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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Market Harmony, post: 685532, member: 20154&quot;]<b>sterling silver discount</b></p><p><br /></p><p>The reason for a discount to spot price for the silver contained in Sterling, and silver coins is due to several reasons:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>1) Even though it is marked &quot;925&quot; or &quot;ster&quot; or &quot;sterling&quot; it doesn&#039;t not authenticate the purity.&nbsp; There are exceptions to this.&nbsp; Well known mints, jewelers, and silversmiths need to maintain a reputation, so that their products have a solid value.&nbsp; In these instances, buying Gorham silverware, Franklin Mint products, or the like, should carry a premium to buying a product simply marked &quot;sterling&quot; or &quot;925&quot; without a name associated with it.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>2) continuing in this line of reasoning, the genericly marked products could very well NOT be sterling.&nbsp; I have evidence of this with a necklace that was only marked, &quot;925&quot; on it.&nbsp; It is actually a copper necklace with silver coating.&nbsp; I dipped it in acid to remove the coating and can post pictures of it if anyone is curious.&nbsp; So, there is also a risk involved in buying these products which needs to be accounted for in the price paid for them.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>3) Unless it is a usable piece, the sterling silver is simply junk metal.&nbsp; And in order for it to be fully tradeable, it must either be a usable product, or refined to industry standards.&nbsp; In order to do this, value added processes must be performed, and these costs are built into the &quot;sterling buy price.&quot;&nbsp; For example, you buy 10.81 troy ounces of sterling scrap and pay $160 for it.&nbsp; It then will need to be processed and refined to .999 fine silver.&nbsp; This may cost you 10% of the actual silver content value, plus a $25 assay fee.&nbsp; Your total cost for this would be $41, and you would end up with an assayed 10 troy ounce piece of .999 fine silver, worth spot silver (today that is $163.00)&nbsp; However, you have costs of $41, so your net asset value is only $122.&nbsp; i.e., you lost $38 on the deal.&nbsp; But if you bought that scrap sterling for $120, then you gained $2 on the deal.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>4) coins are easily recognizable and records show that there has never been an instance of the Philadelphia mint producing a 90% coin out of purity tolerance.&nbsp; So, the purity of a US coin is virtually guaranteed.&nbsp; This makes coins fully tradeable on their weight.&nbsp; Incidentally, &quot;coin silver&quot; does not only mean silver from or in coins.&nbsp; &quot;Coin Silver&quot; is generally used to describe the alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper, and can be used to describe silverware of any type.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Because of these factors and differences, coins will always retain a higher trade value.&nbsp; But in an environment where refining costs are not involved, sterling silver of the same weight is obviously worth more when it comes to melt value.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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