Turning Dollars Into Nickels

Unfortunately, I have this knack of turning dollars into nickels at our little local casino. Nothing big, mind you, just a little entertainment in an area that doesn't have much else to offer. Limiting my entertainment dollar at the casino lets me spend money on the meaningful stuff such as food fuel, silver, etc.

 More often than not, the slot machines turn nasty so I cash out, visit the redemption machine for whatever dollars and coins (mostly nickels and pennies) are left, stick them in my back pocket and take them out when I get home.

On a recent trip, my little pile of nickels presented me with a nice surprise. A 1917 S Indian Head (Buffalo) Nickel in decent shape. Now if you know a little about U.S. nickels, you know there were very few years that nickels were minted with any amount of silver in them and 1917 wasn't one of them (see my article on US Silver Coins). So this nickel is probably worth about five cents, right? Not so fast. Here are the stats on this nickel...

The San Francisco mint produced 4,193,000 Indian Head nickels in 1917, less

than half of the Denver mint's production of 9,910,000 and less than 10 percent of the 51,424,019 produced by the Philadelphia mint. After consulting the latest Coin Dealer Monthly Supplement Newsletter (Greysheet.com), I found out this coin has a bid/ask price of $15.50/$17.00 if graded as just "Good". But I think this coin would grade higher than that. A "Very Good" (VG) grade coin would be worth $30.00/$33.00 and a "Fine" grade would be worth $60.00/$66.00.

The only other Indian Head nickels I have are in this mint set pictured at left. The set contains a 1930 S (mintage 5,435,000), a 1936 D (mintage 24,814,000) and a 1935 Philadelphia (mintage 58,264,000, no mint mark) and would all probably be graded "Good" as they show a good amount of wear. In that grade, the 1930 S is worth $1.00/$1.10 bid/ask, the 1936 D $.065/$0.75 and the 1935 Philly nickel $0.75/$0.85. Only in the higher circulated and Mint State grades would these coins be worth much more.

So the lessons I was reminded of from this little experience are: 1) you never know where you might come across an old coin worth more than its face value so keep your eyes open to that possibility; and 2) when you find an old coin, you can't just assume the coin has little or no value over its face value so refer to reputable resources that will let you know a coin's value.

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After enjoying a record year in which 44,006,000 were sold in 2014, the American Silver Eagle is off to a strong start with 5,127,500 being sold so far in 2015. Typically January is a strong sales month for ASEs as a crowd that grows larger every year wants to get their hands on the 2015 coins. Have you got yours yet?

Thanks for reading and keep the faith.

The Fabulous Four Silver Bullion Coins

'twas the month of December
and all through the land
precious metals were stirring
again starting to look grand

I see promising signs in the price of metals and this time it looks more encouraging. Traffic is up on my silver web sites plus I have a new one to tell you about... but more on that later.

I have included pictures of the fabulous four silver bullion coins, reportedly the best selling silver bullion coins in the world. They are:  the American silver eagle of which 42,675,000 were sold last year and that number has already been overtaken with just a few days of production left to go in 2014; the Canadian silver maple leaf of which 28,200,000 were sold last year with that number already have been overtaken for 2014; the Austrian silver Philharmonic  of which 14,536,400 were sold last year (current year estimates unknown) and the Chinese silver panda of which a reported 8,000,000 were sold last year with 2014 numbers unknown.

Yes there other government issued silver bullion coins and numerous silver rounds, some more popular (and more attractive ) than others. But these are the top dogs and if you can get your hands on any of them at reasonable premiums, you will be in good shape for the coming explosion in silver prices. 

Here are the totals for American Eagles thus far in 2014...

Platinum Eagles=16,900 one-ounce coins thus far
(don't look for more of these in 2014 or 2015 due to low demand)

Gold Eagles = 414,500 one-ounce coins
                        46,000 half-ounce coins
                      118,000 quarter-ounce coins
                      560,000 tenth-ounce coins
total ounces of Eagles gold = 523,000
2015 Gold Eagles will be available 1/5/2015

Silver Eagles = 43,051,000 one-ounce coins
top three months of production
   October = 5,790,000
   march = - 5,354,000
   January = 4,775,000
2015 Silver Eagles will be available 1/12/2015

and here is the total for the...

American Buffalo (thus far in 2014) = 175,500 one-ounce 24k gold coins
2015 Buffaloes will be available 1/5/2015

As mentioned above, I have a new silver web site dedicated to a very unique silver coin - the Maria Theresa Thaler. This silver coin has a rich history (several decades old) and, in terms of popularity and acceptability, is almost unmatched. You can read more about this thaler (or taler) at M.T. Thaler.

If you have the time, also stop by my other silver web sites at SilverInvestingSimplified and SilverGuide to see what's new.

