Disadvantages To Buying 40% Silver Coinage?

Thanks for the response. How cheap would be cheap enough to consider 40% at current silver prices in your opnion?

Avoid 40 percent and the hassles that come with too much bulk for the amount of silver.

I've made some astoundingly good deals on 40% and War Nickels, generally at spot or below, sometimes way below. I consider these coins to be a store of wealth just as I do 90% and scrap silver.Of course my favorite form is nationally minted .999 or better.
I am a strong believer that silver will eventually reach it's unmanipulated true price and the silver gold ratio will plummet from 50ish to 1 to something closer to the historical ratio of 15 to 1.
For those who'd like citations that support my views, google Ted Butler or my favorite guru, Turd Ferguson (yes, I know it's a silly moniker, but the guy is a very talented broker/trader and willingly shares vast amounts of information.

I think there really is not much down side to 40%. I mean, it does contain silver. What I'm not a fan of, is if I were to purchase 500 40% coins, how fast can I let go of them if I really need to? (last resort option).

Even thinking of this more, if I ever HAD to sell some silver, I would try selling the 40% first before looking at my 90% and then .999 bars etc.

I've wondered how popular 40% truly is. You can make a .999 silver bar, but you can't make a US Government 40% coin. Same can be said for Canadian silver etc.

If you are looking for silver to have for 'melt value' and wish to melt it/have it melted for cash, my understanding is that refiners often have different rates of return for different coin types. Coins which are 90% silver return a higher percent of spot than coins of 40% silver. The reason I was given is that the refining process is more expensive or complicated.

I don't know the veracity of the latter, but I spoke with a few business-to-business refiners and this is what they told me.

In other words, if you are buying 'junk' silver in order to sell it for the silver content, the refiner (or intermediary if you are not a licensed precious metal dealer) pays a percentage of spot. I called several B2B precious metal refiners in the Dallas area. Their percent of spot paid to *businesses* was 90-95% of spot. Retail shops obviously pay less than that, often significantly less.

There may be options other than 'cash for gold'-style businesses if you want to send your silver coins for cash. For instance, Rio Grande jewelry supply (Albuquerque, NM) pays 85% of spot and you don't have to be a licensed precious metal business. That's probably a higher percent than most 'cash for gold'-style places.

To summarize, if you want to cash in your silver coins for the value of their silver (i.e. to be melted), you are not going to be paid the spot price for the silver content under any circumstances. It costs money to refine the coins; the refiner and the middleman have to make a profit too. So today, for instance, a pile of silver coins containing a total of 1 troy ounce of silver will not result in a check to you for $33.07... it will be at least 15% less than spot, perhaps much more than 15% less.

very similar to Canadas 50% and 80%, people do not want 50%

The value of the coins are people's willingness to buy it. Since people are less willing to buy it, wouldn't it make sense to avoid? That's always been my thought process, I could be wrong. The last thing I'd want would be something illiquid.