These Franklin Mint Sterling Silver coins, are they worth it? I know sterling silver is something like 90% pure instead of .999 pure that the mint puts out. So, my question is, Is sterling silver worth bidding on? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=250428626386
92.5% @18000 grains = 34.688 troy oz of pure silver w/ silver @14.62 that's almost $500, which technically he is selling under spot. If his weighing is right.
I agree with your calculations. But sterling rounds and bars are harder to sell than .999 silver or even regular old .90 coin silver. I don't think silver investors are as comfortable with them.
The thing with Sterling Silver, at .925 (7.5% copper), is that in order to theoretically get the silver content out of them, it requires refinement, whereas a .999 fine silver coin is already effectively "all silver". In other words, as far as silver content alone, sterling isn't necessarily worth 92.5% of spot, because of the added cost and effort of extracting the pure silver.
On the other hand, it could be argued that the sterling silver is worth more because every ounce of silver comes with some copper too. It depends on whether the copper can be separated for a cost less than its value.
Well then, 18000x.075=1350 grains of copper 1350 grains = .192857143 lbs of copper .192857143 x 2.030 = $0.39 worth of copper.
Now, multiply your numbers by tens of thousands and it starts to make economic sense to a smelter over the course of the year to deal in multiple metals.
It absolutely does add up when scaled up, but I thought we were talking about a couple dozen coins :goofer:
Most smelters don't mind sterling silver at all since they get so much of it from jewelry, silverware, and other products. Most fabricated silver objects other than coins are sterling.