Thanks for reading and keep the faith. 


 

  

Pausing A Vacation To Shop For Silver

After surviving most of the brutal winter of the upper midwest, I was more than ready for the warmer weather of AZ and NV. Las Vegas was our first destination for some gaming and relaxation. I made a special trip downtown to check out the GOLD To Go machine at the Golden Nugget. If you are unfamiliar with this gold dispensing ATM, you can see more details plus a picture here. The gold choices for purchase were 1 gram, 2 1/2 gram, 5 gram and 10 gram gold bars ranging in price from $87 to $517 (spot gold at the time was approximately $1330.00). Also available were a 1 oz. gold bar priced at $1525 and a 1 oz. gold eagle at $1555 (nearly a 17% premium). The last coin available for purchase was a silver eagle for the princely sum of $49. That was a bit of a shocker as spot silver was under (but flirting with) $22. If the silver eagle offered were a proof coin, the $49 would be closer to the going price but I didn't see that advertised. I decided against making any purchase.

The next vacation stop was Laughlin, NV. Whenever I am in Laughlin, I always make sure to stop in (usually more than once) at the coin shop across from the Golden Nugget Laughlin (Laughlin Jewelry and Collectibles) to discuss prices and trends. Their price for silver eagles were much better at just $26 each with silver maple leafs even less. One of my purchases was a 2014 silver panda. This is a beautiful coin and I didn't mind the $30 price. But at that price, I won't be stacking silver pandas as the silver eagles and maple leafs are cheaper and more popular in my world. Of course silver rounds can be purchased for even less than those two popular bullion coins but I tend to favor government issued, government backed coins. And unless I fall into a really good deal on silver rounds with an attractive design, I'll usually pass on these.

Here are the Silver American Eagle totals so far for March, 2014 from the U. S. Mint: 2,921,000 one-ounce silver coins which, added to January's number of 4,775,00 and February's 3,750,00, brings the number for 2014 to 11,446,000 silver eagles.

Sales of my 3 ebooks on U.S. and Canadian silver coins have been steady. It appears people like what they are reading but are not inclined to giving reviews. If you want to see short descriptions of each, you can do so at a special web site I have set up for them at Silver Investing Guru.

Thanks for reading. 

American Silver Eagles - They're Back!!!

After an extended vacation, American Silver Eagles are back in production (Kitco discusses it here). As you may recall, the U.S. Mint suspended production of 2013 silver eagles back on December 9th in order to make way for the 2014 silver eagles. It's a good thing this four weeks plus halt coincided perfectly with a time of low demand/low interest for these bullion coins - NOT! What it did do is raise already healthy premiums even higher because investors really like and want these coins (this was the subject of a recent article on the Bloomberg site which you can see here ). So the buying continued during the weeks the U.S. Mint meticulously changed the dies from a "3" to a"4". Hopefully they were also able to stock up on blanks (planchets) during this time so investors can enjoy several months of uninterrupted production and sales. Here are the 2013 silver eagle totals in case you haven't seen them before. 

U S MINT  Silver Eagle Sales  2013

January        7,498,000; February      3,368,500;
March          3,356,500; April            4,087,000;
May             3,458,500; June             3,275,000;
July              4,406,500; August         3,625,000;
September   3,013,000; October      3,087,000;
November   2,300,000; December   1,200,000

Total        42,675,000

The Canadian counterpart to the American Silver Eagle, the Silver Maple Leaf, has a new look for 2014. The addition of radial lines from the center of the coin outward plus a micro-engraved security mark on the reverse of the coin make for a stunning silver bullion coin. More info and detailed pictures of this coin appeared on the Coinupdate web site and can be found here. Counterfeiters will be hard-pressed to master these new security features. It reminds me of the battle between the safe manufacturers and safe crackers in years gone by. No matter what the manufacturers did, the safecrackers always found a way to break in. Finally, at least one manufacturer came up with what they felt was the ultimate solution. They incorporated a vial of  nitroglycerine inside the safe so that anyone trying to punch their way in would have their ticket punched permanently in a very explosive way. No report on how many lost their life this way.

Thanks for reading and keep the faith.  

Looking For Cheap Silver At Coin Shows

Before getting to the main topic of this post, a free promo for my newly revised A Guide to Buying and Selling Peace and Morgan Silver Dollars has been scheduled for November 7 and 8, 2013. If you have a Android phone or tablet, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows PC or Windows 8 tablet, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone and the free Kindle reading app for your device, you can download this eBook for $0.00 on these two days only. It is written for the casual investor of Peace and Morgan dollars as well as those persons who already may own some of these coins and don't have a clue as to their worth. I hope you are able to take advantage of this free 2-day promotion.

