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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 2292473, member: 66&quot;]The .999 isn&#039;t a case of ANYONE creating an alloy mix, it is a result of the refining process&nbsp; and the .999 is actually a guarantee that the metal contains no more than one part in a thousand of ANY contaminant, not a specific metal or alloy.&nbsp; That .001 could be copper, it could be gold, it could be carbon it could be DIRT, or it could be silver or anything else.</p><p><br /></p><p>And since the metal comes from the refiner as .999 fine, in order to make the .900 fine alloy you have to go through another melting process (extra cost in fuel), add the cost of the copper, and take steps to insure the resulting ingots are homogeneous at the proper alloy.&nbsp; If not done properly the silver and copper tend to segregate to some extent during the pouring and cooling process resulting in ingots with the fineness varying in different areas.&nbsp; If that happens the melt has to be done over.&nbsp; If the scrap from the rolling and blanking process isn&#039;t reprocessed by the&nbsp; firm producing the planchets but is instead sold back to the refiners, there is a loss because the price of scrap is lower than .999 silver scrap (because the refiner is going to have the expenses of re-refining the material.) So yes the production of .900 fine silver is more expensive.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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