Liquidating Silver World Coins

biggfredd I have sold several thousand dollars worth of foreign silver to a dealer here for 85% of melt based on actual weight/assay. As I sort foreign junk silver coins out, I dump them in a series of small buckets - one for each assay. I have 16 buckets. I bag each assay together. The dealer pays based on actual silver weight. I get 85% of actual silver spot value for 350 fine coins even for the 0.100 fine Mexican Peso coins - so I do not understand anyone selling War Nickels at 18% under unless the coins are all low grade and 6-8% of the weight is already gone due to wear.

When you say "collector" value for a silver or gold coin - you start from spot and add a premium. In the case of the Barber dime with a collector value of 40 cents and a scrap value of $2 - I would say that the coin is worth a premium of 30 cents OVER the higher of face or scrap value - in the case cited $2.20. Collectors certainly are not dumb enough to think that the intrinsic value of a coin is not automatically added to the actual value regardless of an outdated catalog.

The use of BV in the krause catalog has the intent of showing which grades of a coin are common enough so that they should be considered as Bullion Value alone. The increase in silver value does not mean that a coins that had a premium value in EF no longer have any premium value above a VG example simply because the metal price rose.

Silvertowne has been doing this for half a century, and owns their own refinery. Dunno if there's a problem with refining warnix specifically. I do know there's a much higher cost per oz to remove impurities on billon.

Another possibility is your dealer has not checked thoroughly, and is losing money on low grade stuff, but making money overall. I've known dealers to do money-losing stuff for years, usually without realizing it.




You're right when it comes to a dealer having to charge more than scrap for a coin a collector wants, but that doesn't change that coin's collector value. We used to sell $100 bags of Mercuries For $400. Absolutely no sales to collectors, who paid more for the dates they needed. Those same bags have a scrap value around $2200 today, but the same collectors who didn't want them at $400 won't pay $2300 for them today.

If anything, back in 1980 when silver went crazy, some semi-key dates went down. The guy who turned in his partial circ quarter set for scrap no longer needed a 32d or 32s, but he may also have scrapped a 55d, 40d, 37s and 36d, making them more plentiful than before the melt.




That's exactly what it means. Again, in 1980, silver proof coins, high grade and even unc Morgans, etc, were melted for scrap, simply because they no long carried premium value. Collectors were in liquidation, not accumulation, mode. I know a dealer who melted three bags of Columbian halves back then.

Side story: Mid-80s, lady came into the shop looking for a specific date dollar. I showed her where we put the best condition we could sell for $15 of about 100 dates/mints, and we had the date she wanted.

actual ensuing conversation:

gee, $15 is a lot for that coin
I know, that's why I got rid of our inventory when the refinery was paying $30
well, I think that's just terrible that a collector would sell a coin to melt it down!
why not? you just got done telling me it's not worth $15, and I had someone willing to pay twice as much and take all I'd sell him. why should I have kept it for five years so that you could tell me it wasn't worth half as much as I sold it for?

Bottom line, any collector is more than welcome to "rescue" coins from the refinery, but I don't see them doing it. If they do, they may very well find themselves with a huge loss when silver corrects in 10-15 years.