90% U.S. SILVER Coin Valuations

Questions arise all the time on how do you BUY and SELL old U.S. pre 1965 Silver Dimes, Quarters and Half Dollars. What determines the price values.

Typically, 90% "JUNK" United States Silver Coins are quoted most often by $1,000.00 FV (face value)bags. They could be 10,000 dimes (years 1964 or earlier), 4,000 quarters (years 1964 or earlier), or 2,000 half dollars (years 1964 or earlier). They might contain a mixture of the different nominal size denominations or maybe they are all Mercury Dimes, Kennedy Half Dollars, Franklin Half Dollars, etc. Many dealers will sell half bags ($500.00 FV), quarter bags ($250.00 FV), $100.00 FV, $10.00 FV rolls and even $5.00 FV rolls. Normally, the smaller purchases will have a slight selling premium over the $1000.00 FV bag.

Some advantages to Investing in 90% U.S. Silver Coins are the smaller face values of a dime, quarter, or half dollar can make it easier to barter if you need to make small transactions (you aren't going to cut a 1oz Gold coin into small pieces to purchase a small valued item, such as food, water or even gasoline). They are easy to identify in the United States with their stated value stamped on them. Some may have an additional numismatic premium value due to low mintage, uncirculated condition, or a key date or mint mark (get a 2011 RED BOOK if you want to check out the mintages and grades).

It's all in the WEIGHT. When the coins were first minted a $1,000.00 FV of 90% would have a Silver weight of 723.384 TROY ounces (60.282lbs Troy) of pure .999 Silver, plus a bonus 10% of Copper weight 80.376 TROY ounces (6.698lbs Troy) of pure .999 Copper for a Total TROY weight of 803.76oz (66.98lbs) Troy weight (remember 12oz Troy equals 1lb Troy). However, Copper being a base metal and not a precious metal (Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium) is traded and weighed in Avoirdupois (AV or AVDP)16oz equals 1lb AV. So, if you wanted to know the weight of $1,000.00 FV U.S. 90% Silver Coins in Avoirdupois weight, it would have 789.21oz AV (49.3256lbs AV) of Silver and 10% Copper of 87.69oz AV (5.4806lbs AV) for a Total weight of 876.90oz AV (54.806lbs AV).

Now that we have the weight numbers down we have to address the problem of circulated "JUNK" 90% U.S. Silver Coins, most dealers use a "MELT" value of 715 oz Troy when valuing a bag of $1,000.00 coins. These bags should have a mixture of well worn, medium worn and slightly worn to bring about this 715 oz consensus.

To find the "MELT" price of the bag or fraction of a bag you simply find out what current "SPOT" price of Silver is for that time (Kitco.com or LME.com) and multiply by the Face Amount of 90% U.S. Silver Coins that you have.
Examples: $10.00 FV (7.15oz) Troy times spot SILVER price of $19.00 equals a price of $135.85 Melt value. Say it's a $500.00 HALF BAG (357.5oz) Troy times $19.00 equals a price of $6,792.50 Melt Value and so on.

Remember the 10% Copper is a BONUS, but again to give you an idea of the value of the Copper using the same examples from above you have $10.00 FV or .8769oz AV times spot COPPER price of 3.40lb AV (.2125oz AV) equals .19 value for the Copper. At $500.00 FV or 2.7403lb AV times 3.40lb AV equals $9.317 value for the Copper (on a $1000.00 FV bag it would have $18.634 value for the Copper). I know it's not much, but as in a previous blog, COPPER (the RED Metal) may be the Sleeper Metal that could percentage wise move alot higher in price, so any bonus value is good.

Now to the reality of Selling your 90% U.S. Silver coins, at the present time dealers are paying back of Melt prices, so using the above example of $500.00 FV he or she may offer to buy at 13 times face or $6,500.00 or $292.50 below the melt value. This is known as a "SPREAD" because the dealer is in business and may sell this $500.00 at spot or a small premium because he has cost of being in business and runs the risk of holding the inventory which could go up in value or perhaps down that is the risk he is willing to take. There could be a point in time where the dealer may offer spot or higher to fill his inventory needs, it's has to do with market Supply and Demand. Likewise, when buying from a dealer he may have a premium over melt on what he is selling. For the most part the larger the sell the lower the premium will be because of the volume.

I hope this is informative on the dealings of buying and selling 90% U.S. Silver Coins. As usual do your on research, check the spot prices when you're ready to buy or sell, because education and knowledge are the key to getting a fair deal.