Let me express my reply differently. The average weight of older Mercury dimes is less than that of newer Roosevelts, so the dealer pays less per coin when buying Mercury dimes. Then, when he resells the Mercs, the price realized is greater per coin than a Roosevelt. Does your dealer also sell 90% by weight, and if so, what is the multiplier? Or does the dealer sell based on face value?
I may have been confusing. I use coinflation all the time and It has .7234 ounces per $1.00 face. I noticed that online dealers and ones I interact with face to face use .715 as their multiplier. I asked a dealer about the difference and he said to compensate for wear on the coins. That was all I was pointing out. I was concerned if I bought a lot of dimes that the scenario you were talking about would come into play. Worn out Mercs vs uncirculated 64 Roosies. I would take the Roosie's any day. I don't know., are there dealers that bust out the scale when buying and selling junk silver?
I think it's good to diversify. Have junk silver, have pure coins, some with a little numi value, have pure bars, some big ones.
Thanks for clearing that up. To each his/her own but going strictly on value per piece I would go for the Mercury dimes. People use melt value but I doubt any 90% are being melted, as was the case during the late 1970s early 1980s. Of course I could be wrong on this.
With all due respect, aren't you all buying "junk" silver for the bullion content in the coins? I cannot for the life of me understand why some dealers would angst over .25 or .50 either way when the margins are so close.
If I buy and then sell, I'm not an end user. If you define "middleman" as someone who makes money both buying and selling, and "end user" as someone who loses money both buying and selling, then you're right -- but you've also made a completely circular argument.
Tennessee is a killer at 9.75% tax. They require shops and antique malls to collect the tax but seem to never check the flea markets. Also, they have never monitored the coin show we have once a year.