Buying "Junk" Silver Near Spot Regularly For Investment

My dad passed away about a year ago, and I recently found his collection. It contained a good bit of junk silver. Since then, I've doubled it, with roll hunting and buying coins around spot. I even took some of my finds and traded them in for some gold, right before it shot up. Every once in a while, I'll find an AU or BU, and I put it in my book. I have mostly quarters, but also halves, dimes, and even a few Morgans and Peace dollars. I even splurged and got a couple ASEs just for the heck of it.

First decide if you are going to buy bullion or collect coins. Unless you are buying graded/slabbed pre - 1965 coins don't expect to get a premium for them when you sell. So if you pay more you will likely lose when you sell.

Selling "junk silver" in a hurry will almost always means you will get 10% to 20% below spot price. This means you are selling to a dealer or one of the large bullion companies that will take the coins today and give you a check. If you have time then you can search and sell closer to spot with private individuals.

It doesn't matter which denomination you buy, some people like dimes because in a worse case disruption of the currency they feel these are easier to bargain with. Personally when it comes to "junk silver" I buy what ever I can get a good deal on to get more silver for the dollar.

ASE's can be bought at spot or very close to spot usually through private individuals looks to sell. I buy most of mine at spot. Buying from a dealer or large bullion company expect to pay a premium up to $4.00.

If your speculating in silver then you will dollar cost average. I logged each of my purchases and include all cost associated with buying the silver. That way I can keep track if I am ahead or behind the game.

There are many ways to speculate in silver and neither is wrong. You have a host of coins from various mints such as the ASE, Maple, Panda, Junk Silver, rounds, bars etc.

Try not to get attached to bullion silver for speculation it makes it hard to sell.

Another way to speculate is buying higher graded slabbed coins. This has both a silver and numismatic value. Both can go up and down though. Then if you don't have to have physical silver there are EFT's.

Good Luck.

BW... collecting bullion is a nice hobby and one that has some practical aspects as well. I do that and have a few tubes of 1/2 dollars, Morgans, ASEs, and a roll of Roosevelt dimes as well. 90% US silver coins are pretty reasonable in price if they are just valued for their bullion.

Silver bars are also a good way to go. They are reasonably priced per oz. of silver weight and are easy to buy and sell. I prefer the ones that are plastic wrapped to protect them. The SilverTowne bars are attractive and widely recognized for their value.

I actually started to do something very similar to this plan about two years back. I quickly became hooked with collecting bullion coins and have since then moved almost all of my collection over to them. If you look in the right places alot of the bullion Australian and Chinese pieces you can pick up for spot plus a dollar two and turn them with heafty premiums.
Also if you look at auctions in your area (not sure where you are at but where I am there is alot) you can almost always pick junk silver at or below spot. I have also noticed some of the auctions I go to are now charing tax on coins which can eat into profits, but most of the estate/home auctions still will not tax you. I went to an auction yesterday and was able to snag 12 Franklin halves and One ASE for $170.

90% silver coinage is a good way to go, although I would say diversifying can't hurt. Few bars, coins, etc. In the beginning I loaded up on bars, but looking back, its the coins that appreciate the most in value. My Canadian wolves, grizzlies, and lunar rabbits have gone up more then spot it seems and I'm pretty sure I will get more than spot when I decide to sell.

Also, I just sold a couple of rolls of quarters on craigslist, and had to sell just a bit under spot, but got more than what the dealers would pay. As someone mentioned, it is something to consider when selling.

I think halves are a good idea. I like a variety though so I also like to get pre 65' quarter and dimes as well.

the Junk silver is a good way to go in my opinion and I have purchased some halves (less wear and I can get them for the same cost as dimes or quarters) All denominations are good to have especially if our currency goes bad. One thing I have done is search halves, so far I have searched $3000.00 and found 16 silver halves (kind of free silver or at face value) I have done this with nickels as well. Nickels I keep all I search, halves return to the bank. One other thing to think about is the proof silver sets that right now can provide proof value/quality at very close to spot (just a little over at $40/oz) Just another idea that if silver goes down, you have numismatic coins not just junk