Hmm. I think of "Constitutional silver" and "junk silver" as synonyms, just directed at different audiences or moods. I wouldn't use either term for a nice Walker or Merc -- unless, of course, I were making an offer to buy.
Most likely the dealer had way more in stock than he wanted. This is very common. I have a dealer friend that would toss extra fine Morgan dollars in his junk silver dollar bin. When I asked him about it he told me that most collectors of Morgan dollars will only buy common date Morgan dollars in high AU and mint state grades. They have no interest in lower grade Morgan dollars. He told me they sell very fast when he does it. If he put them in his display case they could sit there for years. This is most likely the case with the Walker.
Yep, I've seen that too. This one I found in a lot of 100 Walkers the local jewelry shop just got in for scrap. Bought them all and sorted through finding a few nice ones, and also a few decent Barbers. Its kinda like coin roll hunting and stacking combined!
I find the term junk silver insulting for a beautiful piece of american history such as Morgan's,liberty's,mercs ,etc,
Same here. When I started this thread I typed constitutional then switched it to junk thinking it was the more familiar term. I often get funny looks when referring to constitutional, as not everyone is familiar with the term!
Yes to me ,if something is junk it's trash, and old iconic coins silver or not are definitely not trash, whom ever coined the term (no pun intended) should be ashamed!
LCS has got me calling all of it "90% silver". He doesn't like the term "junk". It's rubbed off on me.
I been playing with coins a mighty long time but never heard the term “Constitutional Silver” until I joined CT. Is that a new term? Something that sounds more marketable than junk silver?
It plays into a certain popular mindset for a large subset of precious-metal enthusiasts. I've come across it fairly frequently, usually along with a lot of other opinions that aren't subjects for discussion here.