"How Much Does It Weigh?"

This was the title of an article I penned back in the 1980s when I was editor of World Coin News. I was very active in buying and selling silver when the Hunt Bros. tried to corner the market. The article was about those days.

When you took your silver in to the local coin shop in 1980 (mine was in Montgomery, AL back then) all they cared about was the weight. They did not care if it was proof, modern, vintage, low mintage, NCLT, Morgan dollars, Barber halves, US, foreign or anything else. The scale determined how much the offer would be. If silver goes nuts again, I would not be surprised if the same occurs. Dealers had to flip inventory immediately or risk losing a bundle. I even bought a set of sterling silver flatware from a high end department store and was able to sell it to a shop for a profit. It was probably made with silver that only cost $5/oz - but those deals dried up overnight.

My local shop had many fancy but empty albums or wood holders for Franklin Mint art bars, foreign "low mintage" official government issues, NCLT "limited Edition" rounds, and others. Seller would bring in his very fancy album full of beautiful silver items. If they were all one ounce .999 - the dealer would count them, make an offer, pay the seller, then dump all of them into a big bucket that was already loaded with similar "scarce" items. The fancy holders would get piled in the back and probably hauled to the dump.

If I want more silver, I will stick with circulated coins. The premium is usually less for foreign silver and I might even git lucky and find something cool. I avoid like the plague anything with a high premium over melt. If silver hits $100 they will not care if your American Eagle is MS-70 or if it is an "emergency" issue.