| Author |
 Replies: 27 / Views: 9,815 |
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2589 Posts |
The only difference between burning books and melting coins is that there arent any people willing to pay you for burning books, while there are hundreds of thousands who want to buy silver.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2734 Posts |
The concept of 'junk silver' is to value common silver coins as exchangeable bullion in their own right, instead of melting them. Legal tender, a known percentage of silver, and tradeable down to a 0.0723 Troy Ounce increment (that being the 1853 to 1964 Dime). Why would anyone ever melt such a perfect kind of bullion?  |
|
Pillar of the Community
Mexico
1304 Posts |
I concur with all of the above...the silver content being common knowldge is a big factor. Where I am there is a LOT of variations for the silver content. Most of the time it's stamped on the coin...is that the case for your coins?
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2605 Posts |
There's a certain degree of arrogance in the US toward foreign everything. Just look at the semiofficial term "foreign junk" used in the coin shops that stoop low enough to deal with "such nonsense". Once, when I lived on the East coast, I checked out a coin shop I hadn't seen before. It dealt in the American coinage exclusively. The owner said that when occasionally he'd got a bulk foreign lot (I didn't know his sources, I hope nobody'd brought him a collection they'd inherited), he scanned through to pull out all the silver. He melted silver coins himself, he said it was to bothersome to seek out the clientèle, and discarded the rest of the coins. I left that shop almost nauseous. |
|
Pillar of the Community
 United States
790 Posts |
I never actually intend to melt my foreign silver, I just want to know if I could. If no one is willing to pay for foreign silver, then why would I pay for the silver value when I purchase them in the first place. I've got a lot of foreign silver coins that are worth nothing more than the value of the silver in them and I'm finding that they do not seem to be worth near melt value when trying to use them for trading.
As for "foreign junk", I use the term myself, not to indicate that I don't want them, I definitely do, but to indicate that most others do not want them.
As for melting coins being in the same category as burning books, hmmm. I can see a point to that. However, when coins were first invented they were intended to be a convenient and standardized way so that both buyer and seller knew how much gold or silver was being used. They were nothing except raw bullion in a convenient form. Later of course the governments stepped in and changed the game (think aluminum coins).
|
|
Valued Member
United States
317 Posts |
I'd agree that most Americans definitely stick to U.S. coins. I'm proud to say that I'm an American who does not. I'm actually not doing much of anything with U.S. at the present, instead focusing in on the nations that make up my ethnic background,namely Ottoman and Turkish republic silver and Imperial German, Weimar Republic and Third Reich silver. In addition to those, I'm also pursuing older Mexican silver,Austro-Hungarian silver and some older Dutch silver. Compared to the beautiful designs and historical significance of these coins, I'm actually starting to find most U.S. series kind of lacking in both areas.
|
|
Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
Well, I'm always interested in all that German Silver 'Foreign Junk' if any American's here wants to off-load it! ;)
|
|
Bedrock of the Community
United States
12437 Posts |
Quote:
Im always interested in all that German Silver 'Foreign Junk' Just make sure it is silver from Germany and not German Silver  |
|
Pillar of the Community
Germany
1238 Posts |
Or use a German catalog. We don't use "German Silver" or "Deutsches Silber" in German, hehe.
Christian
|
|
Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
Reichssilbermünzen! Unless we get to the BRD Silver 5DM; then just silbermünzen suffices, I suppose...
And in reference to another thread where we were discussing the idiosyncrasies of 's', 'long s' and 'eszett', the SECOND 's' in reichsSilbermünzen, can often be found written in the 'long s' form...
|
|
Valued Member
Canada
464 Posts |
I really hope foreign silver becomes more popular... That way, more Canadian Silver Maples will make their way back to Canada instead of the U.S.  |
|
Valued Member
Australia
432 Posts |
Depends where you're at I guess... Foreign Silver is pretty popular in my little circle of friends...
|
| |
Replies: 27 / Views: 9,815 |
First Page
Posted 12/03/2009 5:42 pm
