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hello,
a newbie here who just started dabbling in copper hoarding this past december. have been trying to gleem as much knowledge as i can from this site. anyways, looking to diversify and just bought some junk halves and dimes today. got $1 face for $22.50. is this acceptable? any preferences on junk vs. bullion? dealer i got the coins from, wanted $2 over spot for bullion, but he was currently out. when you factor in shipping, the stuff online seems ridiculous. any info/ opinions would be appreciated. thanks.

For the size of your purchase 22.5x Face is acceptable.

However if your willing to shop around you should be able to shave that number down. For example a member here has junk Silver for 21.5x Face in $5 face increments with a small shipping fee. But to walk in cash & carry for $1 Face with no paper trail 22.5x is to expected. $2 over for bullion isnt too shabby Either.

Junk Silver tends to trade at (or even under in some cases) to spot. And as always watch the wear on said coins too (barbers, slicks,etc.)

Locally coin shows tend to be better deals and get you closer to spot. Also Coinflation is a great site to figure current melt values for 90% against current Silver Spot.

Welcome! Not too bad of a pick-up there at 22.5x face for a small size lot of junk silver. Try searching on eBay too. Sometimes you can get really great deals but other times bidding gets a little crazy and yoy should stay away. Maybe just watch a few items without bidding so you can get a feel for what things are going for right now. Recently I was seeing a lot of junk silver on eBay around 21x to 22x face after factoring in shipping. That's right around melt valiue. I like to wait for a little bit better deal than that so I haven't been buying much on this latest pullback under $30/Oz.

any preferences on junk vs. bullion?

I would eventually recommend getting some of both, but in my opinion your first silver purchases should be 90% junk coins.

Advantages of 90% coins:

Better suited as a tradeable asset if things get bad.
Not practical to counterfiet. Some .999 fake coins and bars are starting to appear; mostly from China
Usually at least 10% cheaper than .999 bullion

Advantages of 999 bullion:

.999 purity makes them better for investmemt; especially coins minted by governments like the ASE and the Maple.
In general far more attractive than 90% coins.

Good luck

thanks for the replies everyone, will definately help me with my silver investment. to be more clear, i purchased $4.40 face for $99. i made it sound like i only bought one dollar face for $22.50. how much do you have to buy to get lower prices? thanks again,
madman

@madman326:

I haven't been able to find a good deal or shop locally with reasonable prices (ones that reflect current prices) so do most of my buying online. I have found that on eBay you can get some good deals on face value lots of 90% coins if you narrow your search to items with Free Shipping and are willing to venture above the $100 price range. That separates you the casual buyers competition. A smaller market is purchasing the lots that cost that much, and you have a better chance to win the auction.