Another Laughlin Coin Show - Another Learning Experience

During my annual trip to Laughlin Nevada, I was able to take in another local coin show. This one was held at the Aquarius with about 30 dealers present and admission was free. There were the usual silver coins and a smaller number of gold coins that are normally found at these types of coin shows. That included lots and lots of Morgan dollars - both those certified by the major grading companies as well as a large number of uncertified dollars (so don't believe the hype that Morgan dollars are becoming scarce). But I was able to view some amazing old coins I'd never seen before that went way, way back - coins minted just a few years after the first U.S. mint was established in Philadelphia in 1792. Many were in great condition and the prices for these historic coins ranged from a few thousand to several thousand dollars so I was a looker only. But it was great fun to see that kind of coin history.

At the first dealer display I stopped at, a customer was completing the purchase of approximately 200 Walking Liberty half dollars. The dealer's price was $7.50 per coin or 15 times face. The customer may have gotten a volume discount but in smaller amounts that is not a bad price. These were circulated coins so each would have about .3575 troy ounces of silver (versus .3617 if uncirculated). Other dealers have told me that some customers of 90% silver coins are only interested in silver half dollars with the Walking Libertys much preferred. To me that is totally understandable. Not only is this one of the most beautiful U.S. coins ever minted, it was first struck prior to the U.S. entry in World War I,  was used in daily commerce throughout the Great Depression and all of World War II before yielding to the Franklin half dollar in 1947.

One of my few purchases at the show was a one ounce silver Mexican Libertad. The dealer had a few on display but this one stood out from the others because it was struck with such great detail. Almost like a high-relief coin compared with the other Libertads he had available. One side of the coin features a winged Victoria of Mexican Independence Victory Column in front of a landscape with two volcanoes which I can't pronounce (Popocatepetl and Ixlaccihuatl). The other side features the coat of arms of Mexico surrounded by historical Mexican coats of arms.

If you are not familiar with these coins, Mexican Libertads are government-issued gold and silver coins. The .999 silver Libertad was introduced in 1982 in one ounce versions only. In 1991, fractional Libertads of 1/20 ounce, 1/10 ounce, 1/4 ounce and 1/2 ounce were introduced and in 1996 2 ounce and 5 ounce Libertads were added to the series. Also, beginning in 1983, silver Proof Libertads became available in the one ounce versions with Proof fractionals added in 1993. You can find out more about these silver bullion coins at Wikipedia.

These are really great coins to own and if you find some at a price you are willing to pay, don't hesitate to invest in them. They are universally recognized and accepted. I have not heard of counterfeit Libertads being discovered but that doesn't mean they aren't out there. It pays to deal only with trusted sources for any precious metals purchases.

Thanks for reading. JA

Buying Junk Silver At Multiples Of Face Value. How Does That Work?

So you have decided to start buying circulated U.S. 90 percent silver coins also known as "junk" silver. You stop in at a local coin shop you've passed by many times before and tell the dealer you have $1000 and want to purchase some old U.S. silver coins. So the dealer takes out a box containing dimes, quarters and half-dollars, all dated 1964 or before, and begins counting out your coins. As the dealer is doing this, s/he explains that the current spot price of silver is $18.00 and their current price of selling junk silver is 14 times the face value. And it turns out your $1000 fiat currency will get you about $71.40 in junk silver.

At this point you might be thinking "this dealer is scamming me, I thought $1000 would get me more silver coins than that".  Actually this "deal" isn't bad at all. Even if the dealer was charging 15 times face value, it would be fair. So how can you be prepared to spot a fair deal from a bad one prior to visiting the dealer? Here is what you need to know...

It is generally recognized that a $1000 bag of 10,000 circulated silver dimes, 4,000 circulated silver quarters or 2,000 circulated silver half-dollars contains 715 ounces of silver. With a spot silver price of $18.00, the silver value of that bag is $18 times 715 or $12,870. Divide the $12,870 by the bag's $1000 face value and the result is $12.87. So for each $12.87 of fiat money you would receive $1.00 of silver coins - but only if the dealer was running a non-profit company. Since the dealer has a right to make a decent profit, 14 times face would be generous for such a small transaction (far less than a full bag) and 15 times would be more like it. If you were selling silver coins to a dealer with the 12.87 times face value, the dealer might offer you 11 times face as the spread would help them stay in business.

