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. 

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 - 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 - Silver at $24 Per Ounce

Silver had some great gains today and spot silver stands at $24.30 as of this writing. In the last 30 days, silver has gone up $3.83 or 18.70% (compared to 30 day gold up 10.64%). Precious metals are moving too far too fast and are due for a correction. Buy on the dips if you can.

You really don't need a lot of money to get started if you haven't already. I read one person's plan for investing in silver. Although this person is on a fixed income, he makes it a point to buy one or two silver dollars at his local coin shop every few weeks. Small but steady.

Totals for Silver American Eagles so far in October are as follows: 1,350,000 with year-to-date totals at 26,830,500. Compare that to Gold American Eagles which so far in 2010 have consumed 1,006,500 ounces of gold.

Happy investing.

Silver Investing - $20 Silver

In case you haven't noticed, silver has been bobbing above and below the magic $20 mark. As I write this post, silver is at a solid $20.56 per troy ounce. Can it dip below $20 again? Yup, but the trend is up and, according to many "experts", it is due to go much higher. I hope you are in.

With September half over, the U.S. Mint posted just 390,000 Silver American Eagles produced so far this month. I don't know what to make of this low number. Also in (early) September, they adjusted the August silver eagles produced from 1,906,000 to 2,451,000. Maybe their web master was on vacation so the correct numbers couldn't be posted in time. Year-to-date the silver eagle total stands at 23,990,500.

Happy investing.

Silver Investing - Silver Eagles May 2010

The U.S. Mint reported that Silver American Eagles produced in May totaled 3,636,500 - a little short of the four million mark. Year-to-date, production of one-ounce Silver Eagles have totaled 15,167,500. The U.S. Mint is pumping out over 3 million silver eagles a month! The "poor man's gold" is being discovered by more and more Americans (which is a good thing).

Regarding U.S. gold bullion coins, 190,000 one-ounce Gold American Eagles were produced in May for a year-to-date total of 521,500. 24k-Gold Buffalo coins for May were reported at 70,500. The U.S. Mint has only been producing Gold Buffaloes for two months so far this year and sales year-to-date are already at 127,000. It will be interesting to see how many more months these coins will be available since they seem to run out of 24-karat blanks quickly.

Silver American Eagles - Year End Totals

Silver American Eagles continue to be in high demand. The total number of Silver American Eagles struck in 2009 was 28,766,500. Compare that with 2008's total of 19,583,500 and 2007's total of 9,887,000 and you can see the only way this market is going is up, up, up.

This up trend has been confirmed so far in 2010 with January's total of 3,592,500 Silver Eagles being minted. If this keeps up, 2010 will be another record-setting year for this popular silver coin. Before you buy, make sure to shop around as the premiums charged for Silver American Eagles can vary by quite a bit among various dealers.

Silver Investing Guide - Welcome Message

Hello and welcome to the Silver Investing Guide blog. I hope you will come to consider this a valuable resource for practical and useful silver investing tips and information.

My interest in silver (and gold) bullion/coin investing led me to take a sales position with a large precious metals dealer in the midwest some years back. Luckily for me, this company was (and is) one of the "good guys" in the business and I learned a great deal. The company is still going strong but I have since retired.

Sharing what I know about silver investing is the purpose of this blog and I am glad you are here. If you are interested in learning more about silver investing insights and strategies, come back often as many more posts to this blog are planned.

Again, welcome and stay tuned for much more...