Silver Coin Buying DYOR
With the economy taking a nose dive a lot of us are looking to stop the bleeding of our $$. Aside from crypto, silver & gold are always safe havens that come to mind. I'm not rich so it's easier for me to look at silver as something to buy rather than gold.
So I am looking around at Etsy & Ebay today to see what people are selling, hoping to find some good deals. Around $31.50 an oz. in silver coins seems to be the best rate I can find. For example this listing, 1 Tory oz, 31.1g, $1.25 face value: https://www.etsy.com/listing/853369615/junk-silver-coins-1-troy-ounce-311-grams?click_key=82a44392454b4581da2bb45eda84308faffd31b7%3A853369615&click_sum=dbc85e3d&ref=related-6&variation0=1920301435
So I scrolled though the various combinations and then realized something from my silver coin collecting days. A $0.50 half dollar, contains 0.36169 approximate silver weight. So if I were to select 2 half dollars and say 1 silver quarter to get to the advertised $1.25 face value I would come up with the following:
Half dollars - 0.36169 x 2 = 0.72338
Silver Quarter - 0.1808
Total silver weight = 0.72338 + 0.1808 = 0.90418 oz of silver. Not 1 Troy oz. What about some other combinations?
Silver quarter - 0.1808 x 5 = 0.904
Silver dime - 0.0723 x 10 = 0.723 + 0.1808 = 0.9038
I used this chart to track the silver content of each coin:
https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide/coin-melt-values.aspx?MeltCategoryID=2&BaseMetal=US-Silver-Coin
To be a little bit fair, in the description they say it's 1 Troy oz. coin weight, not silver. It's a bit deceptive. If I were doing the listing I would put 0.904 troy oz. silver in both the title & description.
Ok, well let's see what kind of a deal it would be to buy from their listing.
As I write this on 5/19/2022 the spot price of 1 troy oz of silver is $21.93. Here is a breakdown of costs for the specific listing.
The listing would give me 0.904 troy oz of silver totaling $19.82.
The total cost of the listing is 31.49 + shipping $3.99 + tax(7.75) $2.75 = $38.23.
It would cost me close to twice as much of the spot price of silver. So I paused and though maybe I should just check a big silver site, enter JM Bullion.
Nice, 1 troy oz for $29.44!
Shit, tax & shipping put it about the same Etsy listing, considering I would get 0.10 oz more of silver. What to do? I guess I'll just procrastinate until I can find a real deal where I only pay a few % above spot, perhaps at a coin shop that will cost me $10 in gas to drive to....
Conclusion, read very carefully what you are buying. Use my chart linked above if you are buying coins and want to know the silver content for each. Realize you probably aren't getting an ounce for less than $38 unless you buy large amounts.
On the bright side, I have been buying galena for next to nothing!
Very cool breakdown. I’m a silver big myself
It sucks you can't easily get it cheaper other than buying in quantity. I'm hoping some silverbug tells us about his secret buying spot. Honestly I'm now thinking of buying several ounces at a nearby coinshop because they should only be about $5 above spot. I have a decent stash of Morgans, Walkers & Barbers at my home in Japan.
etsy does not strike me as the place to be looking for silver coins. if i ever did i would only be looking for pre 1965 coins never any silver rounds without a denomination. selling fake silver rounds or whatever is fraud but selling counterfeit money is a far more serious crime.
Ya, I strictly look for old coins, not actual silver rounds. I have seen some crap coming out of Hong Kong that bothers me though, questionable hobo nickels, so fake silver coins could be circulating. I'm fairly confident I could tell a fake pre-1964 silver coin though.