Monday, February 15, 2010

Silver Investing Guide - Beware Of This Deal

In a recent catalog I received, there was an offer to purchase an 1800s Morgan Silver Dollar (in brilliant uncirculated condition) for only $79.99, marked down from $99.99. The description went on to say that many millions had been melted down in 1918 (true) and due to this event plus more meltings throughout the years, relatively few Morgan dollars remain (not true).

Just three years after the big 1918 meltdown of 270,232,722 Morgan dollars, 86,730,000 Morgans were minted with the 1921 date. It is estimated the approximately 17% of all Morgans minted are still in existance. That is still a lot of these silver dollars floating around. Being brilliant uncirculated is a plus but the coins could still end up with some bad bag marks. Another point worth mentioning is the coins have been certified by a grading company I have never heard of.

Uncirculated Morgan silver dollars contain .77344 troy ounces of silver. That would result in a silver price per troy ounce of $103.42. Today's spot price of silver is $15.69 per troy ounce. Without knowing the year and mint mark, I would say this is definitely one deal to stay away from. Common date Morgans in MS 60 grade (Mint State 60 is an uncirculated grade) can be purchased for less than $30.00.

If you are ever tempted by deals such as these, do your research first. This is an awful lot of money to pay for one Morgan dollar. If your objective is to get the most silver for your money, you must shop around and watch out for deals like this.

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