Buying junk silver

Hello, I have not done this before, but I would like to buy junk silver, mutilated coins, things like that. Would I pay by the ounce? I have heard x times face value, but how does face value work for decentralized coins? Make offers to give me an idea.

Junk silver is bought and sold by weight, larger coins have a slight premium. Coins with a silver content of less than 50% are usually discounted because refiners don't like them.

Dealers will typically sell for the spot price and buy for 50-75% of that. When markets are volatile you will find dealers are either unwilling to buy or sell or will do so only at very advantageous (to them) rates. When the market price is very depressed as is the case now sellers tend to dry up. Nobody, unless they really need the cash, is going to sell a commodity for $14 which was trading for $49 two years ago.

Here is the current spot price and historical data -

http://www.kitco.com/charts/livesilver.html

The best option is to find a local seller who is still in the game at $14 and buy there. They will usually consider a sale at spot price in excess of $100. If you are looking to buy small amounts expect to pay up to 50% over spot.

There are other options such as recovering scrap silver but I'm not familiar with these.

It's more of a science project than a way to get some gold but I have some gold computer chips available, http://www.alloyavenue.com/vb/showthread.php?7547-Gold-from-electronic-scrap&highlight=Gold+chips

You can also go to gold buying places and ask if they will sell their world silver coins at 85%, but beware, they will take you for a fool and not care. Check for fakes and do your own math

Jewellery isa good way to get your hands on some cheaper silver, i have been buying jewlellery for years, made quite alot of money off it too. Also allowed me to build my holdings up, these current prices have been a dream as i can buy for so little and sell the usable jewellery or antique stuff in my shop. The rest gets melted down and made into these its art bullion as i like to call it. That one is 1kg. I can pick up old silver from carboot sales and charity shops for sometimes 10% or less of it spot prices. Other times i will pay over spot for a nice gold chain, as i know i can sell it on for a 50-100% mark up. I found over years doing this with coins was much harder and jewellery was the key. People dont value things like they use to.

That art is AWESOME! I love the little swing. What is your business? Do you have a jewelry store?

Check out some of mine,

No - the tree is more just a hobby, need to have them assayed and hallmarked before I sell them. I do buy and sell antique jewellery and silverware for a living, it's a nice easy life. This has allowed me to build up my silver coin collection a large amount. I have paid below the scrap price for the silver content, people in England are so generous with their precious metals. ;)

Citeer: "Thesilversurfer"​people in England are so generous with their precious metals. ;)

I would love to know where because there is squat regarding coins or silver where I am in the Midlands.

Not once have I ever found coins in a charity shop, occasionally there will be a silver spoon or silver plated but that's it. No boot sales I have been to have any coins at all regardless of metal.

Maybe I just live in a bad spot, but being smack bang in the centre of the UK you would think it would be abundant from all directions, but it isn't.
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Maybe you have too many silver stackers in your region that buy up all the cheap precious metal they can find?

Citeer: "Fluke"​

Citeer: "Thesilversurfer"​people in England are so generous with their precious metals. ;)

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​I would love to know where because there is squat regarding coins or silver where I am in the Midlands.
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​Not once have I ever found coins in a charity shop, occasionally there will be a silver spoon or silver plated but that's it. No boot sales I have been to have any coins at all regardless of metal.
​
​Maybe I just live in a bad spot, but being smack bang in the centre of the UK you would think it would be abundant from all directions, but it isn't.
​​

​i have had more coins than i can imagine from carboot sales. I think i may be luckybeing in the country, lots of older poeple in dorset, they are usually great for getting old coins off of, i admit itshas been getting harder to findcoins these days, i think the last silver spike in price has flushed a large amouth of old coinage into the melt pots. Good news if you already have lots of older coins but badif you dont as older british coinage is going to get harder to find. This should see higher prices for pre 1947 silver coins in the near future.

I can understand people melting down bent spoons and teapots with no handles but not coins.

One of the main drivers of silver hoarders is to have some type of insurance against hyperinflation, collapse of the dollar, economic meltdown, civil war, natural catastrophe, zombie apocalypse..... take your pick. Any of the above will make paper money worthless and will cause a return to good old fashioned local economies based on barter.

If you don't own livestock, have marketable skills or produce crops your options will be pretty limited. Nobody is going to trade your 60" TV when the lights go off. So what better than silver coins? Everybody recognizes them, they have a known ASW and a predictable value. You might find people unwilling to accept your silver art bars or big ole globs of melted silver.

Plus in the event of a dramatic and permanent crash in silver prices you have the extra insurance of the numismatic value. I reckon I'll be keeping my junk .900 and .925 coins.

Citeer: "pnightingale"​I can understand people melting down bent spoons and teapots with no handles but not coins.
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​One of the main drivers of silver hoarders is to have some type of insurance against hyperinflation, collapse of the dollar, economic meltdown, civil war, natural catastrophe, zombie apocalypse..... take your pick. Any of the above will make paper money worthless and will cause a return to good old fashioned local economies based on barter.
​
​If you don't own livestock, have marketable skills or produce crops your options will be pretty limited. Nobody is going to trade your 60" TV when the lights go off. So what better than silver coins? Everybody recognizes them, they have a known ASW and a predictable value. You might find people unwilling to accept your silver art bars or big ole globs of melted silver.
​
​Plus in the event of a dramatic and permanent crash in silver prices you have the extra insurance of the numismatic value. I reckon I'll be keeping my junk .900 and .925 coins.

​The thing is there is a shortage of silver and our stockpiles have been slowly eaten away by industry, there is now 8 times more gold in storage than silver, so many silver coins were melted down in the UK the last 10 years they are getting harder to find these days. I personally think you would be a fool to sell at these prices and agree I will be holding onto mine too. Am I the only one who has noticed silver coins are getting rarer due to so many being melted down?

It's very tempting to think that mass melting of junk coins would force numismatic prices up. It didn't happen after the 1970's price hike nor after the more recent $49 high. I don't really know why but my guess is that many people hold onto coins for the same reason we do.

I have a lot of nice coins in my junk silver going back to Victoria and Edward VII in VG or F that I wouldn't want to see melted down. They are still highly collectable coins but in many cases coins in conditions as good as VF are still only worth bullion value. There is no way I'm going to sell or swap them for such a ridiculous price.