Silver Coins

Most non-comemoritive and non-bullion coins are produced with an alloy consisting of 80-92.5% silver ( the remainder is copper). Pure silver is just too soft for a circulation coin. As far as what coins you want to collect it depends on what your real goal is.


You seem to be predominantly interested in the silver value so if it is just the metal then you would be better off buying Silver NCLT ( Non Circulating Legal Tender) of .999 pure silver, or bullion coins such as Austrian Silver Philharmonikers or Canadian Silver maple leaves. However if you are looking at coins with a History you have a huge range to look at and you will be looking at coins that are only 90% -92.5 % silver(that's not a problem). I am assuming you are based in the USA so I am making the following suggestion based on that.

General collecting principles:

1: Buy the book b4 you buy the coin ( Ie: do some research)
2. Buy the best you can afford
3. Noting point 2 buy what you like ( I mean find attractive) IMHO there is nothing worse than buying something you don't like for investment purposes and then finding the investment side doesn't work. Generally if you like it someone else will.


As a start perhaps you might want to look at Morgan dollars... And a good book to look at is:

http://www.amazon.com/Guide-Book-Mo...ilver+dollar

The price of the book is low and if you don't like Morgan dollars then you will have gained an idea of what you are getting into with coin collecting. The book will only sting you a little less than 20 bucks and I can assure you as some one who has learnt the hard way 20 bucks on research is better than spending a few hundred on a lemon.

Edit: And by the way

I understand the markup for ebay sellers, I was just surprised to see people paying so much over silver prices. Seems crazy. I have 1 coin shop within 30 miles of me and they seem high. They have $10 face value junk silver coins for $300. isn't that about $70 over the silver value?

Aside from silver, I do like old coins. Someone local is selling Peace dollars for $45 each. I really dont know if thats average or high. I kind of like bigger coins, not something the size of dimes or smaller.

Sorry to be so random, it just gets confusing with normal coins and then you start reading about Half Cents and 3 cents and all the other strange stuff. Then you have non-us coins. I can see how this can become a crazy hobby. Maybe its better to stop before I start!

Be assured we have all been where you are now. I recall reading on another forum a new collectors aim to collect an example of every coin ever made. A few days went by and that person posted an amusing up date acknowledging that they had underestimated the size of their initial goal.

I started my interest by buying gold sovereigns back in 2002/2003. I didn't do any research and simply purchased from ebay and local dealers {I can "see" some old hands smiling as they know what happened next}. I can't recall how but one day I found out their were Fakes! I was horrified I logged on to Amazon and purchased a book on Gold sovereigns. I had been buying just for Bullion value and the book made me aware there were some sovereigns that were worth far more than just the bullion value (BTW I found that of the 16 Sovereigns I had at that time only one was fake ...I was very very lucky). I started looking at higher value sovereigns but was still looking predominantly at Bullion value. To diversify I started to look at silver coins.....now I live in Vienna Austria and the obvious silver coin was the re-strike Maria Theresa thaler( .75 oz silver). Its not collected by many and first off I was just buying a dozen at a time at the exorbitant cost of €4.50 each. I then decided I better buy the book....which I did and suddenly I discovered a largely undiscovered collecting niche. My interest isn't the reason for the story though, rather it is to encourage you.... Do some research for fun! Ask heaps of questions here and make a few exploratory purchases based on your research. You may find you don't like the Hobby or, more hopefully, you may discover a passion that is fun educational and hopefully, in the long run, is profitable.

Billfaith!



Yes.

Thanks for the replies guys!

At a pawn shop today I got a seemingly high price for 90% junk silver (something like $6.10 per quarter, when the internet claims $5.55 spot Ag value). Also, $10 above spot ($42) for non-graded ASE. Some of the ASEs where in (I believe with my untrained eye) to be AU or XF condition (basically a "new-coin" shine with VERY few marks).

Do y'all have advice for bartering with pawn shops and/or know if this is a fair price for an ASE.

Thanks,
Vesper

P.S. I do plan to attend my first coin show this Sunday... So I am holding out on buying till I have really researched all the options.

As was said before....Learn before you buy....I jumped in too quick on some things,,but learning is the fun of it!! Remember there is a vast differrence between bullion, and coins....scrap coins are bought at times face value....right now you can get aprox. 25x face.....Silver Eagles are a good way to invest in silver (1 oz. pure)....Sold in this area about $4 over spot....Plain silver rounds and bars is another silver play.....Good Luck with your collection,,,,and WELCOME!