If you are offered uncirculated silver coins at multiples times face, such as rolls of Brilliant Uncirculated Franklin or 1964 Kennedy half dollars, the amount of silver in an uncirculated $1000 bag is approximately 725 ounces so use this number instead of 715. Or you might come across some 40 percent silver clad Kennedy half dollars minted for circulation (business strikes) from 1965-1969. Although not as desireable as 90 percent silver coins, if the price is right get the silver. A $1000 bag of silver clad Kennedys contains approximately 300 ounces of silver (each coin contains .1479 ounces of silver). I have never seen Morgan or Peace silver dollars offered at multiples times face but that doesn't mean offers like that don't exist. A $1000 bag of circulated Morgan or Peace dollars is considered to contain 765 ounces of silver with uncirculated silver dollars at approximately 780 ounces (each uncirculated Morgan or Peace dollar contains .77344 ounces of silver).

You can find lots of information on U.S. and Canadian silver coins in my ebooks The Last 90 Percent Silver U.S. Coins and The Last 80 Percent Silver Canadian Coins.

Thanks for reading.  JA

The Carson City Morgan Silver Dollar - A Favorite of Collectors and Investors

I like Morgan Silver Dollars a lot. What I don't like is how some sellers often misrepresent them, either by advertising these dollars as rare when most are not, and/or correctly stating they are 90% silver but omitting how much silver they actually contain. And I'm not too crazy about the healthy premiums of Morgan (and Peace) dollars being charged by dealers. But I make an exception for Carson City (CC) silver dollars. 

The Carson City mint produced the Morgan CC silver dollar for 13 years, from 1878 through 1885 and again from 1889 through 1893. Of the slightly more than 656,000,000 Morgan dollars minted from 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921, only about 13,862,000 Morgans (approximately 2%) were minted by the Carson City mint, the least of any of the five U. S. Mints that produced Morgan silver dollars. Here are those production numbers by year...

1878CC = 2,212,000; 1879CC = 756,000; 1880CC = 591,000; 1881CC = 296,000; 1882CC = 1,133,000; 1883CC = 1,204,000; 1884CC = 1,136,000; 1885CC = 228,000; 1889CC = 350,000; 1890CC = 2,309,041; 1891CC = 1,618,000; 1892CC = 1,352,000; 1893CC = 677,000

(The most valuable CC Morgan, by far, is the 1889CC followed by the 1893CC and 1879CC).


But it's anybody's guess how many CC Morgans exist today. Most likely some were lost in 1918 when 270,232,722 were melted down by the government to recover their silver content (the Pittman Act). And more were probably turned in and melted down when silver was on its way to $50 per ounce a few years back. Others may be hidden in buried caches, their location long forgotten and their owners no longer on this earthly plane. No wonder CC Morgans are in high demand and fetch a generous premium.

The CC Morgan you see at left was purchased from a local coin dealer a few years back. The story on it is:

   The U.S.Government "discovered" a bunch of CC Morgans in the mid-1960s, encased them in plastic, boxed them up along with a numbered certificate and sold them to the public. 

It doesn't show up well but this coin has some noticeable bag marks and would probably be graded in the low Mint State grades of MS-60 or so a.k.a. Brilliant Uncirculated. Current dealer bid/ask price (the Coin Dealer Newsletter) on a BU 1883 CC Morgan is $190/$205. 

The places I like to shop for Carson City Morgans (including encased CC Morgans like that pictured) are at local coin shows but you can find them elsewhere. But beware as there are some very good counterfeits. Higher valued Morgan dollars, including CC Morgans, are a prime target for counterfeiters (the asking price for a Brilliant Uncirculated 1889CC is currently at $25,000). For any higher priced Morgan silver dollar, CC or not, buy only from a dealer you trust. And expect to pay a higher premium for the CC mint marked Morgans.
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If you are interested in Canadian silver coins, I am offering a free download of my eBook The Last Canadian 80 Percent Silver Coins - A Buying & Selling Guide for a limited time. There are over 100 pages and 70+ detailed coin photos. If you take advantage of this freebie, it would please me greatly if you would provide your honest review of this eBook when you have read it. You can find it here at Amazon.

Happy investing. JA

Cavorting At A Local Coin Show

Well maybe not cavorting in the true sense of the word but I had a great time at a small, local coin show recently. And small it was with less than 10 dealers present. But most had impressive inventories to display (it wasn't just a bunch of Morgan dollars, Mercury dimes and Silver American Eagles). It just goes to show that even small coin shows can have value for coin collectors and investors.

