Buying "Commemorative" Silver

[usernameerror]

Hey everyone. Now I know this is not exactly CRHing but I only post in this forum. My question is, what does everyone think about buying commemorative silver rounds? I have a pawn shop that has a few of these rounds and they are willing to sell for spot. The majority are "9/11 Commemorative .999 Silver" and a few "Firefighter Commemorative" rounds. Each round has ".999 Silver" on it but I'm wary that they are actual silver. I've heard that some of these commems can be silver clad. Does anyone have any experience with these? Is there any way to be sure it's silver?

Just to make this post CRH friendly. I found a 1940S Nickel to add to my book.

 

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[Generic_Lad]

It just depends.

There are quite a few of legitimately .999 fine silver rounds out there, I mean it was just a few years ago that silver was under $10 an ounce.

Silver "clad" (plated) bars/rounds are a fairly recent phenomenon, some good tests through are:

1) Does it say the word "clad" on it anywhere? I know a lot of the crap being sold on eBay has "in clad we trust" on it.
2) Is it being sold at a steep discount? I mean, its quite natural that generic silver will sell less than Maple Leafs, Britannias, Philharmonics and Eagles along with selling less than the "big name" bars/rounds but if a coin shop is trying to sell them for $15, that's a sign that it might not be real.

Assaying a silver round is an expensive or time consuming ordeal that is likely impractical to be done at a pawn shop because they would result in the general destruction of the round unless your pawn shop has an X-ray machine that can tell the composition.

When it comes down to it, its just what you feel comfortable with. Its your money and your satisfaction with what you spend it on. If you don't have a good feeling on these rounds, don't buy them, simple as that. Many places will sell you generic stuff close to spot, so its not like you're missing a superb deal.

 

[usernameerror]

Thanks for the reply. I did not see any clad stamps on the rounds. They seemed pretty legit. Would it be harder to sell these types of rounds in the future?

 

[stefen]

Follow Generic Lads advice or simply send me the money you'd have spent, and I will write a letter and tell you how good a time you had...

Look for a better investment than the local pawn shops...

 

[Generic_Lad]

Thanks for the reply. I did not see any clad stamps on the rounds. They seemed pretty legit. Would it be harder to sell these types of rounds in the future?

Yes, in general the less "known" something is, the harder it is to sell.

For example, I could silver-plate some copper blanks and stamp .999 fine silver into them, without scraping off the plating or doing other tests, it would be impossible for them to know. Indeed I could melt down some Canadian 80% silver and put it into a bar and stamp .999 fine silver on it.

The big benefits of coins when compared to rounds is that its pretty easy to tell that something is "off" on a coin. Its really hard to make a good copy of an Eagle, even out of pure silver because duplicating such tiny details is very hard without very expensive equipment and many, many hours.

Historically, aside from the pre-new world times (silver was a lot scarcer back when you didn't have the vast silver mines in the Americas and a lack of trading to Asia/Africa) silver has only really been counterfeited when it comes to coins due to its low value. Sure, you'll see silverplated jewellery stamped .925 every now and then, but there was little financial incentive to fake silver. Now, with higher silver prices, it has become more economical to try to fake silver.

Now, usually by "harder to sell" it doesn't mean that a coin/bullion shop won't accept it, most of the time they will, but they will pay you less for generic silver than they would something more recognized like a Philharmonic or Eagle. On the other hand, prices for generic silver is usually less when they sell it, so its really a trade-off. You can pay the extra $3 premium (well, with normal silver prices! today they're at $6 or so) on an Eagle today and possibly even get it back when you sell it at spot+$1-2. Or you can buy generic silver today at spot and sell it for spot-$1-2.

 

[Joe777Cool]

I have gotten some awesome deals at pawn shops over the years, I dont see any reason why some on here talk so poorly of them. There are some that will straight up try and rob you, but so will some coin shops. There are good and bad ones just like any other business. I would invest in a scale and also research them online. If u see the same piece selling as silber plated then stay away.

 

[usernameerror]

Ended up buying two rounds since silver was pretty low during lunch. They are both weighing in correctly at 31.1 grams.

 

[twiasp]

Have a guy from the coinshop drive the coins or silver over to a locally trusted coin shop and let them look at it and tell you if it would be a good buy or not or if they are authentic in their opinion. OR have the LCS guy go to the pawn shop with you may save you a bunch of heart ache if they could help you out either way.