How low will it go?

[jim4silver]

Thats a scary article. I better stop by the LCS (its more of a pawn shop with one of the vendors doing some coins in addition to his other stuff) today and see what he has. Last time he had a pretty decent spread 100+ eagles, 100+ peace dollars, bunch of 90%, bunch of Libertad 1 oz and he had some interesting mexican coins from the olympics in 1968 that are .720 fine...wonder what he wants for those....guess I'll find out!

Bigheed,

I would stay away from the old Mexican (or from anyplace) silver that is less than .999. I learned the hard way early in my silver bull life that when you buy said coins, you will get screwed when you sell (unless you sell to another unaware private buyer).

The reason to avoid them is that wholesalers and most coin dealers treat these like sterling silver (meaning you get nowhere near spot) when they buy them from you because they are not .999 and will most likely get melted. Now, they will sell them to you a bit cheaper than generic .999 so think you are getting a good deal. Even Canadian 80% is a poor choice unless you get it way way way below spot when you buy, which would make the Mexican .72 and .5 coins, etc. a good bet too only if you can get it super cheap.

When I bought my old Mexican and Canadian silver dollars that were AU/BU I got them for around spot or maybe a little below on the lower purity Mexican coins. I needed to raise some cash at a later time and decided to sell them, the spread on these coins was terrible. Since the price of silver had gone up a bit I wound up not losing money. But had I bought any .999 instead (even the dreaded Merry Christmas bars) I would have done much better.

The only reason US 90% goes for anywhere near spot like it does now, is due to the relative high demand for it as investment bullion. If 90% was all melted like sterling is, you would get nowhere near spot when you sell the 90%. Foreign junk silver (with the exception of some Canadian 80%) is not as liquid in the retail market as Eagles, US junk silver and other decent .999.

The spreads are what you really need to watch no matter what silver you buy if you are wanting bullion.

PS I would get the Libertads if I were you. They are my favorite silver bullion coin (the old .999 and the new .999). I avoid the .925 purity (one ounce of pure silver per coin) onzas. They stopped making them when the started making the libertads in 1982. The onzas are neat looking big coins, but they are treated like junk sterling when you sell around here.

Just my 2 cents.

Jim

 

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[TheMcs]

Why do you say dreaded Christmas bars? We have a couple 1 oz Christmas rounds. Anything wrong with those?

 

[jim4silver]

Why do you say dreaded Christmas bars? We have a couple 1 oz Christmas rounds. Anything wrong with those?

Nothing wrong with them at all as being part of a balanced silver portfolio (whatever that is). Most coin dealers become snobby if you try to sell them such bars though and will give you less than if you sold them regular generic .999. But the spreads on .999 holiday bars can make them a best buy sometimes. I have some of them in my stash and I would rather get them than US junk for the most part. There have been times here where the premiums per ounce have been less on the holiday bars than on US junk coins. I would take the .999 bars any day.

My only suggestion is if you buy the holiday bars, get ones with reliable refiner hallmarks on them. Those are the kinds I get. Most of them that I have seen like that are dated from the 70s thru the 90s. Like Happy Mother's Day 1983, etc, and on the back or front a hallmark like National, Madison Mint, etc.

I would not let these types of bars make up more than 10-15% of your silver stash though.

Just my opinion.


Jim

 

[Bigheed]

Thanks for the good advice as always Jim, I will stick to the triple 9 when upgrading and buying!

HH
Bigheed