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 Replies: 9 / Views: 2,885 |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
I have seen quite a lot of discussion regarding the value of 'melt value', not much about 'spot values' of bullion.
I know what the spot value of bullion is, and that can be easily found on bullion websites.
I am a little less sure about 'melt value'. Is it the nett value of bullion in a coin, less the cost of melting and refining? If that is the case, where can I find information on melt and refining costs? Obviously, these costs per coin would be less with larger quantities.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3098 Posts |
There's quite a good site online (one that must not be named!) that tells you the melt value of US and Canadian coins. There are a few calculators out there too, and I know there's one for Aussie coins.
However, if you'd like to do it the old fashioned way, get a Krause and start punching it into your calculator haha
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Most if not all of the websites that give the melt value for coins give a theoretical value that represents the value of the metal in a coin based on the spot price. They make no allowance for what you will be paid for the coin after taking into the buyers need for a profit, the refiners profit or the cost of refining.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10982 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
 Australia
21786 Posts |
From the above website, it appears that the melt value of any coin is simply the spot value per ounce multiplied by the nett amount in ounces, of pure silver in the coin. It is another way of saying spot silver value per coin.
As I understand it, there is no allowance made for melting and refining costs.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
Melt and spot are used interchangably. What you need to be careful about with coins is whether the melt value is just the primary metal or whether it includes the accessory metals in the coin.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3294 Posts |
Realistically, for a 90% silver US coin would it make much difference? My calculation has silver at 88.74x more valuable then copper. At a 90% silver, 10% copper ratio, that leads to the actual melt value from each metal source at:
0.125% copper, and 99.875% silver.
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New Member
United States
11 Posts |
Most 90% silver coins have .7234 ounces silver per dollar face value. Many dealers use .7150 to reflect wear. However Peach and Morgan dollars have .7734 ounces per dollar face value. Yes, melt value is almost always silver value alone, but some coins such as War Nickels have a penny or sometime more value in other metals. For my purposes, I ignore value of other metals, I suspect many others do as well. Remember coins are almost never actually melted. It is a trick by dealers to explain why they will only pay less than spot, after all they have to spend all that energy melting. Ha Ha. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1554 Posts |
Buyers do, and should make a profit....Melt/spot basically same difference. It's a little more involved than a guy taking it to a melter.......
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Valued Member
United States
55 Posts |
I think "spot" is just the term for bullion coins. "Melt" means the value of the metal in a non-bullion coin.
So American Silver Eagles trade at spot and 90% silver coins trade at melt.
But it's pretty interchangeable IMO. I use them that way.
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Replies: 9 / Views: 2,885 |
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Posted 10/21/2010 10:09 am
