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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;NPCoin, post: 674976, member: 5629&quot;]I am curious how you came to your figure.&nbsp; You paid closer to $15.89/ozt for the &quot;junk&quot; silver.&nbsp; Still, I would consider this an acceptable principle for a long term investment, regardless of the current spot price.</p><p><br /></p><p>Generally, when purchasing &quot;junk&quot; silver, the coins involved should, for the most part, be about good or better quality, yet not to be expected better than VF.&nbsp; In this condition, a small portion of the silver has worn away, and thus, you may end up with a percentage smaller of the silver content.&nbsp; This would become quite noticeable in dealing with larger bulk &quot;junk&quot; trades in the face value in the thousands.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, the $15.89 figure would be the least you paid per ounce troy (with more worn coins, the price per ounce troy is greater due to the lesser silver content per coin.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, in converting the silver content (and price per ozt per coin) it is best to work the mathematics in troy grain (or simply grain).&nbsp; There are 7000 grain per avoirdupois pound (that is, the pound we use in our normal day to day measurements), and 5760 grain per troy pound (that is, the pound used in measuring the weights of precious metals.&nbsp; In the avoirdupois pound, we have 16 ounces, and thus, 7000/16 grains per ounce, or 437.5 grain per avoirdupois ounce (oz).&nbsp; On the other hand, there are only 12 ounces per pound troy.&nbsp; Thus there are 5760/12 grains (or 480 grains) per ounce troy (ozt).&nbsp; So, the troy ounce is greater than the avoirdupois ounce, but the troy pound is <b>less</b> than an avoirdupois pound.</p><p><br /></p><p>As you can see, it is very important to understand the measurement being used (avoirdupois or troy) when dealing in &quot;junk&quot; metals by the ounce or pound.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now, taking your Franklin halves as the example, each has a specification of 12.5 grams.&nbsp; In accordance with the International System of Units, the conversion factor from grams to grains is 64.79891 milligram per grain (.06479891 grams).&nbsp; Thus, the specification for the half dollar is approximately 192.9045 grains (12.5gr/.06479891gr/grain).&nbsp; Being that the silver content is only 90%, we multiply by 0.9 (192.9045 x 0.9) and get 173.6141 grains of silver per $0.50 of 90% silver coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>To convert this to ounces troy, we simply divide this by the weight of 1ozt in grains, which is 480 grains (173.6141grain/480grain/ozt) and we get approximately 0.3617ozt silver content per 90% silver half dollar.</p><p><br /></p><p>Since there are four of them, we multiply: 0.3617 x 4 = 1.4468ozt for $23.&nbsp; So, we divide the $23 by the silver weight and get: $23/1.4468ozt = $15.89ozt for you purchase.&nbsp; The more worn the coin (especially with half dollars and dollars) the higher the actual price is.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Like I said, even at $15.89/ozt, you still did a fair job, regardless of the current spot price.&nbsp; That is, provided you purchased the &quot;junk&quot; for long term investment, and not short term or speculation.&nbsp; With the market as it is currently, I would place the buy limit at $16.28 for long term investment.&nbsp; There is the opportunity to be able to make a quaint 5% return over the next year with the expectation that silver will hit up to $19/ozt over the next year, and the silver is sold within the right time frame.</p><p><br /></p><p>Playing the game of percent this side or that side of spot is a speculator sport.&nbsp; Realistically, one should not play such games without a proper understanding of the market, much like playing the stock game.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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