One of the things I like to do when attending coin shows is to look for the one-off silver coins and bargain with the dealer for a good price. As you might guess, these are coins that are not well known which means the demand is low to non-existant and the dealer is willing to bargain so s/he can concentrate on the popular, higher-demand coins. One such coin I found recently is a 1993 20 Crowns silver coin from the Turks and Caicos Islands commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The obverse features the image of Queen Elizabeth II and the reverse has the image of an astronaut (Neil Armstrong) stepping on the moon from the Lunar Module. This is one of the more attractive silver coins I have seen and I could get it at the current spot silver price with no premium.

So far, so good. I found an attractive silver coin for a good price. But there is a potential problem with this coin without doing some homework. And that problem is that nowhere on this coin are markings to indicate the silver purity or troy weight. Without seeing a .999 (or .9999) purity marking plus some kind of weight designation, I could only assume it is a full one-ounce pure silver commemorative coin. So I asked the dealer to "prove" it was what I assumed it to be. And he was able to by showing me the coin details in a huge reference book he had on hand. So I bought the coin.

At the next coin show you attend, keep your eyes open for deals like this. The dealer I bought this from is a one-man show whom I know and trust. But I still wanted the assurance of knowing the coin was as I expected. If a small dealer like this can have the resources to identifying a wide range of coins, whoever you deal with should be able to also. If not, go elsewhere. Once I got home, I took out my handy Neva Pocket Scale and weighed it just to be sure. It weighed 480 grains (gr.) and 31.1 grams (g.) which is what I expected to see. On a more precise scale I would have seen 31.1034 grams. As you probably know, One troy ounce=480 grains=31.1034 grams=1.097 avoirdupois ounce.

The October sales of Silver American Eagles stands at 3,087,000. For the year so far the total is 39,175,000. Don't look for the premiums of these popular bullion coins to go down anytime soon. The US Mint has notified its Primary Dealers that all sales of Silver Eagles will be suspended for 4 weeks beginning the second week in December. Guess what that will do to the premiums. I hope you have yours.

Happy investing.

Ready To Board The Silver Investments Train? Be Sure You Watch Your Step!

More bad news on the counterfeiting of precious metals. This time it's the popular 10 ounce silver bars where a dealer in Michigan recently had a customer come in with two 10 ounce Engelhard silver bars which were obvious fakes - at least to the trained eye (the bar at left is legit - the real thing). Too bad as these are still quite affordable for many people that invest in or are ready to invest in silver - the poor man's/poor woman's gold. They now join the list of fake Silver Eagles and one ounce silver bars (silver or nickel plated with brass cores)  reported earlier this year. In the "old days" most counterfeiters were targeting the more profitable bars and coins where the huge profits were such as the tungsten filled gold bars(now including even 10 ounce and one ounce gold bars) and common Morgan dollars made "rare" by altering the date or mint mark. Now the prudent investor has to be suspicious of almost all silver and gold products unless they invest in safe ways. Whoever in the world is making these fakes (wink, wink) is doing a good enough job to fool the average investor and even some of the more sophisticated investors.

The best solution, of course, is to deal with only reputable dealers that not only know fakes from the real items but are actively on the lookout for all types of counterfeits that are known to exist (plus will make things right if there is a problem). If you like to frequent coin shows, you can invest in an inexpensive gram based scale to take with you to check potential purchases if you have doubts. Of course you will have to know the various weights of those purchases you want to make but that is not too difficult from online sources. As far as eBay and other online auctions selling precious metals - buyer beware.

As you can see from my last post on this blog, I have been ignoring it in favor of my Kindle eBooks. In addition to publishing another eBook, The Last Canadian 80 Percent Silver Coins - A Buying and Selling Guide, I have re-published The Last U.S. 90 Percent Silver Coins - A Buying and Selling Guide which is now almost twice the size of the original edition. And I am currently revising A Guide to Buying and Selling Peace and Morgan Silver Dollars to expand it as well. If you are interested in reviewing any of these eBooks for free in exchange for a review of the book(s) on Amazon and Goodreads, please contact me thru either the GoldInvestingSimplified.com or SilverInvestingGuide.com web sites.

Happy (and safe) investing.  JA

The Last US 90 Percent Silver Coins

Before focusing on the main subject of this post, I want to mention a nice silver coin found at a garage sale. I attend a fair number of garage sales but very few that have silver coins. After seeing the ad in our local paper with a mention of silver coins, it was worth it to me to drive a little distance. Seeing that item listed in a garage sale is always taking a chance since there are a number of situations you can run into. The ideal situation is when you can find some really nice silver coins and get them at a bargain price because the sellers don't understand what they have. There are other times you may find silver coins but they are way over priced and you may break even if (when?) silver hits $100 per ounce. The worst case is when the seller thinks they are silver and valuable but you find out they are neither silver nor valuable.

