where to start with silver coins

[goldsilverpro]

At present market price, for unworn coins, one dollar face contains $9.93 worth of silver - .723 tr.oz @ $13.74/tr.oz. This will probably be reduced by 2% or 3%, due to wear. One thing about 90% junk silver, unlike sterling, is that there never is any reason to refine it. A reason is that it's easily identifiable as is. Everybody knows what it contains. The government made it and it's absolutely 90% silver. If one never has to go to the expense of refining it, it should be worth very close to silver value. US 90% junk silver coins are about the only form of impure silver that is worth very close to the silver value.

However, everyone has to make a buck. So, what is a fair price for a buyer to pay for your 12 pounds? That's about 220 dollars face. Quite a bit. A large buyer will sell the coins for a little over spot. An excellent price for a buyer to pay, today, would be about 9 X face. 8 X face is not good, but not terrible.

I just moved away from Houston 2 years ago. There are 100s of coin dealers. Call around.

People on Ebay seem to get very close to full silver value for 90% US coins.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey, finally something I can contribut to...

Here is another factoid on 90% US silver coins (dime, quarter, half, dollar).

When originally struck, one Lb (avoirdupois) equals $20 face value.

you can mix dimes, quarters, halves and dollars; they weigh $20 face value per pound.

This is even true for the clad coins, post 1964, but for dollars, only thru the Ikes.

If you sell mutilated coin back to the mint you separate as follows:
(of course they don't pay a premium for silver).

1¢

5¢

10¢, 25¢, 50¢ 1$ (Ikes)

SBA$'s, Sac, golden$

Link to pdf:

http://www.usmint.gov/downloads/faqs/mutilated.pdf

 

[goldsilverpro]

I just noticed that Kitco pays about 88% of actual silver value for 90% coins. Now, the spot is $12.89 and they're paying 8.2 X face, but they actually buy by weight and not by face.