Visit To2 Local Coin Dealers

I think that $50 might be an OK offer on the silver Roosies at the current spot price.
Check out Deleted004.com. They have a silver melt calculator.

(I assume the deleted URL above means that's a bad site--my apologies)

I can understand your disappointment in the roll of dimes, but a friend of mine has a local gold exchange, and unless a shop has enough silver coming in to send to a salvage refiner, they usually send to a middleman such as a large coin store in a major city where they can just cart the silver to the refiner, as the refiners require a certain level of scrap. So he pays on shipping to the middleman, registered and insured, the middleman takes a %, his money is held up until the refiner refines, assays, and issues a check ( less any refiners processing fees). If the % silver in the melt is not high enough, then penalties are sometime added. My friend usually receives his cut several weeks later and averages about 80-85% of meltafter all expenses, so he buys at 75% melt and if the silver isn't marked ( a lot of mexican silver here), he won't usually buy it.

So often expecting melt from less than a major shop will usually not happen. It is just financial reality for them.

Jim

I think $50 was a fair offer from the first dealer. ebay is running about the same once you consider the fees.

The second dealer @ $37.50 is probably taking you for a noncollector and hoping to get a deal to make a bigger profit. Bad practice IMO, but it does happen

Murty : Seems like dealer one was offering a fair price on the 1/2 Cents (For a dealer) but I would wait till silver gos back up before selling the dimes. Since melt is low now one of my dealers that was selling silver at melt price is now selling at Red Book price.

Seeking: Not going to that dealer.

Rainman

halfabustisbetter,
He was selling the halves and I was buying. They all were average for their graded conditions.
Steve

quote:

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What I don't get is melt value. I realize thats the price of silver contained in the coin but I thought it was illegal to smelt national coinage. Am I wrong?

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It is not illegal to melt noncirculating coinage. Anything with silver or gold is not considered to be circulating anymore so it does not affect the circulating coinage supply. It is illegal to melt cents and nickels(but not War Nickels). However, most coins are not melted when you sell them for bullion. $100-$1000 face value bags of 90% silver coinage are a very popular investment vehicle for people wanting to purchase large quantities of silver. The purity and content is known unlike bars and other bullion which may have to be assayed.

The Bust Half prices were good, especially if the 1832 were a true AU--telling the difference between EF-40 and AU-50 requires some experience with the series. 1830 and beyond I see a lot of coins listed as AU that I consider EF, and in most cases the major grading companies and I agree. So if the 1832 was a true AU for wear and not a well-struck coin with EF wear, then $175 was a great price. If only a good-looking EF, then it was perhaps a wee bit high, but you can't go wrong making an offer. I can see a scenario wherein if I wanted all 3, I might offer $300 and see what he said.

Murty, where in NJ?