Why Buy "Junk" Silver Coins?

Yes Ed. Just what would you relpace the silver at a high price with is my thought. If you were going to replace with land or another tangible asset fine in my thinking but to just get paper to me is not my idea of making money or more importantly staying secure

Yes of course not all the eggs in one basket but as of lately I personally think PMs are one of the best stores of value

I guess that would depend on the nature of the situation at the time and what my needs were. If I could trade an ASE or a Maple Leaf for a couple of bags of groceries, that might be a good trade, depending on the situation at that time. I don't feel the need to be selling any of my silver just to make a few dollars here and there. No, for me silver is a store of value and an insurance policy against terrible financial times.

During the great depression, many people suffered due to a lack of money. It was bad enough that unemployment was very high and people could not earn much money but the Fed actually reduced the money and credit supplies during those times, which is exactly the opposite of what was needed. Stuff was available to buy but only those with money could buy it. People who had money, such as gold or silver, could buy a lot of things and often at pennies on the dollar. Silver IS money, IMO, and has been for a VERY long time. It cannot be debauched by an incompetent government or central bank running amok and over-printing it.

While there is no perfect answer to all possible financial problems, having some hard currency, such as silver and gold, is a pretty darned good one and better than any other I have seen.

I also agree with those who say not to put everything into one basket. I like PMs a lot but would never be "all in" on them or anything else for that matter. I also like energy companies, utilities, and agricultural commodities.

I really appreciate everybody who has contributed to this thread (even if the topic has wandered a bit far afield). It was very educational! I now understand that the advantages of buying "junk" silver coins are basically as follows:

1. You can usually buy it at or slightly below melt value without the premium you have to pay for other forms of silver.

2. It's not as likely to be counterfeited and is therefore more likely to be accepted if and when it comes times to cash it in.

3. It's easier to use junk silver coins to purchase things with, since they are a known quantity and are available in a variety of different sizes and weights -- you don't have to break up a chunk of bullion or convert it to cash before spending it.

I think I'm pretty much sold. I don't at all regret buying the BU and AU silver coins I have purchased previously, nor the ASE coins. But going forward, if I do decide to purchase more silver purely as an investment in silver (without regard to numismatic or collector value), I think I'll definitely go for a nice bag of pre-1964 quarters, dimes and halves.

I even ended up with a roll of War Nickels that I found in nickel searching!

I believe all have the large mint mark. I wasn't aware any of the silver nickels had no mark

Ok guess all mine are silver then!

My local silver/gold buying store has small seperate containers of dimes, quarters, halves and dollars which one can go through and pick out what they want to buy. Now they were a little high on the price per dollar silver but I did come up with a few barber mint marked halves that I have never owned.

I agree when it comes time to needing a little extra cash one can sell part of the items off at a time. Unlike a 100 oz silver bar or even a 5-10 oz bar unless your sitting on a good number of bars. When I was a young adult some many years ago, I would go to the local coin/bullion store and purchase 5 oz bars like candy, that was back in the late to mid 80's. It was something cool that I owned that others didn't have. I sold them off a long time ago.