90% junk silver coins, halves vs. quarters and dimes

I would pay a little more and get the halves. You should always buy what will be easiest to resell. Look at the buy/sell spread before buying anything.

 

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Why can you not melt them?

 

since when has it been legal to deface US money?

 

I agree that halves would tend to have less wear than Dimes and Quarters of the same year. However older halves can have significant silver loss.
Here is an analysis of silver loss due to circulation on halves ...

http://www.cointalk.com/showthread.php?t=144944&p=1054066&highlight=#post1054066

 

My understanding is that it is illegal to melt one cent and nickel coins or to export them to be melted, but there are no other restrictions. It has always been okay to "deface" coins. People drill holes in them and make hobo nickels all the time.

 

so it is legal to melt down any coins 1/10 dollar or higher?

 

It would be pointless [except for silver], but yes. At least that is my understanding unless someone else has more up to date info.

 

Actually, at $33 per ounce, junk silver is valued at $23.77 per dollar of face value for halves, quarters and dimes, and $25.47 for each silver dollar. So, if you buy junk silver while the silver price is $33 per ounce, you'll be paying well over 23x face value. As someone suggested, you could wait and hope the price of silver drops to the price range you want.

 

Or you could get into your time machine and go back to the era of the post you just quoted.

 

Look how observant I am!!

Sorry about that.

 

... and the price is now just about $32, lower than when you last posted on this thread!