Should I convert my junk silver into ASE or other bullion?

I'd say that could be a disadvantage also. Think about when you go to sell 5 or so rolls of dimes and have to count hundreds of pieces.

 

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Keep the 90% and the war nickels. Sell the 40%, as it takes up space. I would rather have 90% than ASE's.

 

Why keep the war nickels? They are a very impure source of silver.

 

I agree, get rid of the nickels first. I like the 40% halves to be honest, and if you had to choose between the two I'd go with those. With the 40% you can get much closer to melt depending on where you go (I am able to get spot), but the nickels take so much more to refine you will be lucky to end up with 80% of spot at most places.

 

To add to your confusion, there are experts on this forum that in other threads have answered that Peace and Morgan common date silver dollars are worth melt, which at this moment is $22.14 per dollar. Yet Providence Metals will pay you $ 27.76 for an avg. circulated Peace and $28.20 for a Good common date Morgan. As of this post, you can buy a common date Good Morgan from them for $34.05, a 2013 uncirculated ASE for $32.03. I am a rookie and don't know why the Morgans and Peace dollars sell for a premium, but they seem to be worth more to someone than silver bullion alone.

 

War nickels are going for from $3 to $4 bucks a piece. If you can sell them for that, then I agree, but they were only made during the war and they will have have numismatic value. I think they are the ideal investment because you buy them near their melt value and they get a bounce.

 

There's simply a "Morgan/Peace Premium" for them. For some reason, be it the collect-ability, history, or whatever, they will usually go for a few bucks over melt even for the well-worn ones. Technically they are really only worth melt for a lot of the worn common dates, but the coins carry a premium regardless. They are also quite counterfeited (as well as ASE's, Maple Leafs and others), so just be careful if you go that route. 90% can be got for melt, and sold at melt regularly, and is much less of a problem for smaller exchanges as well as counterfeiting (although they're not immune).

 

Depends... real nice ones will have the numismatic value and do well. However, most of it is common junk and while it can sell for as much as $3-4 apiece on the 'bay especially in singles, most larger lots recently were going for an average of $1.50 - $1.75 (silver @32). I'd be willing to say the war nickels are the most risky bet - you can find places to sell them for more, but it's not as regular as a return on the others.

 

Howdy,

Get yourself some acetone and rinse them all and re-roll them. Dont' scrub them or anything - just rinse and let dry and re-roll in new paper. I agree with the others to dump the 40% and keep the 90% and just start buying ASEs. None of this stuff is in such quantity as to require serious space for storage. You can put the 90% stuff in plastic tubes and the same of dollars or eagles going forward. A few tubes shouldn't require that much space.

Premiums? As mentioned, you'll get around spot for what you sell and buy at spot + premium and for ASE's you're probably looking at 10%. feh. Consider yourself lucky that the vigorish isn't more.

As for storage, a tube of 20 ASE's is worth about $650-700 right now and stands about 3" tall and is the size of a square silver dollar. If you want to get cute, you could buy a 100 oz. ingot (brand name like Engelhard or JohnsonMatthey), paint it black and use it as a door stop. Now a tube of AGE's is the size of a quarter and only 2" tall and could easily be hidden in the oatmeal box. It's worth ~$35K or so.

good luck,

peace,

rono

 

Personally I would keep the half dollars and quarters that are in high grade or at least AU50. The term junk silver is one that is very subjective so I suggest you take your time and look through those coins very carefully. Keep the half dollars that you determine is a grade you don't want to get rid of like AU50. Do the same thing with your silver quarters.

The rest of the coins, trade for ASE's. I just went through the same thing with my collection and I'm still not done. I learned a long time ago to take my time when it comes to coins. The reason I take my time is because I don't like making mistakes or having sellers remorse and I've kicked myself in the bum many times when hurried. :thumb:

 

DONT SELL IT TO COIN DEALERS!! they pay below melt.

 

I would try to market them at retail, if possible. Talk to others who might want to buy some of your 40% halves. They may get a deal, but so will you if you compare what you'll get at a coin shop.

 

And.. what if they are paying spot value for the coins? Generalizations aren't healthy. Sure they may pay below melt but some might just not.. Depends on the shop.
The place I'm considering, I give them a bit of business so they might be willing to pay some more for me.

 

Fair point, but I have never heard of anyplace paying spot for these. They get way less than spot from refiners.

Personally, I would go to a coin show and find the dealers specializing in junk silver. Offer to trade him for equivalent value. Hopefully they have customers for both, so would be willing to do so with just a small markup. A dealer buying 40% from you needs a certain amount of profit. He also needs a certain amount of profit selling to you. Combine the two transactions and he might have more room and you may not have to pay two profit margins, just one.

 

When I have sold bullion, or common date coins, such as ASEs, I have waited until a few dealers that I know are low on stock--then, they tend to pay market value for those coins--I certainly did that with investment gold, and since i don't own any other non-MS or proof silver, it is a different story for me. Both strategies seem to work very nicely--that is the beauty of the hobby--different avenues to the same result.

 

I've noticed some coin dealers vary their buy/sell spread and points based on what they are trying to do. If they're low on silver, they're more willing to pay close to spot and sell above spot. If they have all the silver they want, they pay less than spot and are more willing to sell near spot.

But virtually all dealers will pay less than spot for 35-40% silver, unless they have a buyer lined up that is paying above spot for them, so you never know...

 

When it comes to 40%, it has always been worth my effort to mail them to Apmex when I have a lot of them. Local dealers offer significantly less money - at least around here. Even when I have to pay 25 bucks to ship it to Apmex - I've made more money.

 

You might want to consider putting your coins up for sale here. Might be surprised what you might get. I like Franklins a lot! :yes:

 

I have only one frank, and four other 90% halves. Don't think I would want to sell them unless I happen to find 20 or so 90%ers while CRHing

 

I ran by my favorite local shop today. He usually has a small pail of 90% on hand. Today he only had $5 in halves. He didn't have any bullion grade ASEs either. If silver drops any more it's going to be a pain finding the stuff locally.