Silver stackers who also collect ancients.

Anyone in this forum 'stack' silver/gold along with collecting ancient coins, or at least used to buy bullion?
I was a silverbug for the last couple of years, I stacked silver bullion and coins. But by mid last year the ancient bug bit me hard! and I diverted all of my allowance for silver to ancients.
When I started buying ancient silver coins (denarius and drachms) I was so fixated on the purity and the price I payed for the coins (melt value), for which I totally feel silly now!
This year however I lost interest in modern bullion and most of modern coinage!

This was my acquisition for last year, in fact I did not buy a single of ounce of modern silver bullion/coin this whole year

And a token ancient to keep this thread legal!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I pick up world silver under melt when I can.
I also CRH half dollars for silver and collect a few different governmental 1oz Ag series.
It's kind of like my back up savings account
I've definitely diverted my silver money into ancients, especially as the silver price went up. But now the ancients prices are starting to get to the point where I can't afford them, so who knows what 2022 will bring!

Great stack by the way. You have some really nice world stuff that I'd love to have. Especially that chop marked 8R and that 1937 Crown.

 

Thank you, a cob 8 Reales coin is always in my bucket list, although I never seem to find any decent ones for budget lol.

 

I was putting some of my recent 90% half dollar finds away last night and counted out $200 F/V of 90% Kennedy halves. I thought about selling and turning into gold or something....but I do love the look of giant stacks of silver haha.

 

I think coin collector is the realm of hoarders in some respects, (I might be more of a culprit). However, I think the two areas of interest would have a strong overlap. My history was I was a US collector as a boy, then more advanced US collector and stacker as young adult, turned to ancient collector but still stack some. I kind of have given up on silver, (too bulky), after maybe 2000-3000 ounces. Mostly today I will buy gold or platinum. I don't want to talk about my ancients count though.

 

Nice group of silver.

I don't stack silver for the sake of the world ending, but the past few years I have bought many crown size world coins for basically a typeset. I also have a large amount of the small denomination silvers from places like Canada, Britain, and so on.

So yes, I have a ton of silver, but not in the sense that I stack it.

 

I imagine, that a lot of ancient coin collectors, also stack precious metals. Both precious metals and ancient coins, are a nice way to diversify your wealth. And both are coins (except for silver bars etc). Even as a child, I liked looking at stacks of coins. I used to play with stacks of Lincoln cents, imagining that they were gold coins. The first coins, that I collected, were Lincoln cents. I still have those Lincoln cents, that I had, as a child. And I remember watching movies of "A Christmas Carol", and a scene, in which Scrooge was counting stacks of coins. I still collect US coins, but I've mostly been buying ancients, for the past 3 years.

 

I've had the itch to stack bullion a few times, but it's never really taken hold. I'm always collecting something, and come to the realization that obtaining more of whatever I'm collecting makes me happier than a pile of silver/gold.

This isn't true of everyone of course, but one of the consistent motivations of stackers is that they are hedging against the economy collapsing and/or some kind of apocalypse. There is a small window of severity along this spectrum where a person could really benefit from having stacked bullion (bartering in a somewhat functioning economy, buying refugee status elsewhere, etc). However, if the severity goes past that threshold, then having stacked bullion will have done you no good, because the real winners will be those that had the foresight to stack ammunition instead. If you have a bunch of people with silver and one person with ammunition in a world of anarchy, then the person with the ammunition also has all of the silver

Long story short, I do not feel the need to hedge against these types of things because I know that the luxuries, conveniences, and extreme civility of the modern world have made me too soft to compete under those circumstances. So, if things go too far awry, I'll probably be checking out anyway!

Either that, or I may learn that I've had a hyper-brutal Mad Max persona deep inside all along. In that case, I'll be starting up a motorcycle gang and coming for your silver!

 

Before the pandemic I used to roll hunt for silver and built a small stack that way. If silver gets 7 plus dollars cheaper per ounce I will definitely buy some Canadian and US dollars to add to my collection. Plus whatever else catches my eye. This coin was my first silver quarter found in circulation in May of 2016 and prompted my to create my CT account a short while later.

 

I am guilty of stacking silver, driven largely by a conviction that fiat currencies can't and won't last. I'm not expecting the apocalypse, just the inability of central governments to refrain from use the printing press to solve fiscal problems. You know, the Roman equivalent of a denarius of 2% silver. When I can find crown sized world coins near melt I will pickthem up, but usually stick to government issued bullion.