I took time to examine some old silver coins, most notably a Capped Bust 1827 silver half dollar in About Uncirculated condition. It is a great coin for serious collectors but for the asking price of this coin, I could purchase just shy of 15 Silver Eagles or Silver Maple Leafs which is more to my liking (confirming my casual investor status). This 1827 coin will have to be someone else's treasure to have and hold.

I am less of a fan of silver rounds and tend to favor government-issued silver bullion coins. But I do make exceptions for silver rounds at a good price BUT they must have good eye appeal. As luck would have it, I found some nice rounds at a good price (in the low $20's with the spot price at just over $20.00) at this show...

This first silver round is modeled after the U.S. Indian Head Quarter Eagle and Half Eagle minted from 1908 through 1929 (none were struck from 1917-1924).  These gold coins set a U.S. precedent in that the figures (a.k.a. devices)  and lettering were sunk below the coins' surface (incused) as opposed to other U.S. coins in which the "devices" were and are raised from the surface of the coin.  The silver round's obverse closely matches the gold coins' obverse but the reverse of the silver coin differs from the gold coins as it identifies a private mint plus the weight and silver fineness of .999.

I was not familiar with the issuer of this round, the Golden State Mint, so I visited their web site at GS Mint. They have a number of interesting silver and gold rounds and bars (of various sizes) with a $500 minimum purchase. To their credit, they have survived the many lean years, having been founded in 1974. Next I did a quick Internet search for "Golden State Mint Reviews" and "Golden State Mint Complaints" with nothing alarming showing up. They look like a good company to do business with but please be aware: 1) I have absolutely no affiliation with this company and receive no compensation for any purchases by anyone; and 2) I am not recommending that you do business with Golden State Mint without doing your own due diligence. You are responsible for your own decisions regarding the purchase of precious metals.

Another silver round I picked up at the show is also modeled after a U.S. gold coin - the 24-karat (.9999 fineness) American Buffalo which began production in 2006 (and this gold coin was modeled after the historic buffalo nickel minted from 1913-1938). The silver round's obverse closely matches the gold buffalo's obverse (just missing a date) but the reverse of the silver coin differs from the gold coin as it specifies the weight (one troy ounce) and silver fineness (.999) among other lettering differences. The Silver Buffalo was also purchased at a good price in the low $20's.

To my way of thinking, silver rounds that are modeled after well-recognized

and popular designs (24k Gold Buffalos, Morgan dollars, gold Krugerrands, $20 Saint Gaudens, etc.) stand a better chance of being favored over lesser known (and less attractive) designs when it comes time to sell. In addition to the purchased silver rounds, I was able to pick up some nice Barber and Standing Liberty quarters, a 2014 Australian Saltwater Crocodile 1 ounce silver coin and my first Maria Theresa thaler (a historic but not so rare Austrian coin containing .7520 troy ounces of silver) but that is the subject of a future post.

Changing gears, are you familiar with the IRS reporting requirements when buying and selling precious metals? The good people at JM Bullion have put together a helpful Infographic if you are unfamiliar with these requirements or need a refresher. You can find it at JMInfographic Its purpose is educational and shouldn't be considered financial advice. Of course you are responsible for any capital gains tax on profits from sales even if your transaction(s) don't require dealer reporting.  

At the time of this post, spot silver is at $19.45, Silver Eagles month-to-date are at 1,510,000 and the year-to-date total is 27,613,500.

One last note, I have published my ebook "The Last Canadian 80 Percent Silver Coins - A Buying and Selling Guide " on Smashwords so it is now available on Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Oyster as well as Kindle and a few more. You can see the Smashwords listing at  Canadian Silver Coins . My other ebooks, "The Last 90 Percent Silver United States Coins - A Buying and Selling Guide" and "A Guide to Buying and Selling Peace & Morgan Silver Dollars" are still available on Amazon only.

Thanks for reading, 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

A Lesson In Silver Investing

In a recent episode of Pawn Stars, a client brought in an impressive amount of silver to sell. This segment of the show provided some insights into why investing in silver can be a smart move.