What I ran into was some nice silver coins that the seller knew the value of and had them priced a little over their true value based on the current spot silver price. There were some Roosevelt dimes and Standing Liberty quarters in fair condition but what caught my eye was the coin you see at left - the first U.S. commemorative coin. Officially called the World's Columbian Exposition Half Dollar, this coin features the bust of Christopher Columbus on the obverse with the image of his flagship, the Santa Maria above two
hemispheres, on the reverse. A total of 950,000 were minted with a 1892 date and 1,550,405 were minted with the 1893 date so they are not especially valuable. This 90% silver coin is considered to contain .3575 troy ounces of silver if circulated and is worth approximately one and a half times it's intrinsic (silver melt) value if the wear marks are minimal. If uncirculated, this coin contains .3617 troy ounces of silver and can be worth several hundred dollars in the higher Mint state grades of MS65 or higher. I didn't get a deal on it but paid less than $20 and am happy to get the first commemorative coin that the U.S. issued.

Now onto the subject of The Last US 90 Percent Silver Coins...

Back when I was selling gold and silver for a large precious metals dealer in the midwest, it was not unusal to receive calls from individuals who had inherited a number of coins for which they hadn't the slightest idea of their worth and wanted help. With the large variety of old US gold and silver coins, it is no wonder the average person is confused as to their value.

And again, I am aware of more than one situation where finders of old silver coins took them to their local bank to convert them into the only money they were familiar with - paper (fiat) money, thereby allowing the bank to cash in on the silver profits that should have rightfully been theirs. Too many people don't understand the true value of pre-1965 US silver coins.

Finally, in my last encounter with a traveling buyer of gold and silver (who had set up shop at a local motel for 2 days), he mentioned that he was buying Morgan and Peace silver dollars for $15 apiece. The average person bringing in some silver dollars were probably thrilled with that price. The problem is who ever brought in silver dollars to this buyer should have been getting more like $21 or $22 each based on the spot silver price at the time. He was screwing them out of about $7 per coin.

So I decided to write a quick reference book to counter the lack of knowledge about pre-1965 silver coins. Titled "The Last US 90 Percent Silver Coins" it is now available on Amazon.com as an eBook for the various flavors of Kindle plus iPad, iPhone, PC, Mac, Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone 7 with a free Kindle Reading App.

Priced at under $4 it has in-depth information on the Roosevelt Dime (1946-1964), Mercury Dime (1916-1945), Washington Quarter (1932-1964), Standing Liberty Quarter (1916-1930), 1964 Kennedy Half Dollar, Franklin Half Dollar (1948-1963), Walking Liberty Half Dollar (1916-1947), Peace Dollar (1921-1933) and Morgan Dollar (1878-1921). You will find it at The Last US 90 Percent Silver Coins if you want to take a free look at the table of contents plus the first chapter to see if it is right for you. I plan on expanding it in 2013.

At the time of this post spot silver is at $34.24. up $2.08 (6.48%) in the last 30 days and $3.19 (10.30%) in the last year. So far in November the U.S. Mint has produced 3,059,500 Silver Eagles which is 32,007,500 year-to-date. They should be able to top the 2010 total of 34,662,500 but it will take some doing to top the Silver Eagle total for 2011 of 39,868,500.

Silver has made some nice moves up since the election and it would be nice to see that continue.

Thanks for reading - keep the faith.

Beware Of These Morgan Silver Dollar "Deals"

Let me first say that the Morgan Silver Dollar is one of my favorite silver coins. But I want to clear up some of the dis-information and half-truths in some of the ads I have seen for these historic coins. There is no shortage of Morgan dollars despite the fact that 270,232,722 were melted down in 1918 by the U.S. Government to replenish their silver stockpile. Every coin show I have been to, including the latest one mentioned in my Gold Blog, has had a surplus of Morgans for sale in many different grades. So if you are shopping around for some Morgan dollars beware of misleading ads such as these...

One ad was promoting 1921 Morgans, stating this was the last year they were struck (true) and implied they had special value because of it (false). The truth is Morgan dollars were minted for the first 11 months of 1921 - a total of 86,730,000 between the three U.S. Mints. Not exactly a small number and far from scarce (the 1921 Peace dollar has a higher value as only 1,000,473 were minted). So don't go paying a high premium for circulated or uncirculated 1921 Morgans. And be VERY careful if you are interested in Mint State 1921 Morgans that are graded and slabbed. Even some of the higher grades are not that scarce and counterfeit Morgans in these grades are not unheard of. If you want truly special Morgan Silver Dollars, look for Carson City Morgans in the higher uncirculated grades and shop around.

