What to do with all the silver coins.

[prospectorYorkPA]

I was cleaning out some old boxes and ran across some transactions from back in 1970. I've been collecting coins since the 50's but that not the point.
I was around when the silver coins were being drawn from circulation. From 1964-1970 I had saved about $1000 in silver. Now being married and an income of $12,500 a year was getting a little hard to save much more. If I remember this right, I made a deal with the wife to sell the silver, take the profit and invest the rest. Now it's a little hazy trying to figure out my notes, but I think silver was about $2.50 an oz back then. Anyway I sold the silver for around $2500. Good profit back then. I invested around $1000 in key and semi key coins (gave her the rest). Going over this old list I bought a 1877 Indian fine ($195), 09-s vdb unc ($220), 14D vf ($90.00), 22 no D vf ($100), 31-s unc ($60.00), mercury dimes 16-d vf ($235), 21-d ef ($125.00).
Today if I kept the silver, I'd have about $9880. If I kept the wife I'd have about $12,175 in nice coins.
With todays silver over $13 oz, seems like a good idea to hold on to it, especially if your digging it out of the ground, quite a profitable quest. Silver isn't quite as fluctuting as gold. (Back in the 80's it hit $50 oz). Reason it's high now is we are using more than mining. All it's going to take is a major silver strike and down goes the price. Key and semi key coins aren't going to be found like that.
Now for my 2 cents worth. Sell the silver and cash in the clads and cents. Buy key and semi key coins. Forget saving the entire set of a certain coinage. Nice to look at, not worth very much. Also these days buy certified keys and semi keys. Too many of these are overgraded on places like ebay. You may pay a little more but in the long run, it's worth it. Best of all they don't take up as much space. More dollar per square inch.
By the way, I didn't get out much last year because a heart attack slowed me down some for the summer. But with the coins I did find and cash in, I got a nice 42/1 mercury dime.
Would like to hear what others think of this. After all, this is only one man's opinion.

 

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[Jeffro]

Sounds good to me. I have the sets going, but it is definately worthwhile to get the keys first, don't wait as they are always rising. Silver I dabble in here and there a couple times a year. Buy low, sell high. Its not that hard. Keep using the same money and never dip into it, it adds up after awhile. If you can do 10 percent or more on your money, you're doing better than inflation, and alot of stocks and funds, so don't worry about making a killing.

 

[gold fish]

Wow, at today's prices those are some 'spensive coins. I don't have enough silver to be worth a lot yet, but the wife and I are building a small hoard. She collects silverware, I do coins. I wish that I would have bought into some silver back in the early '90s when it was closer to $5 an ounce. My problem is that right now, it's still kinda hard to part with any of my finds, but if I give it enough time, at the rate I'm going I'll have enough to really matter.

My only thought on the subject is that the increase of commodities prices is a lot more reliable than the rise of a lot of key coins. Some of them(like the ones you purchased) are no-brainers, they WILL go up in price. Other coins can be a risk, Don't get me wrong, I plan on filling my dansco lincoln album and leaving it that way, I just get a little nervous at the thought of investing in collectibles. I guess it all boils down to the fact that any market can collapse, I just don't see silver/gold ever being "valueless".

 

[prospectorYorkPA]

From what I've seen (or paid attention to) is the coin market sort of follows the commodity market, except for the real keys which usually hold their own.