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 Replies: 27 / Views: 9,814 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
790 Posts |
People on the forum seem to want to gobble up US silver coins, but what about foreign silver coins? It seems that if I have a bucks worth of US silver, forum people want to trade or buy it, but an ounce of foreign silver has no interest. Why? Silver is silver, right (as long as we're talking ASW)? Canadian silver seems to get some kind of reluctant acceptance, I guess its close enough to the US (geographically at least) to accept it. Are silver coins from someplace like Spain or France somehow untouchable? I've got some extra foreign silver and I'd love to use it for trading. What's up here?
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Pillar of the Community
Philippines
1156 Posts |
Yes, it's mostly location, observing the local auctions here, most are foreign silver crowns (of about 100 pieces) and a sprinkling of gold, with other antique items. US silvers are only about 3 to 5 pieces and usually the morgans and Peace dollars selling below RedBookDealers here are mostly on Spain & Mexican Peso silver crowns and of course Philippine silver coins made in USA. US coins still comes in as 4th, display cabs are full of Morgans and Peace, and also a sprinkling of canadian silver. what is not readyly available here, and I dont see on displays, are the US silver quarters and half dollars  |
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Jay I agree with you silver is silver, though collectors seem to gravitate to their owe country. So it stands to reason that a US collector would want to buy US silver or gold coins. Just as a German collector would want to buy silver from his/hers country. As for me I like silver coins from were ever I can get them.
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Moderator
Australia
16837 Posts |
I suspect it's a combination of their "foreign-ness" and a general lack of knowledge. Each country has had it's own finenesses for various coins and it's own timetable for altering those finenesses. Most silver hunters in the US know the US "timetable" off by heart (90% silver up to 1964, and so forth). For foreign coins, they'd have to go look them up, and that's not easy to do, judging by the number of "I've got a foreign coin, is it silver?" threads we see here on the forum. Some people may be extra wary because they've already been burned buying foreign "silver" assuming it was .900 fine that turned out to be only .500 fine, or not even silver at all.
For .999 bullion coins, like maples, onzas, kookaburras, pandas etc, things are a little different. While they are indeed coins and were issued by a government, it was a foreign government that issued them. People uninterested in world coins generally will consider foreign bullion coins to be in the same league as private silver rounds - sure, they're silver, but they're not "money".
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
Quote:
Just as a German collector would want to buy silver from his/hers country. Don't think so. Here in Germany you won't find that many collectors who are interested in one country only. Now people who inherit old coins won't know about the silver content anyway, regardless of whether a coin is from some German country, from another place in Europe, or from elsewhere. Those who actually collect coins will have catalogs (or forums  to look such information up. Christian |
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Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
Like Chris, I definately do not stick to my Country (Australia); I dabble quite a bit in German coins.
Personally, I think its simply a case of being unfamiliar with the foreign silver; however, there could also be a hint of nationalism in there! I would have no trouble trading silver as silver, no matter what country it was from, but if I am trading silver in order to trade for something I WANT, then I'm going to be trading FOR German Silver - and if BOTH sides of the trade are like that, then we have a case where someone is trading german silver for my german silver!
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10045 Posts |
US collectors might be considering the buyer's market for bulk foreign silver. I've talked to some dealers who buy bulk US silver--but refuse the foreign coins because it's time consuming to calculate melt value on foreign silver. US 90% silver is much easier to buy/sell.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
790 Posts |
Alright, I'm getting a feel here. Today silver closed at $19.10 an ounce, let's use these prices. If I have 1 oz of US silver (asw), what is it worth? If I have 1 oz of silver from foreign coins (asw), what is it worth?
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Valued Member
United States
436 Posts |
Barring any numismatic value, $19.10. However one would have to know the purity of the foreign silver to know it's value, and sometimes it isn't worth the work. The Krause world coins book isn't cheap, and really, no one is just going to take someone's word as to how much silver is in any given coin. In U.S. pre-65 coins, it's 90%. No arguement necessary. Here in the U.S., you also have to consider demand, which is high in U.S. coins and low in world coins, which is going to affect numismatic value.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2734 Posts |
The lack of knowledge about the percentage of silver for world coins is why (on some occasions) I've been able to buy world coins from dealers for below their melt value. ie: Last May: 1966 Australian 50¢ (cleaned) in a $1 bargain bin!  I was only too happy to trade a BU Presidential dollar for .3416 oz of Silver.... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2605 Posts |
When I started collecting coins as a boy I did it for a chance to daydream-travel around the world. I don't view my collection as "an investment", I've never been business minded. I love silver from exotic places or exotic times. Copper? - Even better, cheaper to obtain. I feel fortunate that in the US I can find so many interesting world coins in the bargain bowls, sometimes as cheap as 10 cents a piece, for lack of demand in the general population.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
790 Posts |
So let me put it a new way. If I have a Spain 100 Pesetas coins from 1966, it is .800 fine and has an ASW of .4887, and silver is at $18.85 at the moment, it should be "worth" $9.21. Could I sell it as "melt" in America? If so, what might I expect for it, given this spot price? How about a 1946 British Half Crown which is .500 fine and has an ASW of .2273, could I get the $4.28 for it that it technically contains?
Edited by Jays-Dad
12/03/2009 10:12 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
I buy precious metals in various forms at estate sales, antique stores, etc & resell to a refiner. The refiner I use pays less than spot, generally between 90-95%. They refine the metal & resell it to end users at slightly over spot. The spread is where they make most of their profit.
Most of the silver I find is sterling, which is .925 fine. They melt it down, assay it & pay 90% of spot based on the assay. I recently ran across some silver marked 800. Before I purchased it I ran it by my refiner, who told me they only pay 80% of melt on 800 silver. I am assuming this is because they are able to sell the 925 without further processing, & they have to further refine the 800 silver until it meets the 925 standard.
However, they don't buy foreign silver coins. I don't have any idea why. I would be interested to find out if anyone else has found a reliable place to sell foreign silver at or near melt value.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
The vast majority of refiners do not accept foreign coins because they do not have a standardized fineness. Lower fineness items reduce profit margins- it costs the same to smelt a 90% silver coin as it does to smelt a 50% silver coin provided they are the same weight but obviously the recoverable silver in a 50% silver coin would be much less than a 90% coin. When you have non standard fineness, the refinery would then have to incur additional assay costs to determine to purity of the refined metal before it could be reused.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2605 Posts |
I find it a bit upsetting that some "collectors" look for a place to sell coins to be melted. To me it's in the same category as burning books. The ones published years and centuries ago.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2335 Posts |
Quote:
I find it a bit upsetting that some "collectors" look for a place to sell coins to be melted. To me it's in the same category as burning books. The ones published years and centuries ago. That's one way to look at it. In the case of low mintage rarities it's probably the correct way to look at it. In the case of high mintage, poor condition coins you could just as easily put it in the same category as recycling newspapers. |
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Replies: 27 / Views: 9,814 |
Posted 11/30/2009 5:59 pm