Another ad states you can buy Morgan (or Peace) Silver Dollars at a very low premium over the spot silver price. So if spot silver is at $30 and you can get each silver dollar for $32 it sounds like an okay deal. They are hoping the buyer doesn't know the actual silver content or just assumes that these 90% silver dollars contain an ounce of silver. They DON'T. An uncirculated Morgan and Peace silver dollar contain .7734 troy ounces of silver and at $30 spot their intrinsic or melt value is $23.20. A very good deal for the seller but a very bad deal for the buyer. The silver price would have to go up another $11 just to break even on this deal. And if the silver dollar is lightly circulated, it is considered to contain .7650 taking in account the wear factor. If you are not sure of how good some of these deals are, ask any reputable dealer and they will tell you.

After a strong showing for Silver Eagles in January, the numbers kind of dropped off a cliff in February - from 6,107,000 to 1,490,000. So far in March the number is at 1,065,000. Gold Eagles are down in numbers too. After going through 127,000 ounces of gold for all the Gold Eagles produced in January, only 21,000 ounces of gold were used for February's Gold Eagles and 21,000 so far in March. Let's hope they "spring ahead" in numbers in the coming months.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Eagles - Missed It By That Much

Although entirely possible, I really didn't think that the January 2012 final number of Silver Eagles minted would top the January 2011 number of 6,422,000. And it didn't. The 2012 number came in at 6,107,000. Missed it by 315,000 but it was/is still an impressive number. In February of 2011, that number was cut in half (3,240,000) and with only 710,000 Silver Eagles minted so far in February 2012, they will be lucky to make it to the half way mark of January's total.

I want to talk a little about bags of junk silver. When I first started selling precious metals in 2003, spot silver was hovering around $6.00 an ounce. With a full bag of junk silver dimes, quarters or half-dollars considered to contain 715 ounces of silver, a full bag ($1000 face value) could be had for approximately $4300.00. The old-timers (the sales staff that had been around for 20+ years) talked about how the company was buying back bags of silver for $35k when silver hit $50 an ounce. I was impressed by that talk. Back then I didn't think it was possible again in my lifetime. Now I do.

I just visited a site that is offering for sale: a full bag of 90% junk silver dimes, quarters or half-dollars for $24,700 with spot silver at $33.65. That works out to be about $.90 cent premium over spot. That might be a little steep for many budgets BUT they are also offering half-bags for $12,405. That is 357.5 ounces of silver at $1.05 premium over spot. BUT WAIT! You can also get a quarter-bag for $6265. That's 178.75 ounces of silver at $1.40 premium over spot silver. THERE'S MORE! They offer a tenth of a bag ($100 face value) for $2531. That's 71.5 ounces of silver with a premium of $1.75 over spot. Still too much? Finally you can buy one- twentieth of a bag ($50 face value) from this company for $1276.50. That is 35.75 ounces of silver at $2.05 premium over spot.

I really like junk silver and if you are shopping for bags or partial bags of junk silver, this should give you a good idea of competitive prices. Some dealers also offer junk silver bags of silver dollars (Peace or Morgan) but a full bag of those contain 765 ounces of silver. You can find out more about junk silver bags at Junk Silver Bags.

Thanks for reading.

Should Physical Silver Have It's Own Spot Price?

Silver had a great start in 2011, climbing the chart steadily until the great silver price "take-down" in early May. After flirting with $50 per ounce (high of $48.48), spot silver drifted in a lower range and hit a low of $26.87 around year-end. Officially, silver lost about 9% for the year (it's first loss in three years). If only there were two prices quoted for silver, one for the paper traders and the other for the physical market, we would see quite a different story.

The physical silver market is booming and don't let anyone tell you different. Total 2011 Silver Eagles were reported at 39,868,500 (most likely they topped 40,000,000 but weren't reported that way). Here are the totals for Silver Eagles beginning in 1986 (their first year)...

1986 5,393,005, 1987 11,442,335, 1988 5,004,646,
1989 5,203,327, 1990 5,840,210, 1991 7,191,066,
1992 5,540,068, 1993 6,763,762, 1994 4,227,319,
1995 4,672,051, 1996 3,603,386, 1997 4,295,004,
1998 4,847,549, 1999 7,408,640, 2000 9,239,132
2001 9,001,711, 2002 10,539,026, 2003 8,495,008,
2004 8,882,754, 2005 8,891,025, 2006 10,676,522,
2007 9,028,036, 2008 20,583,000, 2009 30,459,000,
2010 34,764,500

On January 3, the first working day of 2012, the US Mint received orders for a whopping 3,197,000 Silver Eagles. That is about 8% of 2011's total figure. It should be noted that the Mint doesn't sell Silver Eagle coins directly to the public but rather through its network of authorized purchasers. So it isn't actual sales to the other coin dealers and investing public. But this huge number seems to indicate the Mint's authorized resellers expect strong demand.

