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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;WingedLiberty, post: 1054261, member: 26030&quot;]These older forms of silver coins like Morgans start to mix bullion value with value from scarcity (and demand from collectors) -- so you pay a higher premium over melt.&nbsp;&nbsp; This could be good or bad.&nbsp;&nbsp; Sometimes pure bullion coins rise faster in value than coins that have a mix of value from bullion and rarity; sometimes it&#039;s the other way around.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>I personally like the older forms of circulated silver coins.&nbsp; In addition to circulated Peace and Morgans, you could also consider circulated Walking Liberty and Barber Half Dollars.&nbsp; It&#039;s a way I accumulate silver while scratching my coin collecting itch.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The only caveat is you will probably need to pick through the bulk coins in person to pick out ones that are clean, original (gradeable) circulated coins that make the grade in which they are advertised.&nbsp;&nbsp; Often the coins in the bulk bins at dealers contain coins that don&#039;t make the advertised grade or have been cleaned or have rim dings/damage that would make them ungradeable and therefore worth less (i.e. worth just the melt value of the silver).&nbsp; What I usually do is walk into a coin dealer and ask to look at their bulk silver coins for a particular type ... then pick through them.&nbsp; If you can put together a lot of 100 coins, you will usually get a better price (also remember that in some states, if you buy more than $1000 worth, you don&#039;t pay sales tax).&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If you are buying bulk coins that have a grade guarantee (for example Barber Halfs in Good+ condition or Walkers in F/VF) be sure to bring a photograding guidebook (if you are not that adept at&nbsp; grading on the fly).&nbsp; You can also print out some photos of PCGS graded&nbsp; coins (on ebay) of the type and grade you are interested in to use as a visual comparitive guide.&nbsp; Since you are paying more than bullion prices for some rarity (where grading matters), you need to ensure you get what you pay for and dont buy coins that are not gradeable.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;You do pay a bit of a premium for these older type coins. For example Barber Halfs in G/VG Condition might sell for a 20% to 25% (or more) premium over spot (however I think they are still fairly cheap and many times rarer than the later types).&nbsp; Circulated Walkers might sell for perhaps 4 or 5% over melt (which is fairly inexpensive).&nbsp;&nbsp; I recently bought a 100 coin lot of Walkers and a 100 coin lot of Barbers and got some better dates (an 1892 Barber and some Walkers from the 1910&#039;s and 1920&#039;s).&nbsp; However the dealer&#039;s lot of &quot;Good+&quot; Barbers contained many Fair and About Good coins, and a number of cleaned and damaged coins, so I had to pick through 200 coins to get a bag of 100 coins that I wanted to buy (that I thought would actually make a G or VG grade by a thrid party grader like PCGS or NGC).&nbsp;&nbsp; Here are samples from two 100 coin lots (G+ Barbers and F/VF Walkers) I recently bought:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]103757.vB[/ATTACH]&nbsp; [ATTACH]103758.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>In terms of the circulated dollar coins, they will probably be separated into 3 types:&nbsp; Peace Dollars, 1921 Morgans, and 1878-1904 Morgans. </p><p><br /></p><p>I dont like the 1921 Morgan, it&#039;s common as dirt (few to none were melted) and they tend to have poor strikes. Plus it&#039;s boring, all one date.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Peace Dollars are quite cheap, however they are a lot more common than pre-1904 morgans. The bulk Peace Dollars will most likely all be dated 1922, 1923, 1924, and 1925 -- all very high mintage years.&nbsp; And you will probably only get these four dates (from the Philly mint).&nbsp; The upside to circulated Peace dollars is they are quite cheap (a lower premium over melt).</p><p><br /></p><p>I like the 1878-1904 Morgans the best.&nbsp;&nbsp; They are more interesting (there will be many more dates and mintmarks in the lot)&nbsp; and rarer (remember many pre-1904 were melted down between 1905 and 1920 ... perhaps as much as 1/2 of the total mintage I believe).&nbsp;&nbsp; However the premium over melt is higher -- but I think it&#039;s worth it because they are easier to sell because (I believe) there are many more Morgan collectors than Peace collectors, so the demand is greater.&nbsp;&nbsp; I do think a nicely worn Morgan Dollar has a romantic feel to it!&nbsp;&nbsp; (By the way, the Morgan below is a PCGS graded VG):</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH]103756.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Another factor to keep in mind is the loss of silver due to wear on older, well-worn circulated coins ... I posted some estimates of the silver loss in various grades in this thread ...&nbsp; <a href="http://www.cointalk.com/t144944/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cointalk.com/t144944/">http://www.cointalk.com/t144944/</a>&nbsp; You need to keep in mind the loss of silver from wear to properly compute the premium over melt you are paying.</p><p><br /></p><p>You can get a rough idea of the prices (and premiums) from the two web links below (prices will definately vary from dealer to dealer).&nbsp; The prices on this web site will update as silver ticks up and down during the week.&nbsp; This will give you a rough idea of market prices for comparitive purposes.&nbsp; (You may find these coins selling for more or less at your local dealer)</p><p><a href="http://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/Dollars/Bulk_Dollars" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/Dollars/Bulk_Dollars" rel="nofollow">http://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/Dollars/Bulk_Dollars</a></p><p><a href="http://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/Half_Dollars/Bulk_Half_Dollars" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/Half_Dollars/Bulk_Half_Dollars" rel="nofollow">http://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/Half_Dollars/Bulk_Half_Dollars</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Finally, the silver content and silver melt value of all the coins being discussed here can be found at the coinflation website (the prices adjust when the silver market is open and the price fluctuates).&nbsp; The silver content and melt value given on this web site will be for high grade EF/AU coins with little to no silver loss:&nbsp; <a href="http://www.coinflation.com/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinflation.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.coinflation.com/</a> </p><p><br /></p><p>If this is all too much for you to deal with, stick with common (higher population, higher grade, and more recently minted) circulated bullion coins like you&#039;ve been doing!</p><p><br /></p><p>Good Luck![/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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