If you are not familiar with Pawn Stars, it is one of the top cable TV reality shows currently being aired. The scenes take place at a small pawn shop located in Las Vegas between downtown and the start of the Las Vegas Strip (I have driven past the shop on a few occasions but never stopped - there was always too long a line of people waiting to get in). As with all pawn shops, the public is free to walk in to pawn or sell their valuables with some leaving highly satisfied and others having their hopes of quick riches dashed. 

On this particular day, this young man brought in a cart containing 3,372 ounces of silver. He had taken his father's advice to invest in silver about 12 years ago when it was cheap to buy. In studying the scenes, it appears this silver "pile" consisted of 1) one bag of circulated 90 percent silver dimes (715 ounces of silver), 2) one bag of circulated 90 percent silver quarters (715 ounces of silver), 3) ten 100 ounce silver bars (1000 ounces of silver), and one 1000 ounce silver bar (942 ounces of silver) for a total of 3372 ounces of silver.

Just a few comments on the above list. 1000 ounce silver bars are rarely (if ever) exactly 1000 ounces. They are somewhat roughly cast so the refiners stamp the actual weight of each bar along with a unique serial number, purity and the hallmark of the refiner. Because of their weight (just under 70 lbs), investors usually don't take delivery of their 1000 silver bars but pay a reliable financial organization to store the bars for them for a fee. And if they are wise, they only invest in 1000 ounce bars that are allocated or assigned to them by serial number. One last note, if the hallmark or identity of the refiner is well recognized, the silver bars are accepted as good with no testing necessary. If not, the buyer may and should require testing. The hallmark I saw on the 100 ounce bars was Engelhard which is rock solid. The hallmark on the 1000 ounce bar was not clearly shown and evidently required testing by drilling into the bar and testing the shavings with nitric acid. It was good (more info on silver bars can be found at Silver Bullion Bars).

Over what period of time this silver was accumulated was not discussed. But if the majority was purchased about 12 years ago, the seller may have paid about $5 per ounce (a good average for all 12 months of 2000). Let's do the math working with that figure...

$5 times 3,372 ounces of silver = $16,860 initial investment.
Spot price of silver at time of sale was in the low $30's.
Buyer offered close to the spot price, total of $110,901.00.
Final offer was $111,000 which the seller accepted.
$111,000 minus initial investment of 16,860 = $94,140 profit.

This is a nice profit of course but the IRS probably watches this show too and the seller has taxes that must be paid. I believe the $94,140 is treated as a Long Term Capital Gain and taxed as such. And if the seller didn't keep his 12 year old receipts, $111,000 may be the taxable gain (this is my take on it and is not to be considered legal or financial advice).

The burning question is did the seller sell too soon? The current spot price of silver is $26.90. If the price stays under $30 and in a narrow trading range for the next few years, he will look like a genius. On the flip side, if silver goes to $50 per ounce or higher in the next year or two (as many experts predict), he will have lost a bundle. My questions to him would be why now and why didn't he keep some back.

Whenever silver experiences a significant price drop (it is almost half of what it was in April 2011), physical silver becomes a hot commodity. You will have to decide if this price low in silver represents a final buying opportunity before the price takes off to unimaginable heights. As for me, I would not be selling at this time but looking to invest in more. That would include low premium silver bullion and leaving the higher priced, higher grades to others.

By the way, if you are interested in viewing the Pawn Star episode discussed above, you can find it here.

Thanks for reading. 

Silver Investing - The Other One-Ounce Silver Coins

When it comes to one-ounce silver coins, the American Silver Eagle and Silver Canadian Maple Leaf seem to take center stage. But there are several other one-ounce silver coins that are worth investing in if you come across them and the price is right.  Although not quite as popular as the above two, the coins I list below are well recognized and their liquidity tends to be very good.

Other one-ounce silver coins (not in any particular order) include the Silver Koala, Mexican Silver Libertad, Silver Kookaburra, Silver Panda, Silver Britannica and Silver Philharmonic (pictured below).

The Silver Philharmonic was first minted in 2008 by the Austrian Mint in Vienna. It closely matches its counterpart - the Gold Philharmonic first introduced in 1989. This .999 fine silver bullion coin features the image of the "Great Organ" found in the concert hall where the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performs with the flip side featuring a variety of musical instruments.  You can't go wrong investing in this coin. 

