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It seems that all bullion bars and coins (for silver at least- not gold) are .999+ fine. Are there any bullion bars or coins that are .900, or .925, or something like that? If I melted 90% silver without purifying it, would there be any market for it?

scyther wrote:Are there any bullion bars or coins that are .900, or .925, or something like that?

Yes. Franklin Mint made all kinds of "collectable" sterling bars/ingots/medals/rounds. There are some other odds and ends from other makers too. It frequently sells at a discount to the melt value.

scyther wrote:If I melted 90% silver without purifying it, would there be any market for it?

In short, no. It would sell for even less than 90% coins because it would no longer be in a recognizable/verifiable form. I have tried to retail sterling bullion bars...they don't sell.

I like my original .925 pyramid from Market Harmony. Nice 6 oz poker card cover.

From my limited knowledge of the topic, .900 silver is called coin silver and is usually (not always) made by melting 90% coins. .925 is sterling silver and bars or rounds of it can be made by melting any flatwear, jewelry or scrap with .925 or sterling stamped into it. I have not heard of many mints starting out with .999 fine silver and adding copper to it to lower it to 92.5 or 90.0 I know the Royal Canandian Mint issued some .925 coins when I was a collector back in 2010, not sure if they still do it.

I would advise staying away from bars and rounds that are not .999!

HoardCopperByTheTon wrote:I like my original .925 pyramid from Market Harmony. Nice 6 oz poker card cover.

This is the only one that I know the current location... all others are out there somewhere... less than 10 ever made in .925