What would you do.....

billjustbill · Jun 17, 2015

Last weekend, my wife and I met a "helper" lady running a garage sale for an elderly person. The helper said there was "several" coin bags full of old silver coins. "They were so heavy, when I took it to the bank they came out and helped get them inside. But when they realized the coins were not wrapped, the wouldn't take them." I inhaled as if watching a trapeze artist almost miss his partner's grip and fall.....

Tonight, I get a call to come help go through this poundage of coins.....

The 94 yr. old elderly lady and the helper need the money it's worth.

What would you offer on the pounds of silver coins after stacking by coin-type and knowing what Silver Melt Value Calculation - Coinflation says each silver coin is worth in silver?

What do coin shops pay compared to the 80% of what Refiners pay?

Thanks for your insight!!!

Bill

buzzhead · Jun 17, 2015

My lcs is paying $12.20/1 and selling at $12.80/1 at $16 spot silver. I try to buy at $11.50/1.

Chizzy · Jun 17, 2015

"Going rates" will tend to fluctuate with geography..........I'm in a small city and pay according to face x rate factor x (current spot + 0.50)..........
For 90% the rate factor is 0.715............. or you could just "ball park" at 12 to 14 times face...................

curbdiggercarl57 · Jun 17, 2015

Kudos on you actually putting forth the effort to be honest and do the right thing!

You don't mention if you have a even rudimentary knowledge of individual coin values.
If not, grab a coin book and start with sorting by issue. (Seated, Barber, Standing, etc.)
Do look for key dates.
(If so, obviously disregard this banter, except for the Kudos)
Most, but not all of the newer silver has only silver value.
Most, not all.
Also, don't go by individual coinage, but by weight. The older the coin, the more wear and tear.
Honestly, and not all might agree, but if you do have some key coins, I'd make a deal where you get half the value of what
the coin shops would give you.
Again, Kudos! and keep us posted.
Carl

trdhrdr007 · Jun 18, 2015

Look on Ampex & see what their buy price is. Keep in mind their listed price is for amounts over $10K. Anything less than that & they pay less. Separate any silver dollars from dimes/quarters/halves as those pay differently. Depending on how much is there I'd offer between 70-80% of what I could sell for. Any more & I can't justify spending the time or investing the money.

Don't get bogged down looking for key dates. Chances are there aren't any there...& if there are the difference in value will compensate you for the time you spend looking.

kingskid1611 · Jun 18, 2015

All I can say is just Remember to Breathe!

Carolina Tom · Jun 18, 2015

I can't seem to buy them for less than 12x face. If you can buy the coins at less than that, do it.

Beans · Jun 18, 2015

Sounds like they tried to turn the coins in at face value. What ever you do it will be help the lady and you will be doing the right thing by pay more than face.

Punatic · Jun 18, 2015

Amazing. Be fair and honest and get a massive score with a clear conscious!

Coinflation.com is your friend!

diggummup · Jun 18, 2015

Beans said:
Sounds like they tried to turn the coins in at face value. What ever you do it will be help the lady and you will be doing the right thing by pay more than face.

I totally agree that they were turning them in for face value. They are lucky the bank refused them and that there wasn't a coinstar in that bank. If it looks like run of the mill circulated coins (which it sounds like), I'd offer them 8 x's face value. Any silver dollars I'd offer at least 12x on, aside from any culls. As trdhrdr007 mentioned, don't get bogged down searching for key dates. Anything you may or may not find in that respect would be icing on the cake after the fact. Remember, they were content with face value when they took them to the bank and 8x is a fair dealer price, that's about 2/3 melt value.

Remember nickels aren't silver unless they are war nickels and they are worth about 18x's face value so take that into consideration if there are any.

jochart · Jun 19, 2015

I would offer 8-10 times face value and any coins that look like better grades or pre-1900s, set aside and pay a little more for. It's always great buying large amounts of unsearched coins, good luck and post some pics

Reed Lukens · Jun 19, 2015

Or you could recommend a coin shop to them that will go through them and give the old lady a fair price if she really needs the money that bad. Then ask what she needs cause a lot are looking to buy something simple that their limited social security just can't pay for. More then likely it cost's under $100.00. I would ask her what it is that she needs and then I'd take her to the store and just buy it for her. Then at the same time take the coins into a dealer with her and settle up the way you want in the end.

