Farewell 40%ers

[namster]

Sold them for just a hair over spot and converted to 90, 99.9, and gold. Anyone else dump their 40s? It was hard to do because of the work that went into finding them, but I think was a good move in the long run, with 40s being fairly undesirable.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[fish on!]

When the next PM spike happens I will likely do the same.

I figure the 40's were good to move at a lower spot price since they are less desirable. The next time silver approaches $30 or so I'll probably move all but my most collectible coins. Unless of course the U.S. defaults on their loans or something in the near future. Then I'll wait for another super high spot price. Looking at the long term trends I don't see silver climbing except in times of distress.

Sorry I kind of highjacked your thread.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[namster]

I've thought a lot about it and here are the reasons I think it happens:

There are a lot of hunters in any area. Each supplier (garda, brinks, dunbar, loomis, etc) has a lot of hunters. Some probably dump right back into their own supply and others dump into other supplies. I've always ordered garda in my area. If I'm doing 20+ boxes per week I am at the least moving 20 boxes of dumps out of my supply and into someone elses supply. I know there are a ton of halves in circulation, but I think over time that can have an impact on some of the people that are hunting from the other suppliers. If I'm dumping 28 boxes a week, every week into dunbar, then those dunbar hunters are going to have that much harder of a time finding something good and that much more likely to give up hunting or slow down hunting until it picks back up. That can in turn also lessen the amount of dumps I have to hunt through every week in two ways: 1 by physically hunting dumps and moving them out of my supply and 2. potentially lowering the number of people dumping into my supply. I've seen what I and probably other hunters have done to dunbar and brinks in my area first hand. The boxes literally are not worth looking through even if you don't have to order them.

The other important factor with volume hunting is that halves seem to be really streaky. There can be a great collection dump that is in a very small number of boxes with a lot of skunky boxes surrounding it. The more boxes you are hunting each week makes it that much more likely that you are going to get one of those awesome boxes. I've had days where I have 5 boxes with 4 giving up a total of 1 or 2 40% and the last one giving up 20+ silvers. If I was still hunting low volume I could have missed the good boxes and had a meager day.

Finally, by moving a massive volume of coins over time in an unnatural pattern from one supplier to another makes it more likely that your pickup supplier is going to run out of coins to supply. They are going to have to get them somewhere. I'm not going to guess where that "somewhere" is because I'm not in the cash/coin management industry, but I do know that they are likely to be new to me coins.

Sometimes they do a run of rolling and boxing halves which go ON TOP of the pile to be sent out next. It's impossible to predict. I had a bout of sold 2001 boxes that went on for a week. 3 months later the same coins came back, mixed with silver here and there.

 

[fistfulladirt]

I've sold rolls of 40's at coins shows and shops. Did good at the shows, and bought gold too. It's too bad for those that bought gold at $1700 (self pity), but soon it will take a lot more fiat to buy gold. Either way, it's more store of value for some rather than investment, and we will hold till the big spike, or pass the PM's on to our kids or grandkids.

We used to throw the 40's back.

 

[Iamrussell]

Could you guys explain some of your terminology to a newcomer. what is a 40% and 90% halfs

Read the newbie post in the stickies section

-------------------------------------
just keep stacking, just keep stacking, stacking stacking stacking

 

[red89]

Every time I get about a roll or two of 40%ers I use them to trade in for foreign silver. I don't like holding on to something that low in purity when I can switch up to something 80% or higher for almost no extra cost.

 

[drewbaccas]

I sold 5 rolls of 40s then bought 6 1/2 rolls of 40s. I almost kind of regret not moving to 90s.

Drewbaccas

 

[CC-Hunter]

Good thread

Not surprising to hear that volume is key. For me, there's not a great way to dump big volume and I want to keep the hobby fun, so one or two boxes per week is where I land. Won't be selling 100s of anything with that volume, but the skunks bother me less if it's just one box and not a stack of skunk boxes, and the finds are still fun.

 

[ivan salis]

90% ers are much easier to move and take up less overall space --gold is nice but in a shftf type event as "trading" funds it would be like having nothing but 100 bills -- for day to day small spending you need $1's -- ie better to have 100- $15 dollar value silver coins than 1 --1500 gold coin --makes trading much easier.

