DO NOT BUY JUNK SILVER!

[harleyd70]

By nature junk is defined: Old or discarded articles that are considered useless or of little value. Junk silver commands a premium much higher than what you think. I weighed various silver dimes/quarters that I have and they are nearly 10% lighter than what they should be. So 10% of spot price is nearly $3 + the typical $.50 over "melt" (not really melt, since they assume the coins aren't worn at all) is more than the premium on moose and eagles! I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of going to coinflation.com to figure the "value" of junk silver. I say "value", because they too assume that the coin isn't worn at all. Id much rather own 1 troy oz gov rounds that match the spot price of silver; NO calculations needed and, they are way more eye appealing.

[Viper_99]

To a large extent I agree, but for me in boils down to taxes. Pure bullion is not taxed and if you buy anything under .999 you are paying 7% tax.

[EL34]

Quote:! I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of going to coinflation.com to figure the "value" of junk silver. I say "value", because they too assume that the coin isn't worn at all. Id much rather own 1 troy oz gov rounds that match the spot price of silver; NO calculations needed and, they are way more eye appealing.

Well, that's just your opinion, not some sort of universal truth.

All 7 billion people on the planet do not have the same opinion.

Is someone telling you you have to buy 90% silver coins?

If you don't want to buy 90% silver coins, don't do it, it's that simple.

[harbl_the_cat]

I think the best junk silver is FOUND junk silver

Seriously though, businesses in my town sell Canadian junk silver at or below spot price. American junk silver they sell for a premium and I wouldn't buy it personally. You're right though, especially with dimes, they tend to be worn and have slightly less silver content in them. Quarters, halves and dollars though are well worth it since they don't tend to be as heavily circulated - think about it - a silver Canadian dollar has the same purchasing power as $15 today, while a silver dime has the same purchasing power as $1.50. I'm sure that's just as true with American junk silver as well.

Canadian junk silver, especially in higher denominations, imo is the best deal around!

Case in point:

http://canadiangoldsilver.net/current-prices/
http://www.diverseequities.com/index.php?item=308

[EL34]

Yes coins that have been circulated are worn.
Some badly, some not at all.

For example:
I have purchased huge lots of junk US silver coins.
I would say that 10% are very worn
45% are somewhat worn
45% look almost new

The price of US junk silver takes into account that some of the silver has worn away.
The standard pricing is .715 ounces per $1 face

Brand new silver coins actually had more silver than .715 oz and so the wear and tear is figured into the pricing.

.715 is what everyone I have ever dealt with uses as the weight per $1 face.

With as much new looking silver coins as I have, I may have actually made out pretty good considering I did not pay more than .715.

There is a huge demand for junk silver for a very good reason
people still think of it as money.

You will not have any problems getting rid of junk silver in the future.

Having said all that, I do not limit my stacking to just one category of metals because no one can predict the future of how all these categories will move in price.

I buy 90% silver coins,
Silver and gold coins like Eagles, Maples, etc,
Bullion bars and
Gold and silver mining stocks.

A little bit of everything is how I like to do it.

[Mister Silvergoldman]

junk silver is an addiction of mine. my dealer usually lets me dig thru his buckets no matter if i spending $50 or $500.

[silversaver]

Junk silver is called junk because the coins lack the rare dates that coin collectors desire. Some junk silver does have heavy wear from circulation more common with old silver dimes. I sell the ugly ones back to my local dealer and keep the nicer looking coins. All of my junk silver is 90% silver.(U.S.A.) There is nothing junk about the coins. I love the history of the old coins. Twenty six percent of my total silver is in the form of junk silver.

[EL34]

These days they are calling it Constitutional Silver

Has a nice ring to it I think

[dragonfly5]

I'm trying to collect a bit of everything. I don't go out of my way to purchase junk but if I come across it at a good $ I'll pick some up. I think I'm done with Maples - recently taking a liking to Buffalo rounds - not such a premium on the coin and still nice looking.

[mongo9584]

This is my thinking if anyone is interested:

I believe junk silver is a good idea. I am always looking for it at a good price. When the shit does hit the fan, I will use it before my rounds and bars.