kingskid1611 · Jun 19, 2015

Okay now that you have a fair amount of opinions then let me tell you what I would do. Tell her you have a friend in Oklahoma that would love them and would pay above face value and then give her my name.. Send her my way........

d2 · Jun 19, 2015

If there were several bags I would dump them out and make sure there were no gold coins in the bags and then I would weigh them and offer them what ever silver was selling for. With several bags you will not have enough time to go through and grade each individual coin. They should be more than happy and then you will have something to do on the rainy days...d2

NJcigarman · Jun 19, 2015

Awesome and can you imagine what else is in that hidden in that house?

Beachkid23 · Jun 19, 2015

No paying attention. Posted on wrong thread..

Marchas45 · Jun 19, 2015

Go first and see what the big Dealers (Apmex, JM Bullion and the like) are paying for Buy Back then check to see who will pay over that. Right now you can get X12.5 or above for roose dimes and a little more for mercs. Here is a formula that was given to me by Jim4Silver that will help you out and don't be listening to people that will give you peanuts for the silver.
I will give you a fair price if your interested but DYDD. Charlie

Let's say your coin dealer is selling junk silver for 12X face and you want to know how much you are paying for an ounce of pure silver, you take 12 and divide it by .715 (for dimes, quarters and halves), thus at 12X face you are paying $16.78 per ounce of pure silver.

let's say silver is currently at $16 per ounce spot and you want to know what $1 face of dimes, quarters and halves melt at, you take spot $16 and multiply that times .715 and will see that $1 face would melt at $11.44.

If you are talking about US silver dollars, use .7734 instead of .715 because they are heavier than $1 face of dimes, quarters, and halves by a little bit.

billjustbill · Jun 20, 2015

Thank you all for your comments and input. Here's what happened:

There are two sisters that had inherited an older home and contents from the passing of a 98 year old friend and now they wanted the contents liquidated. There was a safe that was locked. One of the sisters found the combination in a stack of old paperwork. The estate sales lady and one sister had gotten the safe to open. They found thousands of dollars in paper cash and old, small cloth, tie shut, bank bags full of coins....

One of the sister's (who still drives at 94) tried to take the four bags of coins to the bank to deposit them.... Fortunately, it was twenty minutes until it closed and the bank told her they wouldn't take them because they weren't rolled....

After meeting with them, to get an idea of what was there, for almost 3 hours we stacked nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, and silver dollars in coin stacks of 10. Refiners pay 80% of the process-day's market value for silver. So, I brought computer pages from
U.S. Silver Coin Melt Value Calculator - Coinflation showing the current silver price of each kind of coin. On the few silver nickels, quarters, half dollars, and silver dollars, I offered the same. However, because some of the old worn dimes weighed 2.1 grams and the average dime weighs about 2.4 grams, I offered to buy the silver dimes at 70%.... I offered .25 each for all the V nickels and Indian head nickels because of the Large number of coins with well worn dates or none at all... When all was said and done, the actual value of the coins came to about $175.00, but I counted out and paid $1,467.00. Haven't had time to look for individual coin values, if there are any rare dates, but I made about $350, overall, at today's prices of silver. Here is what was counted: (Had to do the dimes' silver calculation TWICE as my solar powered calculator's screen faded when the silver value total showed up....)

..32 silver War nickels
452 Liberty Head "V" and Buffalo nickels.
969 Barber, Mercury, & Roosevelt dimes
..58 silver quarters
..73 Franklin, Walking Liberty, Barber, and eight '64 Kennedy half dollar.
..8 Kennedy half dollars @ 40%
..4 (One lady kept another 4) Morgan & Liberty silver dollars

There were two smaller old cloth bank bags filled to about 4" in diameter and 6" high of wheat pennies. When one didn't even want the pennies, and the other was going to take her bag to the bank and deposit them after rolling them all... I offered $20 for both. After getting the $1,400+ paid to them, they agreed to the $20 offer. I've weighed just the pennies on the bath scales and it appears there's 12 pounds of wheat pennies; mostly in the 40's & 1950's.....including half a roll of Indian Head pennies found at the bottom of one of the bags.

Pics to follow....in a few days.

Bill