Junk silver

It's been 45 years since I bought junk silver. The declining dollar has prompted me to try again; this time $100. face in quarters from SD Bullion. I went with quarters because a friend teaches a high school metals class, in which students forge a silver ring. Very popular. 

In the spirit of Houseofham's I'll attempt to break down into 5 catagories:

1. Proof (8) dml 1961 (1), 1962 (4), 1963 (2),  1964 (1).

2. Uncirculated (56) all 1960's

3. XF-AU (89)  most 1960's.

4. G-F (187) The bulk of the collection. Several better dates, 1952-S, 1955-D, etc. VF condition is not common, and distributed between XF-AU and G-F. 

5. Poor- AG (60) Only three dateless: the Barber and two standing liberties. 

I was a little dismayed to find a 1984 quarter, (lower right) but the final count was 400 silver, so a bonus.

Conclusion: The wt/face ratio is higher than any of my earlier junk purchases. I was especially pleased with the proofs.  I will definitely try SD Bullion again, unless prices go beyond my means.

I wouldn't call proof, UNC, and XF-AU junk silver.

I fully agree. I checked around and found this was the only major dealer offering junk quarters at spot, when it was $41.10. It's now around $46, and getting a little too rich, at least for more purchases.

I got some junk silver the other day, but now I feel really bad about the transaction.  

I picked up a couple of high silver content coins for less than half the melt value, the guy sent my coins to someone else, and sent me their items.  I sent their items on to  them, but they hadn't sent the coins to me.  After a few weeks the seller refunded my money, because I hadn't received the coins and it was his mistake rather than being lost in the post.  

A few weeks after that, the coins finally showed up.  Now I can't find the seller's details, and since everything was done through Ping, I can't send the money back through again.  So now I have some junk silver that I basically got for a steal in the first place and then got my money back

Neil - was it John Eccles,  that guy is hopeless, his orders are always messed up and his shop is a complete pigsty. Its what happens when the same families dominate the coin market for 50 plus years, it probably wasn't as he charges efulu (FULL) price and then some. An order I paid for and got 2 weeks ago - STILL hasn't arrived and its only Wellington to Chch which is 400km for you non Kiwis and one Island to hop.

Spaudling about those quarters - A good lot and before I read further I thought you said you spent $100 on silver quarters, rather than I bought $100 face of silver quarters. Had it been the former, you would have got like 11 or 12 coins with these overheated silver prices.

Silver is like $45 an ounce now meaning a worn sterling silver halfcrown is about $35 in NZ pesos and $20 in USD. Even a US quarter has $13 worth of silver in it. 

I am really lucky to have around 5 kg of bulk silver in a old 1920s chocolate tin. My holdings include $41 in US coins (A kg of silver I bought for $1500 back in 2023 - my prices are all NZ pesos which are virtually 2 to 1 for US dollars now), 100 50% silver florins of the UK, 80 x 92.5% silver shillings of New Guinea and 38 Halfcrowns of pre 1920 (Some are slick) and $11.50 of Canadian silver quarters and halves (All 80%) amongst others. In late 2024, the box was worth $5.6k melt and now its like $8.7k in melt!

Moneytane

Neil - was it John Eccles,  that guy is hopeless, his orders are always messed up and his shop is a complete pigsty. Its what happens when the same families dominate the coin market for 50 plus years, it probably wasn't as he charges efulu (FULL) price and then some. An order I paid for and got 2 weeks ago - STILL hasn't arrived and its only Wellington to Chch which is 400km for you non Kiwis and one Island to hop.

No it wasn't John, I've bought a few things off him in the past and the transactions have always gone smoothly.  This was a guy who didn't seem to know what he had.  The coins weren't even listed in the coins section of trademe, they were listed in the silver section.  

Trademe have removed a lot of the ways to search now too.  You can't search for traders, you can't search for feedback you've placed, and you can't search through old listings like you used to.  It's made things a lot harder to track them down.  I had a cleanup of all my emails recently too, and I deleted all the emails from the guy because I thought the situation was resolved.  I wasn't prepared for the coins to show up over a month after I bought them.

Moneytane

Neil - was it John Eccles,  that guy is hopeless, his orders are always messed up and his shop is a complete pigsty. Its what happens when the same families dominate the coin market for 50 plus years, it probably wasn't as he charges efulu (FULL) price and then some. An order I paid for and got 2 weeks ago - STILL hasn't arrived and its only Wellington to Chch which is 400km for you non Kiwis and one Island to hop.

 

Spaudling about those quarters - A good lot and before I read further I thought you said you spent $100 on silver quarters, rather than I bought $100 face of silver quarters. Had it been the former, you would have got like 11 or 12 coins with these overheated silver prices.

 

Silver is like $45 an ounce now meaning a worn sterling silver halfcrown is about $35 in NZ pesos and $20 in USD. Even a US quarter has $13 worth of silver in it. 

 

I am really lucky to have around 5 kg of bulk silver in a old 1920s chocolate tin. My holdings include $41 in US coins (A kg of silver I bought for $1500 back in 2023 - my prices are all NZ pesos which are virtually 2 to 1 for US dollars now), 100 50% silver florins of the UK, 80 x 92.5% silver shillings of New Guinea and 38 Halfcrowns of pre 1920 (Some are slick) and $11.50 of Canadian silver quarters and halves (All 80%) amongst others. In late 2024, the box was worth $5.6k melt and now its like $8.7k in melt!

2 years ago on my old Ebay purchases I was getting George V .500 silver half crowns for £5-£6 and florins at the £3.50-£4 range. Don't regret not buying more now as I bought alot at the time in bulk for that anyway. Crazy seeing the price increases even for scrap predecimals though. 

You could ask the other person that got your coins in the first place, but if that doesn’t work, you know you did your best. 

I never thought of that.  I'll give it a shot