Buying silver coins by the bag?

[Faline]

I am trying (by God's grace) to recover from a severe financial crises, and have determined that once my feet are solidly on the ground (again, by God's willing grace), I want to invest my limited resources in silver coins. I have heard about buying "junk" silver by the bag and wonder if that is the way to go?

Can anyone recommend the best way to buy with limited (about $2,000) in the green stuff? Also, is there any way to know what the face value of a coin could be as paper money declines (probably not!) and how one would actually go about spending them in a crises situation.

[Frostie7]

My recommendation is to buy secondary market bars or rounds. Look for those that are .999 silver. I leave the coins alone because they have less silver by half and are not worth the hassle. All the silver bars and rounds I purchase have a certificate with them verifying silver content.

[Faline]

But in a real crunch, how would you sell the bars? Just my uneducated way of seeing it is that you could probably exchange a silver coin anywhere. Is my thinking way off on that?

[rnman99]

You might be able to barter out junk silver if things get bad before we go, but you can't eat precious metals. I was wavering about that issue recently until I came to the above conclusion.

[Faline]

So perhaps a combination of both?

[Katey]

Do I buy silver or gold?

[Joe Common]

U.S. Silver coins--1964 and earlier dimes, quarters and halves--are excellent investment vehicles. You can determine the silver ounces by multiplying the dollar value by 71.5% or .715 to get the value of silver in each.

For example, say you have 21 half dollars. Find the total amount in dollars: 21 x .50 = $10.50. Multiply this number by 71.5%: 10.50 x .715 = 7.5075 ounces of silver. Now take the ounces of silver times the per ounce spot price of silver (we'll use $12.00 per ounce here): 12.00 x 7.5075 = $90.09 worth of silver in 21 half dollars.

Extra step: Silver coins investors often go by a multiple of face value. Up until silver went down a couple weeks ago, the face multiplier was 11 times. Therefore, $10.50 x 11 = $115.50, and this would be the expected price to pay for 21 silver half dollars. Right now, the face multipler is less than 10, but 11 is probably still done in coin shops, on Ebay, etc., as silver coins have a premium now.

To figure your own face multiplier, take the first value we showed, $90.09, and divide it by the face value, $10.50, and you will see the face multiplier should be 90.09 / 10.50 = 8.58. You should be able to figure a price for any amount of face value of silver coins with these formulas.

A further note, there are 90% silver coins as described above and there are also 40% silver half dollars (Kennedy halves from 1965-1969). I'd stay away from these as an investment. However, all 90% silver coins are a recognized, excellent investment option.

G-d Bless.
Joe

[Faline]

Terrific!

During WWII I know that you were not allowed to have gold. What is to stop the government this time from forbidding gold or silver?

[ryn8a]

Here you go....

http://the-moneychanger.com/commandments.phtml

If you want to invest in gold and silver to protect your assets and have something easily divisible and spendable in the event to hedge currency depreciation or collapse, then:



v If you have $5,000 or less to spend put half in US 90% silver coin, and half in British Sovereigns, French 20 Francs, or 1/4 oz. American Eagles. (All references to “ounces” below mean troy ounces of 480 grains or 31.1034 grams).

v For $10,000 buy two-thirds US 90% silver coin, and the balance in British Sovereigns, French 20 Francs, or 1/4 oz. American Eagles.

v For $25,000 buy 3 bags of US 90% silver coin, $2,000 worth of Sovereigns, French 20 Francs, or 1/4 oz. American Eagles, and the balance in one oz. Krugerrands, Austrian 100 Coronas, Mexican 50 Pesos, or American Eagles.

v For $75,000 buy 10 bags of US 90% silver, $5,000 worth of Sovereigns, 20 Francs, or 1/4 Eagles, $5,000 worth of platinum Nobles, and the balance in Krugerrands, American Eagles or 100 Coronas. For over $75,000 simply do multiples of this portfolio.

Moneychanger, what is US 90% silver coin and why do you recommend it?

US 90% silver coin is quarters, dimes, and half dollars minted before 1965. Each face value dollar (4 quarters, 10 dimes, or 2 half dollars) contains 0.715 of an ounce of silver. Coins are traded in “bags” of $1,000.00 face value containing 715 troy ounces pure silver. (We refer to a “face value dollar,” the value stamped on the coin’s face, which is always less than from the “paper dollar” cost you must pay. So if you have $1,000.00 in paper dollars to spend, you will never get $1,000.00 face value.) You can purchase any portion of a bag that you wish.

We recommend 90% silver coin simply because right now it is the cheapest, most divisible, most widely recognised and traded form of silver.

[Faline]

Thank you!