I want to call your attention to this article "For the first time in history, Silver Eagle & Maple Leaf sales will surpass domestic silver production in the U.S. and Canada in 2011". Although it points out that silver production has fallen in both countries, the demand for Silver Eagles and Silver Maple Leafs is on the rise. This interesting article with multiple charts can be found here. Lest you fear you won't get your fair share, at the end of 2011 the U. S. Mint stated "it has enough American Eagle gold and silver bullion coins to meet demand and does not expect to allocate them in early 2012". This Reuters article can be read here.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Cleaning Silver Coins (Or Not)

For some time I have been meaning to write an article about cleaning silver coins. It wasn't high on my list because, in general, I don't recommend it except in a few special cases. Most dealers will tell you never to clean your silver coins (referred to as whizzing) as you may destroy any value it/they may have over and above the intrinsic value. Even if it doesn't have great value, you won't get a better price for a whizzed coin and, if you do it wrong, you may get less than if you just brought it in as is.

Another reason I have taken so long in writing this article is because I didn't have good pictures of coins before and after the cleaning process (actually I describe two different cleaning procedures in the article). I was able to find two good examples to work with which you can see in great detail along with an example of a really bad whizzed coin. You can read about it at Cleaning Silver Coins.

It appears that November's Silver Eagle totals are headed for the lowest amount so far of all months in 2011. There for a while it looked like the U.S. Mint wouldn't even reach 1,000,000 but as of today (11/28) the number stands at 1,284,000 with just two more days to go. Compare this with the next two lowest months of March (2,767,000) and April (2,819,000) versus January's 6,422,000 and September's 4,460,500 and you can see the numbers are all over the board. We'll have to see where December's total comes in at but I would be very surprised to see it go higher than 2,500,000.

Spot silver stands at $31.93 and can't seem to break the $32 mark for any length of time. That's down $3.36 in the last 30 days but still up $5.23 over the last year which is +19.59%. Time is running out for the rosy projections of a much higher silver price by year-end. But keep the faith since 2012 appears to be shaping up as a most interesting year.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Smart Phone Apps for Silver Coins

If you find yourself in a position to buy or sell silver coins (flea markets, private buyers/sellers, etc.) but are unsure of what they are worth at the moment, just take out your smart phone and find out. Here are a few smart phone apps that could save the day.

The first is called RRBI Silver Coins and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later. It's free and can be found at iTunes. Check it out here. The second is an Android app that essentially does the same and is also free. It can be found here. Hope you find this useful.

I just posted an entry on my Gold Investing Blog where I discussed gold and silver prices on September 11, 2001. Silver was at $4.18 and gold at $271.00. At the time of this post, spot silver is at $41.16 which is the strongest showing by far of other assets. You can see the article titled "Market Performance Since 9/11" here. It covers a number of asset classes and is interesting.

Silver eagle totals for August came in at 3,679,500. That is 3,679,500 ounces of silver used in support of that program but the U.S. Mint actually used quite a bit more in support of other programs - namely: 1) the 5-ounce 'America the Beautiful' coin series which used 175,065 ounces of silver in August and 1,902,000 ounces year-to-date; and 2) the proof U.S. Silver Eagle program which had sales of 133,460 in August and a year-to-date total of 726,921. So far in September 651,000 silver eagles have been produced with a year-to-date total of 29,602,000. Now that's a lot of silver. I hope they can keep it up.

I came across an interesting YouTube video titled "How are Silver Coins Minted?". Produced by Endeavour Silver Corp. (a mid-cap silver mining company headquartered in Vancouver B.C.), you will see the process from the melting of raw silver to the production of silver blanks (planchets) to the stamping out of silver rounds. The video runs just over six minutes and you can see it here.

My posts to this blog have been sporadic and will remain so for a little while longer. Once I get my scheduled surgery out of the way on 9/15, I hope to do better. Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - May 2011 Totals For Silver Eagles

The May total for Silver Eagles stands at 3,653,500, second only (in 2011) to January's 6,422,000! Year-to-date, 18,901,500 Silver Eagles have been produced and snapped up by a growing number of investors.

Talk of physical silver shortages continues to circulate but the spot silver price doesn't want to rise accordingly. Shouldn't the price get back on a rising track with such high demand and tightening availability? Not while the paper silver traders keep getting "in the way". To get a better understanding of this silver market, I recommend you read Silver Action a Reminder of the Risks of the Paper Market.

In the last few weeks, Richard Russell has come out strongly in favor of silver and his belief in a resumption of rising prices. The first appeared on May 10th and can be read at Expect Huge Rebound in Silver. The second was posted on May 30th and can be read at Subscribers Should Buy Silver Once Again. When Richard Russell speaks, I listen.