Another silver item I want to mention is this Silver Krugerrand. When I first spotted this Krugerrand, I assumed it was produced by the South African Mint as a silver version of the famous Gold Krugerrand. Come to find out this is not a legal tender coin produced by the SA Mint (they do not produce a Silver Krugerrand) but is considered a silver round produced by a private mint. This silver round is commemorating the continuous production of the Gold Krugerrand from 1967 until 1983. I purchased it because it closely duplicates the gold version and is more appealing to me than many of the other silver rounds I see advertised. The Silver Krugerrand isn't that rare so you shouldn't be stuck with a high premium if you decide to purchase. I would think the liquidity would be good because of the familiar images on both sides.

If you were to have purchased either the Silver Philharmonic or the Silver Krugerrand one year ago, they would have cost you over $50 each as the spot price of silver peaked at just under $50 on 4/24/2011. Today you should be able to purchase each for somewhere in the low $30's (spot silver is at $30.66 at the time of this post). If the price of silver goes back up (as many predict it will), you will find yourself with a nice profit. 

Stop by the Silver Investing Simplified and Silver Investing Guide for more info on silver investments.

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.

Silver Investing - I'm Going To Stop Puting Things Off, Starting Tomorrow

My last few silver purchases have been with a small dealer in my area. When I say small dealer, I mean small in that he is a one-man show. He travels around to local and regional coin shows, rents a booth and conducts business. Maybe I could get better deals elsewhere but Artie the dealer is as honest as the day is long and we trust each other.

Artie and I have a mutual friend that believes he missed the boat on profiting in silver and refuses to invest. The trouble is he has been saying that since silver was in the mid-teens. So he really did miss the boat then and he is still missing it. He has to stop puting things off. One thing our friend does like to do is spend time at the casino in our area. If he would take just half of his gambling funds and invest in some silver, he could be accumulating some real assets. I mean $40 will maybe get him 5-10 minutes of "fun" on a tight slot machine. With that same $40 (or less) our friend could become a full-fledged silver investor. It's all a matter of priorities and a little future planning.

My most recent purchase from Artie was a small amount of Brilliant Uncirculated (BU) Ben Franklin half-dollars (1948-1963). These are beautiful coins and, since they are uncirculated, each coin contains .3617 troy ounces of silver. With spot silver hovering around $35 per ounce, the intrinsic value (the value of the silver content only) of each coin is about $12.66. These coins would be worth a little more because they are uncirculated and in beautiful condition. Silver half-dollars that have been in circulation are considered to contain .3575 ounces of silver due to the wear factor. Based on the current spot price of silver, I paid a healthy premium for these half-dollars. But based on where I think silver is going, I won't be losing money on them. You can find out more about different silver coins at Silver Investing Guide and Silver Investing Simplified.

It can be confusing and frustrating trying to decide what to invest in these days. There are lots of conflicting stories on what is a safe investment. If you decide not to invest in precious metals and stay in other markets, I respect your decision. Just use good judgement and some good old common sense. Those that don't can expect the following...

When a person with money meets a person with experience,
the person with the experience gets the money and
the person with the money gets the experience.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Buying Silver From Classified Ads

Before I discuss the mauling silver prices have been taking lately, I want to share a couple of classified ads that recently appeared in my local paper offering silver coins for sale.

Ad #1: 250 Silver Dimes, $750. How good of a deal is this? Circulated silver dimes (I'm assuming they are circulated) are considered to contain .0715 troy ounces of silver. So 250 x .0715 = 17.875 ounces of silver. Divide $750 by 17.875 for a cost per ounce of $41.958. The seller probably placed the ad when silver was going for $39-$40 an ounce (just last week). Spot silver at the time of this post is at $31.05 so the current worth of each silver dime is $2.22 (31.05 x .0715). Paying the asking price of $3.00 per coin, or a premium of $.78 per coin, is a little steep. I'd pass on this one.

Ad #2: 6 Silver Dollars, 5 Walker 1/2, 5 Silver Eagles $575. let's look at this offer a little closer. Circulated silver dollars are considered to contain .7650 troy ounces of silver, Walking Liberty half-dollars .3575 ounces of silver and Silver Eagles a full-ounce of silver. So total them all up (6 x .7650, 5 x .3575 and 6 x 1) and you have 12.3775 ounces of silver. Divide $575 by 12.3775 and you get an asking price of $46.455 per ounce. Ouch!

