OK.. So I'm curious about something. I've been buying silver half dollars and silver quarters for quite some time for silver bullion. I came across a good deal on a Peace dollar a few weeks ago and bought it. After I cleaned it (yeah, I hear the tomatoes being thrown) it is a very beautiful coin. So I thought maybe I'll start buying some of these every payday instead of the half dollars. But then when I went to buy more I discovered that the price is not consistent with the silver value. At the coin shop I was at today, for example, they were selling 90% silver half dollars for $9 a piece and yet they wanted $28 for a Peace Dollar or Morgan Dollar. These were just loose, circulated coins, nothing collectable about them. I asked why they were so much more and the only answer I got was "that is the current silver value of the coins." But that makes no sense to me because they should only be worth twice what a half-dollar was, meaning I should be able to buy a Peace Dollar for $18. I discovered the same disparity when looking to buy them online. Can anyone explain why a Peace Dollar costs 3x what a half-dollar would cost, when it only has 2x the silver content?
The numismatic value is greater than the precious metal value, for example you lost most, if not all of the numismatic value on the coin you cleaned.
Off the top of my head, a Peace (Morgan) is 3/4 an ounce of silver? Current melt price being $16.92. Way over a ten dollar premium. Refuse to buy.......Tell 'em to stick it......Then again, you have to factor in the collectability pattern. We's talkin' 'junk' here?
Most people prefer Silver Dollars to the smaller denominations, and are willing to pay more for them. Dealers must pay a greater premium to get them (dealer bid is roughly 125% of content on Silver Dollars versus 102% of content on minor silver coins), and therefore so must their customers.
The price of $28 each is a little too high, in my opinion, for generic circulated coins when their silver bullion value is more or less $17 at the moment. However, one thing you are apparently not aware of is that silver dollars have more than twice the silver content in them when compared to 90% silver half dollars. Silver dollars are 90% silver and weigh about 26.73g whereas a pair of silver half dollars would also be 90% silver, but would weigh only about 25g combined. This is about 5% more silver in a silver dollar when compared to a pair of 90% silver half dollars. It does not justify an aggressive premium, in my opinion, but it is something to keep in mind.
Go on ebay and watch sales. People overpay for hurt morgans and peace dollars. Some people on here thought I overpaid when I bought a cleaned scratched morgan for $19. I could have bartered better, that's on me, but it still isn't a loss. I showed an example of a common date, cull, holed morgan that STILL sold for $24. Something about large silver dollars, people will spend more to get them. People just love them. And because they cost more to buy and sell, you just aren't going to find them cheap through anyone who knows anything about the market. As for a reason "why"? Why do people pay more for anything? Supply and demand. It's getting close to a century that they made circulating silver dollars. Everything else is about half that at this point in time. So fewer around (though common in mintage figures per coin, over 30 years less of minting totals) plus an appeal of being old and big. Even in bullion, 2 1oz coins are cheaper than 1 2oz coin. And 5 oz coins? That price starts to JUMP!
