Pawn shop purchase

So I stopped by the pawn shop recently. i like to stop at this guy's shop because his prices are very reasonable,he knows what he has and doesn't try to tell me beat up peace dollars are rare coins and his buy prices are great as well. Anyway the other day I got 2 1966 and 1 1967 SMS for $11. I was wondering if this is the going rate or if I got a good deal. I haven't seen them that low online,but figured that might be real world value. Either way I'm more than happy with the purchase. Don't know how it is elsewhere but at EVERY other pawn shop in town they try to sell beat up common Franklins for ten bucks and act like they are giving the deal of the century. Any one else have any thoughts on this

 

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I assume the SMS coins are Kennedy half dollars. If so, they are 40% silver and contain .1479 ozs. each. Offhand, I don't know the current melt value for silver.

Chris

 

$2.51 in silver.

 

Each one..........right?

Chris

 

Yes. I should have said that.

 

Sorry I should have been more clear. I got the entire sets...which did include 3 40% halves.

 

You got a great deal.

 

Is that $11 for all 3, or $11 each?

 

$11 for all three sets

 

I tried to sell several 40% silver Kennedy halves to local dealers, but no one wanted to pay for their actual silver content (0.1479 oz). I was told that the cost of processing and refining the silver in 40% Kennedy halves lowered their value. Is this true?

 

Oh well, $11 you did great. Maybe he was cleaning out some inventory he couldn't move, and you both got a good deal.

My gold/silver guy doesn't even send his 90% to the smelter. He buys at slightly less than spot, and sells for slightly over spot. I was able to cherry pick some nice halves from him at $7 each. 1919-S VG walker, an MS Franklin, a Booker T commem.

 

I have heard the same thing, E. I would be interested to know more about that from someone who has knowledge of that subject. The local pawn shop I was referencing pays lower than melt for 40% and sells slightly above. I still will take every one I can get for face.

 

That's great that you are able to cherry pick like that...the guy I'm talking about is somewhat knowledgeable about coins so he picks out any really good stuff that comes in. He did slip up and sell a CC Morgan as Junk(not to me), but normally he pulls out anything of significance.

 

Keep in mind that some dealers don't want to mess with the 40% Kennedy halves because they are harder for them to move out of their inventory.

Chris

 

Imo it really depends on what the individual coins look like as there are some real dog SMS sets. If you managed to get a cam/dcam coin than you did very well. There's also a couple varieties in those sets that could boost the value to look for.

 

This is a little off topic, however I must say that I can't really complain about my 40% Kennedy halves. A few years back, I went to my local bank. When the teller opened her drawer, I noticed a few Kennedy half dollars that did not have a copper band along the edges. So, I asked the teller if she had any more of those half dollars. She said "Yes - an old man just cashed in several rolls. How many do you want?" I said "all of them!" So I got all 32 rolls plus the few that were in the teller's drawer. As soon as I jumped in my car, I immediately opened the rolls. Sure enough, they were all 40% silver Kennedy halves (no 1964 halves unfortunately).

The thing that strikes me most about my fortunate find is that some tellers have no idea of what treasures lie in their drawers - not only coins, but silver certificates as well. Maybe I should work as a bank teller.

 

I'm jealous!

 

Yes it is true.

If you melt down 900 fine silver you only have to remove the 10% copper or you can add a little more silver to get sterling silver with is marketable. But for 40% silver you have to remove 60% copper which takes longer and is more costly. Suffice it to say it costs a lot more to turn 40% silver into 999 fine bars than it does to turn 90% silver into 999 fine bars or .925 bars that can be sold to the jewelry trade.

 

But wouldn't the smelter be mixing in some 40% coins with mostly 90% coins and the cost factor wouldn't be as great as if they were just melting only 40% coins.
The smelter also gets the value of the copper. That's not a fortune, but it's something.
For example, let's say he is melting a ton of silver. With the 40% factored in, let's just say the silver is 85% pure. He is also getting 300 pounds of copper at $3 a pound for $900. (I saw a quote recently at $2.99)
It's really not going to cost him much more, or be that much harder to extract the copper from an 85% load as a 90% load.

 

I thought there would be an advantage to owning 40% silver Kennedy half dollars.

If the price of silver were to fall to $3.38 per oz, a 40% silver half dollar would be worth 50 cents for its silver content. If the price of silver fell below $3.38 per oz, let’s say $2.50 per oz, a 40% silver half dollar would be worth $0.37 for its silver content. However, the value of a 40% silver half dollar will never fall below 50 cents as it would still be considered US currency.

For a 90% silver half dollar, silver would have to fall to $1.38 per oz for it to be worth 50 cents. The only problem with this line of thinking is that I do not foresee silver falling to or below $3.38 per oz. But I do remember buying silver at $4.86 per oz back when I was in high school decades ago.