Quick question: I have several 1 troy oz bars of silver many of which are from Sunshine Minting. I received the coins encased in a plastic. I would like to organize them so I was thinking of purchasing a Dansco Album to house these bars (45 bar capacity). If I were to cut the metal bars out of their plastic encasing, would that have any effect on their value?
If they have any significant premium over spot, yes, protect them. If they were purchased at spot or up to a few percent over, no.
I have two of those. They shouldn't but if you take them out of the encasing it will tarnish. I took mine out and seal them back together with a food saver machine and bag. The machine sucks any air out to prevent any toning or tarnishing and it automatically seals the bag for you. The same way I handle my silver flatware every year as I take them out during the holidays and put them away after the holidays for the last 20 years.
I did pay a bit of a premium - nothing outstanding. I have several old Engelhard bars that I purchased years back. I thought it would be nice to consolidate the bars into one album. The Sunshine bars have the security feature which reveals the word VALID when a plastic "decoder" is placed upon it. The decoder doesn't work when the bars are encased in plastic. So what is the point of the security feature if removing the bars out of the plastic lowers its value? In any case, is the increased premium due to its collectors value? I've seen many Engelhard "older bars" (1980's) selling on eBay for well over spot. Even on the websites of online dealers, older-year bullion is selling (in some cases) with an unusually elevated premium. I am not buying silver for collecting purposes.
I worked at a private mint, and I remember we had this beautifully toned 100 oz. Engelhard bar that was going to get melted. It was in the original box with the matching serial number on bar and box. I told them to wait till the end to see if I could find a buyer. I made some calls, but no one wanted, or could afford 100 oz. of silver right then. I shed a tear when I saw it go into the kiln.
Just yesterday, I dipped my old tarnished bars. I guess you could always dip the bars just prior to selling them.
I dipped them in a solution of dilute sulfuric acid and thiourea. These are the essential components of your typical coin dipping solution.
I placed the solution in a beaker, added the bars (one at a time), and swirled the solution about the bars for no more than 5 seconds.
I hesitate to use them on coins unless the coins have been severely oxidized. However, silver rounds and bars have no numismatic value, so it doesn't bother me.