My two cents

[SilverChaser111]

(07-28-2012 10:32 AM)mongo9584 Wrote:  This is my thinking if anyone is interested:

I believe junk silver is a good idea. I am always looking for it at a good price. When the shit does hit the fan, I will use it before my rounds and bars.


My two cents

I totally agree. I am new to silver, but I have decided to collect semi-numismatic and straight bullion both, in about a 50/50 ratio. And for my straight bullion, I would like to make "constitutional silver" (let's drop the word junk, as it's not accurate at all) about 50% of my bullion stack. The reason... because when it does come time to start using my silver to buy/trade/barter with, the fractional sizes of silver dimes, quarters, and halves seem perfect, and much more practical to me than just having 1 oz. (or larger) bars or coins to work with. I mean, am I missing something here, but where else can you get fractionals for such a low cost... most ppl are getting their 90% silver coins at spot price.

A dime is less than 1/10th oz, a quarter less than 1/5th oz, and a half dollar is just over 1/3 oz... aren't these excellent sizes to be procurring at nearly spot with zero premium?? I will be happy to keep my shiny ASE's, and all my other coins and semi-numi's for larger purposes and rely on my "constitutional silver" for my everyday buying power for basic needs in any SHTF situation. Anyways, this is my plan and I feel quite confident in it.


If anyone sees any major flaws in this idea, please feel free to share. Like I said, I just started stacking about a month ago, and am always up for hearing people's ideas and plans. But like I said, from everything I've read, and all the prices I've seen for every type of silver product currently available, I think making constitutional silver a moderate (about 25%) portion of yor stack just seems like a no-brainer to me...

[EL34]

I agree.

I see dimes and quarters as being much more useful if you are talking day to day money exchanges.

I doubt someone would take a Gold Maple and make change in exchange for a loaf of home made bread.

[abreik]

I wouldn't count on any sort of PMs for regular day to day exchanges in an economic collapse. Read accounts of people that have gone through these periods. Sure, there are a few people who will take PMs in an emergency, but you aren't going to get any kind of good deal on the exchange rate. PMs let you hang on to your wealth on the other side of the collapse, not really during. Preps get you through the collapse and a little bit of PMs can help out on any preps you discover you've missed.

[EL34]

(07-30-2012 12:59 AM)abreik Wrote:  I wouldn't count on any sort of PMs for regular day to day exchanges in an economic collapse. Read accounts of people that have gone through these periods. Sure, there are a few people who will take PMs in an emergency, but you aren't going to get any kind of good deal on the exchange rate. PMs let you hang on to your wealth on the other side of the collapse, not really during. Preps get you through the collapse and a little bit of PMs can help out on any preps you discover you've missed.

One thing to keep in mind is that if silver was $100 an ounce, I would not care what the exchange rate was.
I am not thinking too much about total collapse, more about inflation or hyerinflation. Although, I don't discount a total breakdown of the whole system, I hope to never see that. (wishfull thinking)

I would suspect that you could always sell US silver back to pawn shops, coin shop or on Ebay to get some folding cash if you needed it.
(If Paypal still exist)

Several states are already on board with returning silver to real money status. Who can say how many states will be accepting silver in the future?
It's hard to draw out some some of future scenario

[Fulltiltvictim]

My take on the silver/barter scenario:

If the time comes where currencies are worthless, silver is not the material you want a metric shit-ton of.

Food, medicine, means of obtaining potable water, guns & ammo, etc. are.

If I have a can of Spam and you have no food, three hungry children and a wheelbarrow full of silver........would you trade? You bet your ass you would.
The silver dime for a loaf of bread idea only works if everyone wants to play. I believe a 30-06 round or two for a loaf of bread is a more valid scenario.

Silver/gold are usefull after the system resets, not when people are stealing puppies from each other to make soup.

If you believe that a Mad Max world is in your future, dump your stack now and use the cash to get set up to deal with that insanity.

Water, food, shelter, security, community and then silver is how I believe one should plan.

Just my opinion