When you see the price of silver (e.g. 12.79/oz), what fineness are they talking about? I've heard both .999 and 1.000. Also, if you have an item that is, say, .500 fine silver, is it automatically half the value, versus 1.000? (assuming you're selling it to the same person/company and they don't charge extra fees for lower quality silver)
To my knowledge there is only .999 Fine Silver. If you have an item that is .5 fine silver then yes, it will be worth the half the value of .999 fine silver. Only you might not be able to get that price because of the cost to extract that fine silver. If you what to learn about silver check this out or google "fine silver" yourself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver
I'd think that the lower the silver content the smaller the percentage of silver you'll get paid for. As in you'll get paid more per ounce of .900 coins compared to .250 coins.
Actually;, you'll get paid for the ASW (actual silver weight). Since copper is the most common base metal combined with silver, the value of the copper generally makes up for the extra cost of refining, so you'll get the current melt value less a small premium, just as you'll pay the current melt value of the ASW when you buy junk silver, plus a small premium.
There really isn't much need to "extract" the pure silver either. If you have a bunch of .500 silver coins that as Satootoko said are most commonly alloyed with copper, and you want to reproduce some Franklin Mint medals, then you simply add some Silver Eagles to bring the silver/copper ratio to .925:.075.... Blasphemous, I know.
I love that web site of wikipedia. However, it makes my library of chem books obsolete. I've got chem books coming our of my ears and no one wants them due to the internet.
I meant just if you tossed them on a scale without taking ASW into account. A pound of .900 coins is going to be worth more than a pound of .250 coins without using ASW.
"Originally Posted by satootoko Actually;, you'll get paid for the ASW (actual silver weight). " Actually you'll get a price below that number, the dealers have to make some money on the transaction, or why are they there.