In my research of the last few weeks, I listed several potential stories for this post but decided to drop most of them in favor of this one that really caught my interest. It is titled "A 1980 copy of Playboy Predicts the Future for Silver". It explains the Hunt Brothers actions in the silver market at that time and offers some parallels to today's actions. You can see it here.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - The Great Silver Take-Down

The price of silver was oh so close to $50 per troy ounce, just about $0.15 away. And then last week happened. I know that silver is subject to wild swings but losing two weeks of gains in 11 minutes on Monday (5/2) is a bit much. It's one for the silver record books. The worst one-week showing for silver in 30 years. Silver was down four of the five days for that week.

Some say it was time to take profits and that probably had some effect. But the big reason in my mind (and several others) is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange raising the minimum margin requirements on silver futures. Without going into great detail, those traders holding futures contracts in silver had to either cough up lots more money or sell some or all of their contracts. Lots must have sold based on the falling prices. The CME did this four times in a week! Usually this done when prices are rising to cool the market down. They even did this with falling prices.

The good news is whenever this happened in the past, silver prices rebounded later. From the low 30's silver is now rising again. Spot silver is at $39.30 at the time of this post. Some experts are predicting silver will attain $50 per ounce before 2011 is over. In the meantime, this price drop may be a gift for you to pick up some nice silver pieces while it is $10 lower than it was just a few days ago.

Silver American Eagles are being produce in greater volume than in the past few months. For the first 10 days in May, the U.S. Mint reported 1,421,000 which adds up to 16,669,000 for the year. At this rate, May will be a better month for Silver Eagles than April (2,819,000) or March (2,767,000).

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Price Of Silver Heading To All-Time High

Silver hit an all-time high on Thursday helped by a falling dollar and indications by the Federal Reserve that it would maintain a loose monetary policy renewing inflation worries. What was surprising to me is why silver didn't finish much stronger on Friday with gold tacking on almost $30 on the day. It smacks of some powerful force(s) at work since gold and silver almost always move in tandem.

Spot silver finished at $47.94 moving into the weekend after hitting a high of $49.24 resulting in a one-day loss of $.54. Very strange. Regarding Silver American Eagles, a total of 2,819,000 were produced in April. Sans an update on Monday, this will be the final April number which is far from the record set in January.

Here are a few stories I'd like to share with you. The first is from Reuters giving more information on the silver high. It is titled "Silver hits record near $50 for first time since 1980" and you can read it here. The second article is for those who question if silver is in a bubble. It is titled "Think Silver Has Gone Parabolic? 1980 was 5 Times Faster!". You can find it here.

One last item to those interested in bags/partial bags of junk silver. At the present time, prices are based on piece count of the coins per bag or partial bag. A full bag of 90% U.S. coins is considered to contain 715 troy ounces of silver (about 8.3 ounces less than uncirculated coins). Actual ounces can vary due to the number of well-worn coins are contained in the bag/partial bag. Not a big deal when silver wasn't so pricey but now it is. Even a 10 ounce difference results in almost a $500 loss. Future sales may switch to silver junk bags being sold by weight and not today's face value. More information can be found at Junk Silver Bags.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Mid-April Silver Eagles Total

So far in April, total Silver Eagles produced stands at 2,079,500. It is slowly creeping up to March's total of 2,767,000 and February's total of 3,240,000 but nowhere near January's huge and record-setting 6,422,000.

If you have been keeping your eye on spot silver lately, you know that silver is having a nice run with a few 31 year highs. Today, silver was well into $43 and change before dropping back. The current spot price is $42.79 for a 30 day gain of $7.49 and one-year gain of $25.05 or 141.37%. Do I hear $45.00?

If you have read my previous posts, you know I am a fan of silver dimes - especially the Mercury dime. These are 90% silver thru 1964 and it takes about 14 silver dimes to make up one troy ounce of silver. Another silver coin I like and for you to consider is the Washington quarter (1932-1964). Each circulated coin contains .1788 troy ounces of silver and six quarters contain a little over one ounce of silver. You can buy them by the $10.00 (face value) roll or they have been a popular coin by the bag or partial bag. A full bag consists of $1000 face value coins which equals 4000 quarters - a little pricey in todays market. They can also be purchased in half-bags, quarter bags (1000 coins) or in lesser amounts. You can find out more about buying them by the bag at Junk Silver Bags.

Coin dealers are having a heck of a time keeping silver in stock as customers are buying most everything silver and creating shortages. Here is an article that pretty much tells the story of coin shops across the U.S. You can read it here. There is a nice picture of 100 ounce silver bars which are hugely popular and subject to backorder at this time.

