Anyone have a good formula for buying silver coins?

[stevef-migration]

I want to know what people use to buy silver coins. If you have 1lb of silver in pre 1964 coins you can't simply say $14 per oz. 16 oz to a lb and multiply 14x16 and get 224 per lb, because as we know silver coins are not 100% silver. Let me know how you figure it out.

[Dcoin]

www.coinflation.com should be a good place to start

[bsshog40]

Good link there Dcoin. I lost this site when I formatted my pc a month ago so I needed it too. thanks!

[jtryka]

Remember also there is a difference between a troy ounce and a regular ounce as well. You can use www.convert-me.com for metric to English to troy conversions which is what I use since it's easier for me to remember that a silver dollar contains 26.73g of 0.900 fine silver, or 24.057g pure silver. Similarly, smaller denominations have 25.0g of 0.900 silver for each dollar in silver (two halves, 4 quarters, 10 dimes etc.), or 22.5g of pure silver. From that site, I know that the smaller denominations $1 face = 0.7234 troy ounces of pure silver, which right now at $14.16/oz is equal to $10.24, so I would pay roughly 10.2x face value for the smaller denomination coins. For silver dollars there is 0.7735 troy ounces of silver in each, which at $14.16/oz is equal to $10.95, or roughly $11 for each silver dollar. For silver by the "pound" it would depend on what it was. For mixed US 90% silver issues, I would assume first that each pound was only 0.9 regular pounds pure, and using that conversion website, I would find that 0.9 avoirdupois pounds is only equal to 13.12 troy ounces, so at most, a pount of junk silver coins is only worth 13.12 x $14.16 = $185.78. Heck, even 1 pound avoirdupois in pure silver rounds/bars is only 14.58 troy ounces of silver! And that, as they say, is how they get you!

[PerryHall]

Precious metals are weighed using the Troy system. There are only 12 Troy ounces in a Troy pound.

[cpm9ball]

Of course, you could always use the Red Book which lists the silver content in ounces (or fractions thereof) in the description immediately preceding each denomination.

 

Chris

[bsshog40]

Or also Coinfacts is good.

[jtryka]

Precious metals are weighed using the Troy system. There are only 12 Troy ounces in a Troy pound.

 

While this is true, most people do not have bathroom scales that weigh in troy pounds...

[bsshog40]

Precious metals are weighed using the Troy system. There are only 12 Troy ounces in a Troy pound.

 

While this is true, most people do not have bathroom scales that weigh in troy pounds...

 

I'll bet there are a lot of women that would buy one if they were easily found!

[cpm9ball]

Precious metals are weighed using the Troy system. There are only 12 Troy ounces in a Troy pound.

 

While this is true, most people do not have bathroom scales that weigh in troy pounds...

 

I thought Troy used sesterces or drachmas or something like that.

 

Chris

[McKinley-migration]

$1 face = 0.7234 troy ounces of pure silver, which right now at $14.16/oz is equal to $10.24, so I would pay roughly 10.2x face value for the smaller denomination coins. For silver dollars there is 0.7735 troy ounces of silver in each, which at $14.16/oz is equal to $10.95, or roughly $11 for each silver dollar.

 

that's it..

 

.7234 x spot x face = worth.. for common circulated silver coinage.

 

silver US coins should be calculated by the face value & spot.. not from a bathroom scale or whatever.

 

it's an easy formula once you get it straight in your head

[MunkyMan95]

Multiply these numbers by current spot price for:

 

0.07234 Dimes

0.18084 Quarters

0.36169 Halves

0.77344 Dollars

 

That's the weight in troy ounces of pure silver in each of those coins. So, 0.77344 X Spot price = Melt Value for 1 silver dollar

[Houston Investor]

Silver ASW

 

Dime 0.0723

 

Quarter 0.1809

Half $ 90% 0.3617

 

Half $ 40% 0.1480

Dollar 90% 0.7234

Eagle Silvr $ 1.0000

Eagle Roll 20.0000

$10 FV 90% 7.234

$10 FV 40% 2.960

 

I simply take ASW x Silver Spot to calculate BV. I have an excel spreadsheet that does this as I have been buying a lot of this stuff in bulk off ebay - BU rolls, rolls of 90% halves, etc. I also like to buy BU Dollar rolls and slab the nicer pieces like the one below: