What should be expected for the condition of bullion coins

I guess I can go into an establishment, say that I'm looking for spotted, cleaned, damaged rounds for the equivalent of US$19 a piece, come out with a receipt and there will still be the argument, that I paid a $1 in the parking meter and $3 in gas to get there and back. I guess for some people 10% below spot or melt simply can not exist. Funny, beacuse it's not even far fetched. Having those business expenses can be a great motivational factor. You guys make me laugh. Physical metal , pray to it and pretend it's something that it's not. I am certain, that to many it is just inventory and can easily be discounted. Holding it in such high regard and to such a strict selling price, especially when defective, spotted, cleaned, goes against common sense and business practices.

 

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Around here, (upper midwest), for the last 30 years or so here is the basic breakdown:

1. Average US junk silver you bought at melt, dealer offered you 10% less. Damaged junk could be bought -10%, dealer would pay you less.
2. Average world junk sold maybe 10% back of US junk, mainly because of variability in purity.
3. .999 government you bought at premium, (about $3), dealer offered melt or maybe $.50 over
4. Damaged .999 government bought at melt
5. Rounds you bought at melt, dealer offered you 10% back.

That really is "the game" here for a long time. I just bought some a month ago, and got a ASE gold plated at melt, and paid melt for a bunch of WL and Franklins. So it appears its still the same, or close to it. If someone wants better than this, (like 10% back on damaged ASE's), they are competing against other buyers who will pay full melt. Short of luck in that regard, you need to be a pseudo dealer, buying from the public. With the large numbers of fakes, someone better know what they are doing to play that game.

Hope this helps.

 

If you sell for 10% under, you are leaving money on the table. I know plenty of stackers/horders that will always be willing to buy at spot, no matter how ugly.

 

About 2 years ago I remember buying a roll of 20 ASEs from Provident. When I received the roll, there were very bad milk spot type "stains" across the front of the coins (nearly all 20 had same pattern of markings). But since it was bullion, I just shrugged my shoulders and put it in the safe.

I will take and post some pics when I get a chance if anyone is interested.

 

Welcome to the forum Max. When you bought the BU Morgans and found that they were 'bagged', 'scarred', that's because a lot of those coins were stored in burlap (cotton?) bags. American Silver Eagles are stored in plastic tubes by our friends at the mint. They'll be basically 'scar' free.

 

And I can add that I have purchased bullion silver and gold from the mint and several of the online retailers and all of these coins have been pristine.

 

Most modern "bullion" coins grade 69 or 70. Do yourself a favor and cherry pick the higher grades. Down the road, when they have been accepted as collectables, you won't be sorry.

 

I could never sell to someone who advertises while flashing wads of currency(?) around. He's got to be a ripoff to pay for his commercials, rent and his "creative writers". Why go to some obnoxious hack when there are people of good repute all over the country that won't make you feel soiled after a monetary transaction for your Silver or Gold.

 

Do you think that a coin with 30-40 million a year mintage is going to be a collectable?

If you can get the early silver eagles with mintages under 10 million it might be worth your time to cherry pick the nice coins. But I have a hard time seeing the recent year coins with astronomical mintages selling for more than the usual $2-$3 premium.

 

IMO the only time I've experienced milk spot coin was in bulk, i.e. tubes ect.,those go at spot plus say 10%
earlier when I bought in sheets, never a problem, and the look better also.
older "sheets" I've seen as high as 20%+.

 

Are you aware of the mintages of rare U.S. coins? Look at Morgan Dollars... millions and they sell for double what their melt is all day.

Another thing, just because 10M were minted today, doesn't mean 10M will exist in 50 years. Out of the 10M minted today, 3M were produced from the scrap of some of yesterday's 10M.

I say that not to say that they will or will not be collectable. Collectibles are very risky assets as you never know what will stay collectable or what will become a collectible.

 

Very little silver eagles are melted. There is no reason to melt them, and I don't foresee a reason in the future.

The reasons morgans did so well is because they weren't collected that much and were meant for circulation. Silver eagles are already being collected, making it unlikely they will be a collector item in the future. (Usually its the items no on suspects that do well)

 

I disagree, The 08 crash followed by the $40-$50 rush caused upward of perhaps 2 million or more ASE to be melt. total Morgan production was 570,272,610 of which 270,323,722 were melt in the 1918 Pittman act. 42-43 another 52,738,933 were melt for war time use, it's thought that there could be only one third or slightly more of Morgan's and Peace dollars left, I can only fear that the same happens to ASE, Etc.

 

2 million of 400 million ASE is not exactly that much and I question whether even 2 million were melted considering even beat up ASE's can still be easily sold for spot or a little over. (i.e. no reason to melt them, because you will get below spot from a refiner!)

 

I'm not sure that your assertion is true. I wonder how many of those 30-40 million will be purchased by speculators hoping that there will be a premium in a few years by later collectors? How many will end up as melt when folk come through hard times and have to sell quickly thinking bullion always holds it's value?

Collecting bullion is now a worldwide hobby and those 30-40 million look big numbers, but there are an awful lot of collectors in the world. That's what will keep demand and prices higher.