I have been looking through coin magazines and thinking about starting a collection of nothing but silver coins. Starting with .25 and working my way up to dollars. My concern is if I should buy them already graded or buy them not graded. The reason being if you buy them graded you have probably nothing to worry about but if you buy from a coin shop and they are not professionally graded (only by the coin company)when you get ready to sell the coin it is usually better to have it graded buy PCGS ect. If not it is your grading system against the person that is buying. I hope I didn't confuse anyone but suggestions are appreciated. THANKS
Well, If you're just starting out, I would say you should just go graded....I can recall a few times when I bought an "MS-60" Morgan Dollar or other type of coin from the coin shop when I was young and naive, only to find out later that it had been cleaned....Buying in slabs from repsected grading companies would eliminate this risk. However, while PCGS slabs might have a greater resell price, I personally think that NGC slabs are much nicer. -Paul
I don't know the answer to your question, but I approve of your admiration for silver. There is just nothing like a precious metal in coinage. When I first started collecting, 1n 1964, all U.S. dimes, quarters, half dollars and dollars were 90 percent silver. The clad coins that started in 1965 have just never had the allure of the old silver pieces (although I am enjoying the State Quarters). So be proud of your new hobby--but don't neglect the Mercury dimes.--gunsmoke
It all depends on what you're collecting. If you are buying rare coins its great tohave them graded but for commons it is not really needed
If you are still at the stage where you are still considering what to collect, I would suggest that your first purchase of a coin should be a one ounce silver eagle from a coin shop. It's a fantastic looking coin, large and heavy, and a mint state example can be purchased at a small premium to the bullion content. You don't need to buy a slabbed coin. It is easy to resell as a raw coin regardless of condition [within reason]. You may like it enough to collect all of them by date. This will give you a low risk way to collect what many people think is the best looking silver coin while you learn more about what you like, what to collect, what to pay, and where to find it. I'm afraid that if you jump into collecting a little bit of everything that is silver with some plastic around it, you'll make some mistakes and end up unhappy with the collection. It's hard to make mistakes with silver eagles.
If I were you I would go back and start at the Silver Dime---if you just do the $.25 and $.50 and $1 its not going to be take that long to complete---you can add in there the $.05 and the $.10 and the $.20 if you feel like it and it won't cost you alot more $. Speedy
It is fun colleccting silver. Are you trying to build some type of type set? What are your plans? If you don't mind me asking. Nothing like the look of a nice old silver coin. Phoenix