Here's another purchase I recently made. Seller info only says 44 coins in total, 20 US Dollars and 24 Halves. Pictures below. How much would your max bid be and what do you think the total silver content is?
I wouldn't have been a winning bidder, because based on what I can see, I would've priced it as 3 40% halves, 1 90% half, 20 clad halves, and 20 clad Ikes. That's all I can be sure of. That would have come to around $42. Actually, based on tarnish patterns, I might have assumed at least 4 or 5 of the Ikes were 40%. That would take it up to $65 or so. To be honest, I might have bid a bit higher, hoping that the seller was not being deceptive and that there was more silver in the stacks. If nobody else was willing to bid based on hope, I might have gotten more than I paid for. I'll be interested to learn what it went for, and what it actually contained.
Yes, all S mint, non proof Eisenhower’s are 40% silver. They only minted clad proofs in 1976, 77, 74 and 73. All other S mint marks are silver coins.
Have to agree with this assessment. When you factor in the storage cost for the non-silver I don't think I would pay more than $25 for the guaranteed silver plus $36 face value for the rest. The fact that it does not say there is more than one 90% and 3 40%, even though the pictures seems to imply it, tells me to be cautious. EDIT: If those dollars really are silver S mintmark then I would change that assessment, but I could not see the mintmark on the screen resolution I have.
Not yet, don’t want to spoil it. I want to hear what others would place as a max bid. I don’t want to sway anyone.
There are a lot more clues to go on than tarnish patterns, which by the way, I would not use as my litmus test for silver (though some silver coins loom markedly different from their clad counterparts). I agree that the pictures seem deceptive. I’ll wait before sharing any more.
These guys seem to be skilled in taking photos that are hard to view. Caution is always a good thing. I took a risk; sometimes they pay and sometimes not.
And no silver at all in 1977 or 1978, IIRC. Now that I'm home on a better screen, I can see that at least two of the 1971 Ikes have no mintmark at all, and the 76 and 74 in the top row appear to be D's. I agree that you can make clad Ikes look like they have a silver tarnish pattern, but that seems less common than actual silver -- in my limited experience. Waiting to see what kind of return you got on this...
@Ike Skywalker @cpm9ball @SuperDave @Paddy54 @Collecting Nut @stldanceartist @baseball21 @lordmarcovan @Michael K
You would've outbid me, but there's a good chance you'll still come out ahead. If I was getting an itchy BIN finger or had eBay bucks about to expire, I might have done the same. Now I really want to hear what you get...
@Ike Skywalker Would these three be silver by chance? What’s the best way to check? Weight? I put them next to a 1972-P clad Ike for an edge comparison