My last item is an article that tells about another launch of five-ounce silver bullion coins by the U. S. Mint later this month. These will honor the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania and Glacier National Park in Montana. Let's hope this goes better than their 2010 America The Beautiful program. You can read all about it here.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Silver At $40.00 An Ounce

Silver reached the much talked about $40 per troy ounce on Friday - the highest it has been in 31 years. In fact, the spot price cruised past that figure and was knocking at $41's door, closing at $40.93 going into the weekend. As of this writing (early Monday morning CDT), silver is already up another $0.98 and stands at $41.91. Some say silver's price will not correct until it reaches $50.00.

This is good news if you already own (and have in your possession) a nice amount of physical silver but not so good if you are just starting to invest in silver. Silver is red hot now and finding a good deal is hard to locate. If you keep an eye on eBay auctions, you see some silver already being bid up to $50 per ounce and beyond. I have no recommendations on where you can buy silver cheap. Your best bet is to look for miscellaneous one-ounce silver rounds or possibly silver bars which have traditionally had a lower premium than coins.

So far in April, 750,000 Silver Eagles have been produced with the Year-To-Date total at 13,179,000.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Silver Nickels

In the fall of 2008, less than 30 months ago, the price of silver was $8.79 an ounce. Yesterday the spot price was over $36.50 at one time but today dropped back and now sits at $35.12. How many other investments can brag about those types of gains? If you invest in silver, you have to understand that silver is very volatile and these ups and downs are to be expected - especially with the world events now going on. Some very knowledgeable people are saying $50 silver is yet ahead so keep the faith.

The U.S Mint is taking quite a breather on the metals this month. So far in March only 717,000 Silver Eagles have been produced. This is after February's total of 3,240,000 and January's whopping 6,422,000 reported Silver Eagle production. I don't think this an indication that demand is slowing down because from everything I hear, demand is still sky high.

One of the things that caught my eye while visiting a coin shop in Laughlin was this Buffalo Nickel Set. The Buffalo Nickel was produced from 1913-1938 by the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco Mints (in 1938, the Jefferson Nickel took its place). If the design looks familiar, it should. The design was "borrowed" to produce the pure gold (24k) American Buffalo.

As you may be aware, there is no silver in the U.S. Nickel. The composition is 75% copper and 25% nickel. The only exception was during WWII when nickel was deemed a critical war material. So from 1942-1945, the nickel was composed of 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. After the war, the nickel returned to its original composition. Even though the nickel contains no silver, because of the metals it does contain the value is approximately .068 cents (not its .05 cent face value).

I have listed many of the common U.S. silver coins' compositions on my silver investing site. If interested, you can read it at Silver Bullion Coins. Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Are You A Collector Or Investor

I decided to escape the winter weather of the upper mid-west for a few weeks and head for warmer parts - namely Laughlin and Las Vegas NV plus Palm Springs CA later. While in Laughlin, I attended a local coin dealers show. There weren't a lot of dealers there but the ones that were had impressive inventories of coins with silver far outweighing gold coins.

There were many, many Morgan Silver Dollars, Peace Silver Dollars and Silver American Eagles being bought and sold but what struck me were the majority were slabbed and graded. MS-63s, MS-64s and MS-65s on the 1878-1921 dollars and MS-69s and MS-70s on the Silver Eagles. Of course there were some pretty hefty prices on most of the merchandise and I can't say I got too excited about most of these graded coins.

I'll admit I did enjoy looking at many of them but it just reinforced in my mind that I am a silver bullion coin investor and not a silver coin collector. Not only is it less expensive but the knowledge to wisely invest in silver bullion coins is much less. God bless the gold and silver coin collectors but for me it is quantity over quality. Unless it is a coin I am really interested in such as a Morgan CC Silver Dollar, coins grades of XF or AU will do just fine. So which are you?

At the time of this post (in Laughlin), spot silver is at $33.91 for a gain on the day of $1.25! Very impressive. Let's see where this leg up takes us.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Higher Premiums For Silver Eagles

Premiums for Silver American Eagles are higher due to a recent announcement by the U.S. Mint that they are raising their wholesale pricing above spot to all authorized dealers from $1.50 to $2.00. This news has already had an effect on dealer pricing as prices for Silver Eagles have jumped over $0.50/oz industry wide. How this will affect the premiums for generic silver rounds has yet to be determined. If investors favor silver rounds to Silver Eagles, you can expect the premiums to rise for them also.

Current numbers for American Silver Eagles from the U.S.Mint are as follows: September total stands at 1,880,000. They have already posted 325,000 Silver Eagles for October (one day) which brings the year-to-date total at 25,805,500. This is turning out to be a record year for these popular silver bullion coins. The total for all of 2009 was 28,766,500 and we still have three months to go.

Happy investing.