 

I don’t consider myself a stacker but how many ounces does it take to make you one? I have it all, silver and hood ounces, silver and gold coins and yes, I have my ancients as well. I also have copper coins and rounds and I have my share of clad coins too.
The secret to all this is simple but often overlooked, I buy what I like.

 

Nah. Once fiat currency dies, the corner bodegas will only be accepting bitcoin, and NFT's of monkeys playing drums, for your sandwiches. Silver? What's that?

 

I don't consider myself a stacker, but I do have a bag of world silver coins that I accumulated from mixed lots before I got into ancients - things ranging from a couple ASE's to those really low purity Mexican coins like the .100 fine pesos or the .250 fine 25 centavos. Little to no collector value and I intend to drop them when silver hits $30-35 again.

Back 15 or so years ago my dad got really deep into internet conspiracy theories and he built up a veritable stack of silver. I have no idea how much he had, but he sadly didn't listen to me when I told him to dump it all when silver bounced off of its $50 ceiling in 2011. He could have made an absolute killing, considering that he bought most of it at about $8-10. Heck, even I could have made a nice little payday for myself if I had dumped all of my CRH finds up to that point. Oh, well...

 

I used to get silver gifts a lot as a kid, Eagles, Morgans/Peace, art bars, etc. Start collecting for a time as an adult, but soon decided that for my investment dollars, there are much better plays. I still like custom silver as a collectible though. Poured pieces, low mintage rounds, etc. I like the more personal feel of these type of pieces and the fun designs. I even bought some molds and tried pouring my own silver pieces, which was pretty fun.

 

I collect ancient coins and stack sats… a bit of a dichotomy but to me it all makes perfect sense

 

That's a great pile of silver you have there, @JayAg47 - I too have drifted away from modern(ish) silver to ancients.

However, back in November I succumbed to "silver stacking" habits I used to have - I never collected bullion exactly, but I love world crowns in iffy condition selling close to melt. Back in the 80's-90's I'd scoop up 19th century silver all the time. To this day a lot of this is "stacked" on my dresser, desk at home and work, etc.

In a resurgence of my old habits, the coin below was listed on eBay in the ancients under "Roman Imperial" for a month or so - it went a couple of rounds with no bids, getting a dollar or so knocked off each time it was relisted. Finally, my resistance was weakened and I pulled the trigger:


Yeah, I already had one of these (both 1855 and 1856, actually) but this one was a little nicer; I was quite happy with it, but for now world crowns will be an occasional thing. Melt value today is $16.62 and I paid $19.99 (not including shipping), so I am in no immediate danger of making money on it. If listed correctly under "France" it would probably gone a bit higher - I found one worse than mine that recently sold for $60! NGC puts these at $85 in VF, which seems high to me, but I'm out of touch with the market. https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide...-km-782.1-1854-1859-cuid-1208298-duid-1250633

But I'm going to stick to ancients. They make me work harder at attributions and gathering data on background, etc. In general, I just enjoy them more.

To keep this ancient (and to give me an excuse to post this), here is perhaps my best "silver buy" for the year, one of the few Roman Republican denarii that came in my price range - the seller didn't know what it was and put a low "buy it now" on it. This one really got my neuro-chemical pleasure centers firing and it was a good investment too. Not that I invest, really, but it is nice to know I can probably recover my initial outlay. But she's a keeper:


Roman Republic Denarius
C. Fabius C.f. Hadrianus
(102 B.C.)
Rome Mint
Veiled and turreted head of Cybele right, dot over P behind / Victory in biga right, stork before, C·FABI·C·F in exergue.
Crawford 322/1a; Fabia 15; Sydenham 589.
(3.80 grams / 20 x 19 mm)
eBay Nov. 2021

 

This is why I love eBay, sure if you're a beginner it's a minefield, but if you know what you're looking for, then it's a goldfield!

 

Yes, I have quite a few Mexican onzas accumulated over the years. I haven't purchased many over the past few years, the prices now are shooting up for these coins as well as just about everything else.

 

Silver does come in handy, sometimes. For example, during the "Oil Crisis" of 1972-73 the price of gasoline jumped up about 2-3 times in some areas. Locally, there was at least one gas station that was selling gas at "the old price"; but only if you payed in U.S. 90% silver coin.

 

Here's part of the onza stash, beautifully designed coins, especially the winged angel type (from the Angel of Victory monument in Mexico City). The large coin near the center is a 2 onzas.