To take advantage of either "deal" would require great faith that 1) silver will one day surpass $50 per ounce and, 2) the buyer is willing to buy and hold despite the volatility of silver. I think it will go above that price sometime in the future but there are probably better deals to be had with silver presently in the $30-$31 range.

Now on to the shellacking the price of silver has taken lately. I've discussed this before but there is a world of difference between the silver paper traders and those dealing with physical silver. From all accounts I have read, this drop in prices has U. S. precious metals dealers scrambling to fill the huge demand their customers see as a fantastic buying opportunity. Silver buyers in Canada are of the same mind. In an article titled "Maple Leaf silver coins seeing record demand" a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mint stated they are on track to raise sales of its silver bullion coins by around 30 percent to 25 million ounces this year. The article is here.

You would never know that physical silver demand continues to be strong by watching the downward action - a probable result of technical paper trading in the futures market. The anti- higher-silver-price crowd certainly flexed their muscles last week - silver had its biggest single-day decline in two decades. More downward pressure came after the CME again increased margins on Friday. How many does that make now?

The U.S. Mint is starting to crank out Silver Eagles again after a slow September start. The total so far for the month is 3,425,500 (year-to-date 32,376,500) with a few more days to go. Still far from January 2011's total of 6,422,000.

Be sure to visit my web sites on silver to read helpful information on common U.S. and Canadian silver coins. Again, they are Silver Investing Simplified and Silver Investing Guide.

Thanks for reading. Keep the faith.

Silver Investing - Silver Price Holding Steady While Gold Flying High

I don't understand how the spot silver price can be stuck in such a narrow range while gold is charging full speed ahead - making new high after new high. Silver prices in the last 30 days ranged from a high of $42.27 to a low of $34. 77. But in the last week, silver has stayed in the $37 to $39 range while gold has charged ahead with record setting highs. Something is going on behind the scenes which is not meant to be disclosed to or understood by those who follow the price of silver.

On the positive side this represents a terrific buying opportunity if you believe silver is going to meet and exceed the $50 per ounce mark. If you are one to wander over to eBay and check on silver auctions with the intent to bid, I have some tips for you. I first posted these tips on my gold blog but will repeat them here only tailored to silver.

Tips On Buying Silver On eBay

Reuters recently published a blog entry titled "How Americans buy gold and precious metals on eBay". In this short entry it was revealed eBay’s gold bullion sales have jumped more than 60% from 2007 through 2010 with “almost half of the silver and gold buyers in the first quarter of 2011 never purchased these items on eBay before.” You can find the article here.

I have tracked activity on eBay for both gold and silver auctions for some time and even included some "ending soon" auctions on both my Gold Investing and Silver Investing web site pages. Only one fact surprised me in that they stated "There are two silver buyers for every gold buyer because silver is so much cheaper." I would have guessed a 5 to 1 ratio or even higher of silver to gold.

I have purchased silver on eBay in the past but never gold. There are two warnings I would give anyone before bidding on an eBay gold or silver auction:

1. It is important to watch the premiums you will be paying before bidding on a coin or lot. The Reuters blog entry mentions a 21% premium over spot silver for a Silver American Eagle. I would shop around for other silver coins or bars to invest in with lower premiums since the popular Silver Eagle will command among the highest premiums of any silver bullion coin. To be a smart shopper, you absolutely should know the spot silver price before bidding.

2. The blog entry also mentions the potential purchase price of a coin from a "top-rated seller". There are many, many auctions initiated by sellers that are NOT top-rated sellers. So how do you increase your odds of making a safe bid with a reputable seller? Here is what I would look for...

In the upper right-hand corner of each auction page is the seller's basic statistics area that identifies the seller's eBay name (if they are a top-rated seller, it will display that too), the number of transactions (with feedback) and the positive feedback percentage. To see what I'm talking about, go to Peace Silver Dollar, scroll down to the eBay auctions and click on any auction. If Top-rated seller is not displayed, I would look for several hundred transactions with 100% positive feedback. I would also try to deal only with sellers in my own country. Just keep in mind that only you can decide if bidding on an item is right for you. I take no responsibility for whatever gold purchases you successfully bid on.

For your information, I don't use eBay much for silver purchases. My personal preference is to use: 1) a smaller, local dealer for small purchases; 2) a large, reputable regional or nationwide dealer for larger and/or riskier purchases; and 3) eBay auctions if a good deal or "odd" coin pops up that I want -- in that order.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found this information useful.

