their expert opinion can visually see if what you have is real, and they can weigh it and measure it to be sure it aligns to those specifications.
I was just at my local dealer and he told me to avoid gold maple leafs because they are very fragile ! if you have something that is of high grade and it gets dinged up it has to go to the refiner lessening the over all value but this is only in high grade examples For me its the Krugerrand my gold coin of choice
