Buy Readable Date US Silver Coins for Melt?

[bertmaster2000]

A friend of mine has offered to sell me a variety of US silver coins he has accumulated through his job at a bank. He has a handful of each, all with readable dates: Walking Liberty halves, Franklin halves, Washington quarters, and Liberty dimes.

He has no numismatic knowledge, so he's offered the coins to me for melt because his usual buyer pays him $2 under spot. I've seen photos of some of the coins and none of the them will grade better than very fine.

I'm interested in buying for the numismatic value and holding long term. Am I paying too much if I pay him melt for the coins?

 

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[jerseyben]

If his usual buyer pays $2 under spot and you are his friend... See if he can do $1 under spot, or just offer to match the usual buyer's deal.

 

[smokeythecat]

I'd buy them at melt, because the market is low right now.

 

[cudamark]

Doesn't look like you can lose much, if anything, in the deal. Why not? You might find a key date in there somewhere.

 

[bertmaster2000]

JB, I like the way you think, but I'm trying to sweeten the deal for him so he'll bring me Morgan and Peace dollars next he gets some. He sold 15 of them to his other buyer for melt - $2 just before Christmas.

I could see in the photos of the coins he sent me that some of the coins were in poor condition. I told him today I plan to cherry pick, so he knows I won't buy everything he's offered to sell me, and he was fine with it. This made the deal better for me.

 

[bertmaster2000]

Turned out my friend sold me what I wanted for $1 under melt value, which included a .999 silver maple 1 ounce coin. I feel good about our deal, and so does he.

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

[Peyton Manning]

Now sell them to me for melt and you make money!

 

[FormerTeller]

JB, I like the way you think, but I'm trying to sweeten the deal for him so he'll bring me Morgan and Peace dollars next he gets some. He sold 15 of them to his other buyer for melt - $2 just before Christmas.

I could see in the photos of the coins he sent me that some of the coins were in poor condition. I told him today I plan to cherry pick, so he knows I won't buy everything he's offered to sell me, and he was fine with it. This made the deal better for me.

Buy them all. If you don't, then he sells what you don't buy to somebody else, who may end up eventually offering him a better deal for everything. If you buy them all, you should be able to get him in the habit of selling to you exclusively.

"Always buy them all."

 

[Beachkid23]

Yep. I'll take them off your hands for melt as well.

 

[port ewen ace]

be sure he has the approval of the bank. if not, and he gets jammed up for selling the property of the bank for his gain_____that is called larceny. and you can easily be culpable for "possession of stolen property". absent this scenario, silver at melt is almost as good as silver at face.
just use caution___don't want to be known as "inmate # XXXXX"

 

[bertmaster2000]

My question to my friend was, "Why the heck would someone turn a Canadian Silver Maple .999 1 ounce $5 silver coin into a bank?!?". He didn't know other than it may have been a kid who raided his dad's coin stash.

The coins I didn't buy included only a few very worn Liberty dimes, one very worn (1901) barber dime, 8 dateless SLQs, and 8 very worn common date Washington Qs.

He said he'll sell to me again next time he has a decent amount accumulated, though he's watching the current, increasing silver price and may hold the coins for a bit next time around.

My friend is very careful when he buys the silver coins from the bank. The tellers with the silver coins "sell" them to each other until only one teller has the coins, then during my friend's lunch hour, he goes "outside" the teller area, goes to the teller with the silver coins, and buys them for face value, same as you or I would buy them (if we were so lucky).

 

[FormerTeller]

My question to my friend was, "Why the heck would someone turn a Canadian Silver Maple .999 1 ounce $5 silver coin into a bank?!?". He didn't know other than it may have been a kid who raided his dad's coin stash.

Perhaps the more intriguing question is: why would a US bank accept a Canadian Silver Maple, and what did they give him for it? $1? $5? That's the part that blows my mind.

 

[griffith 90]

Anytime I see silver at or below melt I go for it.