Silver Investing - Problems Getting Physical?

One of the resources I use to purchase silver is a person who operates out of his home and attends regional coin shows to do most of his dealing. This about as small-time as you can get for a coin dealer but he is honest, quotes me fair prices and I trust him.

Knowing he was going to another show last weekend, I contacted him a few days before and expressed an interest in picking up a roll or two of 90% silver half-dollars. I prefer Walking Liberty Half-Dollars but the Ben Franklins or even 1964 Kennedy Half-Dollars would be acceptable. He has not contacted me since which probably means he was unable to get even one roll (20 coins) of half-dollars in any of my three choices.

This is not too surprising and has happened to me before. Supplies of physical silver coins are tight and it seems buyers outnumber sellers by a wide margin. I know I am not interested in parting with any of my silver at this time with silver holding great promise to head back to the $50.00 per ounce price and beyond.

If I had been able to get at least one roll of any of the above half-dollars, what would be a fair price? The silver content of each circulated silver coin is .3575 troy ounces times 20 equals a little over seven ounces of silver. With spot silver at around $35 per ounce and taking the premium into account, I might have ended up paying around $275-280 per roll. But alas, it was not to be.

When you are buying 90% silver coins like this, it is important to know the silver content to help determine how fair the asking price is. It takes approximately 14 dimes or six quarters or three half-dollars to equal one troy ounce of silver. Knowing this plus the current spot price of silver will allow you to do a quick calculation of the premium being tacked on to the seller's asking price (and the fairness of the offer). Knowledge is power.

A final note: for those of you who have had trouble viewing my article on Morgan CC Silver Dollars, the problem has been resolved. Clicking on the link (above) will take you to the corrected page.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Silver Sniping On eBay

When I have some spare time, I like to look at the various silver coins that are being auctioned on eBay. While I haven't seen many "deals", every now and then I find something that is of interest enough for me to bid on. That may be Walking Liberty Half Dollars, Silver Philharmonics, Silver Rounds, Morgan Dollars, etc. As long as the current bid isn't too high, the shipping fee is reasonable, the seller has a high positive feedback with a good number of transactions under his/her belt and there are only a few hours to go on the auction, I will probably place a bid.

Nothing is more frustrating than almost having the winning bid when some other bidder "steals" it from you with seconds to go. Then it's too late to place a higher bid before the auction ends. That's where sniping comes in. There is a free service that allows a bidder to automatically place a bid with just seconds to go (sniping) thereby increasing the odds of being the winning bidder. And the bidder doesn't even have to be by his/her computer. Just enter the eBay item number, the maximum bid and when to place the bid (how many seconds before the auction ends). Then go play outside. If interested, go to Goofbay and read up on eBay Sniper. This site offers other useful services that you may find of interest.

If you have come across other useful silver investing tools, please share them on this blog.

Thanks for reading.

Silver Investing - Buying Silver From A Private Party

An ad appeared in our local paper offering some silver coins for sale. The list included 20 Silver Dollars, 10 Silver Eagles, five Walking Liberty Half Dollars and six silver one-ounce rounds. Asking price was $1100.00. If you want to follow up on deals like this, here is how to do it.

Basically, you need to find out how many troy ounces of silver that amount represents and multiply ounces times the spot price of silver. The difference between that figure and the asking price is the premium over the spot price you will be paying. Let me go through the process using the silver from the ad described above. The silver content of most silver coins can be found at Silver Coins.

20 (circulated) Silver Dollars at .7650 silver content per coin = 15.3 troy ounces of silver. 10 Silver Eagles = 10 ounces of silver. Six silver rounds = six ounces of silver. Lastly, five Walking Liberty Half Dollars at .3575 silver content per coin = approx. 1.79 ounces of silver. Total ounces of silver for these 41 coins is 33.09.

Now multiply 33.09 times the current spot price of silver. For your protection, you MUST know the latest spot price of silver. One source is at Silver Investing Guide. Since the current price is about $29 per ounce, the result will be $959.61. The difference between $959.61 and the asking price of $1100.00 is $140.39. By dividing 140.39 by 33.09, the result is approx. 4.24 which is the percent premium over spot you would be paying. This is a low premium. If the coins are in decent condition and you are confident that silver will be going higher (much higher according to some experts), this may be a deal you would like to take advantage of.