What Is Better Junk Silver Or Silver Bullion ?

When faced with that purchasing decision, I generally pick up the junk silver.

Mostly because I get to pick out my own coins from the various coffee cans they are in.

Generally all the same price, last paid was 12.8x but that was over a week or so ago, it may be cheaper now. Sometimes a slight premium on halves, generally when he gets in new halves. Often some beat up Walkers and nicer Franklins, not just Kennedy 90% Halves. Even some slick Barber coins from time to time.

I have built a Roosevelt silver set out of the junk silver coffee cans, mostly AU or better. Same thing with Franklin halves.

I now like picking out Morgan dollars out of the AU bin and the XF bin for nicer coins. Same thing with the 1921's and the Peace dollars, call it mission creep.

I wish I could pick out higher grade Walkers and Mercs and the like, but it is BU or junk and no middle ground in my neck of the woods.


To me junk silver is a great way to convert a stacker into a collector, you just have to sell it properly.

At 13x face it is easy for regulars, but odd for a stacker. A dollar isn't an ounce. As a business owner, I would have a chart in the shop posted that converts junk silver pricing to $/ounce using the standard 0.715 ounces troy per $1.00 face value. Disclaim this is for average wear and weight will vary with wear.

Hope this helps.

I like junk silver because it is like a box of chocolates that doesn't melt (easily). You never know what you are going to get.
I recently (past week) bought 6oz from your ebay store, I'm also local to you but have never brick n mortared you.
You took away the 'Make Offer' on your ebay junk listings a few days ago. I died a little that day. Was it my fault you took it away? =p

I don't really like generic rounds. I like "real" coins with silver that sell at the lowest possible premium over spot.

I can't really say why. I feel more emotional satisfaction when holding a coin produced by a national mint, especially if it was for circulation, vs a random silver bar or round that anyone could make.

Yes, junk silver for me as well. You really can buy unsearched lots from many dealers, who often just dump them into a bag after they go through the counting machine. I've seen this at local shops many times. They know the odds and are usually past the point of looking for a needle. Too much else to do.

Neither one ! but if I have to pick one it would be 90% silver coins. because some of the older ones would most likely have good history behind them.

10 oz bars. It's not a big investment and it saves you the most money. It's also very compact, fits in your pocket should you need to transport it. People talk about divisibility, well a 10 ouncer is easy to cut up any way you like. Selling one ounce at a time is just sad, you can get a pack of cigarettes and half a meal with an ounce of silver so it's a desperate move.

As I've mentioned in another thread, coins are a waste of space, and nothing but .999 is the smart move, none of this .900 silver here and there, buying junk and talking it up like it has numismatic value; coinage with numismatic value is not even in the same ballpark as bullion because PMs are money. Buying .900 as if it were bullion: you got taken by the salesman hook line and sinker with their constitutional coinage nonsense because the common person will not understand how coins that look the same as modern ones will be more valuable, and unless people carry scales everywhere they go people will start shaving their coins again. Saying that the value will always be face value, well then why not just stack modern coinage, because even if that "goes to zero" it will still be worth face value and you don't have to invest heavily as with .900 coins.

I think that this is apples and oranges. It all goes back to "why are we collecting silver". Once that's answered, the reasons behind our collecting is much more clear. People collect for very odd reasons, it's like any other collection.

Bret, how much better can I explain it?
Here are the key points:
- you want silver, then get silver. .999 is the only way to do that without the extra weight of alloys, and no you don't get the value of your alloys because it has been "spent" on making this new alloy.
- from a volume perspective, round objects waste space because there's no way to fill the gaps.
- face value is what a government deems it to be. And if one does rely on that, wouldn't collecting modern coins be more effective without the crazy investment of buying silver coins?
The main thing is, if you can physically chop it (cut it) then you can see the inside of the bar, therefore there's no need to have it tested. People who know what silver is can feel the difference as they are cutting the bar. Short of tasting it there's no need to rely on what has been stamped or imprinted on the bar or coin because they can be deceptions. See it, feel it, listen to it. One can literally take a sharp knife to a gold bar and shave it to test the malleability. So get to know your metal and you won't need to rely on markings. But to each their own, junk is not numismatic, and it's not easy to calculate unless one has scales, in which case get .999 anyways to measure what you're chopping.

Basically, if you really disconnect yourself from the internet and think about silver coins, you'll realize that they are not useful in hyperflationary times, or in times of non-government. Only .999 bullion can fill that gap, even in good times.

couldn't have said it better myself Libertad.