 

[Iamrussell]

Right now with my stack still being fairly small im holding onto most my 40% ers- did sell a hand full a while ago but gonna get my overall stack up before selling anymore-

-------------------------------------
just keep stacking, just keep stacking, stacking stacking stacking

 

[weighit]

Could you guys explain some of your terminology to a newcomer. what is a 40% and 90% halfs

What everyone is referring to is 1970 to 1965 Half dollar coins are made with 40% silver, 1964 and older halves are 90% silver. Of course the 40% coin does not have the same value as the 90% but they take up the same space so selling or trading the lesser value coin for higher value is something many of us do. Plus hunting the way we do we normally have face value invested, plus of course the fuel and time to buy and get rid of the coins. It is a hobby, not a business for most of us.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

I personally don't see where the 40% are "less desirable." I have always heard and continue to hear and even sometimes read that, but on a practical level I just don't see it. I've been in this for awhile now and seen silver go from ~$12 to almost $50 and back down to ~$20. Never during that time did I see the point where 40%ers retailed for less than melt or were anywhere near "undesirable."

Awhile back I searched 100 completed auctions on ebay. 50 were for 40% halves and 50 were for 90% Kennedy halves. All junk silver. The 90% barely outperformed the 40%. I don't remember the exact numbers but it was something like 112% of melt to 110% of melt. Thats hardly scientific and nowhere near proof-positive, but its certainly what I've seen during my time CRHing.

With that said, I do wish I had sold every piece of junk silver I owned at ~$50. Of course, I had done that, silver would be trading at $100+ right now.

 

[BuffaloBoy]

With that said, I do wish I had sold every piece of junk silver I owned at ~$50. Of course, I had done that, silver would be trading at $100+ right now.

Ain't that the truth a

 

[namster]

I personally don't see where the 40% are "less desirable." I have always heard and continue to hear and even sometimes read that, but on a practical level I just don't see it. I've been in this for awhile now and seen silver go from ~$12 to almost $50 and back down to ~$20. Never during that time did I see the point where 40%ers retailed for less than melt or were anywhere near "undesirable."

Awhile back I searched 100 completed auctions on ebay. 50 were for 40% halves and 50 were for 90% Kennedy halves. All junk silver. The 90% barely outperformed the 40%. I don't remember the exact numbers but it was something like 112% of melt to 110% of melt. Thats hardly scientific and nowhere near proof-positive, but its certainly what I've seen during my time CRHing.

With that said, I do wish I had sold every piece of junk silver I owned at ~$50. Of course, I had done that, silver would be trading at $100+ right now.

Well, for me, all else being equal, I prefer to hold 90-99 or gold if nothing else but for the space savings. So long as I can keep all my value in the transfer I don't see how it could be a bad move. Of course there is debate about where to go, silver or gold or other. What does not make sense is selling for way under spot to transfer. My LCS offers 35% under spot lol! I laughed when they told me, which I could tell was not appreciated.

 

[Iamrussell]

My LCS offers 35% under spot lol! I laughed when they told me, which I could tell was not appreciated.

I wouldve laughed as well- thats a joke

-------------------------------------
just keep stacking, just keep stacking, stacking stacking stacking

 

[fistfulladirt]

Well, for me, all else being equal, I prefer to hold 90-99 or gold if nothing else but for the space savings. So long as I can keep all my value in the transfer I don't see how it could be a bad move. Of course there is debate about where to go, silver or gold or other. What does not make sense is selling for way under spot to transfer. My LCS offers 35% under spot lol! I laughed when they told me, which I could tell was not appreciated.

My LCS offers less than half of spot. I know that they have to pay rent, insurance, utilities, employees, and still make a profit. It's ridiculous!

 

[BuffaloBoy]

my LCS is currently paying $1.25 for clad halves (40% silver halves)... that is almost 62% UNDER the melt value! They are paying 14x face for 90% silver and $13 for silver dollars which i find weird. I guess my LCS doesn't want 40% clad.

 

[50cent]

Get rid of them while the going is still good.

40% silver is for 40% people.

 

[Eminem]

Get rid of them while the going is still good. 40% silver is for 40% people.

Homie I have a confession, I like them 40 percentas, but by no means am I a clad luva.

 

[50cent]

Homie I have a confession, I like them 40 percentas, but by no means am I a clad luva.

Em, it's the 40% ag we like. 40% ag outweighs 60% clad any day of any week of any month of any year of any decade of any century and that is a fact!

 

[toorude89]

And people laughed when I sold 60 40% for $4 a piece.