Realcent.org

What do you try to pay for foreign silver? Mexico, Canada etc?

I have really been hitting the idea of hunting more non US Silver at the local flea markets, gun shows and coin shops if I can get them at a good discount.

What percentage off of Spot is good or decent?

When you sell, what % are you willing to accept off of Spot?

Thanks and keep stacking!!

where i am, non-mexican foreign coins are rare at the swapmeets.

whatever you do, BRING A (RARE EARTH) MAGNET. if it sticks to the magnet, walk away.

bring a krause world coin book with you or memorize all the weights and compositions of coins you are after.
bring a handheld scale and weigh the coins.

as far as offers go, all i can say is buy them as cheap as the seller feels comfortable with.

Had problems when I sold 40% got just over 55% when I sold so I would not pay more than 50% for any thing other than USA or Canadian coins.

Here in TX we see alot of 10% Mex stuff and little Canadain stuff. I had a concern about the resale later. The magnet advice is great! Thanks

TONS of fake mexican stuff here, i dont even have to run a magnet across them anymore.
its so bad that i dont want anything to do with even legit mexican silver.
but if you have a concern about resale later, then maybe foreign isnt for you.
learn how to refine silver and buy it as cheap as you can get away with.

IMO, silver is silver and all melts the same. Provided the coins in question are legit and proven silver, I see no reason why anyone should sell below spot or vice-versa when in the realms of user to user sales.

Granted, a bargain is always nice, but at the end of the day, provided you get the legit quantity of real silver at the actual going rate then all is fair.

Premium's are added to 0.999 silver due to minting costs and differing levels of prestige attached to the particular coin which is fair enough. In most cases, these premiums are recovered on resale anyway.

I personally won't sell below spot even to a dealer as the way I see it, they are going to mark it up by a percentage anyway to resell and that's fair - I don't complain about dealers premiums on top as they have to make a living - I expect fair market value in return when I sell though.

After much searching I was only able to find some Mex stuff at melt. Looking back I should of picked it up but was looking for 90% that day and just wasnt thinking. I have yet to find any at a discount at my local dealers.

On the topic of fakes, I ran across this the other day. US Quarters now being faked!!! Whats next??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

He had three different years.
BEWARE!!!

I buy lots of large lots of junk foreign silver on Ebay. I do stay away from "problem" types of coins as far as fakes are concerned, such as Mexican and Australian florins. Seasonality seems to be the biggest factor in the prices I can get for these lots. I look for a 20% discount to melt and I subtract shipping from that. Right now that seems impossible to find. Most of the lots I am following have been going for just under melt plus shipping or over melt. Generally, this seems like a busy time of year on Ebay and I have been doing much better on the auctions I list as well.

If there is some kind of currency crisis, like I think many people here believe is a distinct possibility, I don't see what difference the source of the silver will matter to most purchasers. There are some issues as to fineness, and most foreign silver out there seems to have a fineness of .800 or lower. There are always issues as to authenticity. But if some refiner is looking for silver during a crisis I don't know why they would reject or heavily discount foreign silver just because it is foreign. If someone could obtain more and earn more by paying more for foreign silver they would do it. The market would take care of that. Ultimately, if there was some mad dash for silver I think the Ebay prices would be outrageous. Just sell it there. I see people paying way over melt for foreign silver all the time, even now.

I will usually dig through the dealers foreign coin box and try to rescue any stranded silver. In the last week I have salvaged a 1963 French 5 Franc, a 1955 Netherlands 1 Gulden, a 1943 British 1 Shilling, and 2 pre-1964 Panamanian 1/10 Balboa's. Total ASW is 0.789 OZ for a total of $1.25. I also found a 1904 Indian Head penny in the foreign and he charged me 25 cents for it.

I have another shop near me who prices every coin in their display cases. They have a large section of Canadian that I like to check out when silver takes a nice little shot upwards. I have picked up some good deals doing that. Same thing with some of the U.S. 90% although not as often as I think a lot more people are watching that, and ignore for the most part the Canadian.

Stay away from ANYTHING Mexican. I bet half the tiny 2 Peso gold coins for sale on ebay are fake. I know because I got burned on one several years ago!

Don't buy anything with lower than 80% silver content. Lots of English coins out there with 50% silver content that are selling for way over spot to the unsuspecting. You need to know the dates in order to buy the correct stuff. The French also changed metal types and silver content often over the past 120 years or so.

winchester333 wrote:Lots of English coins out there with 50% silver content that are selling for way over spot to the unsuspecting.

I do not think it is to the unsuspecting. Some people buy coins for other reasons than silver content. Also, those coins are valued by English preppers the same way we value ASEs and junk 90% because they are the most recognizable coin for common people there. All British 50% is from 1920-1945, so those are some old coins, many with numismatic premiums.

I hate to imagine nice coins going to the smelter. Foreign silver coin rescue is part of my weekly trips to the local shops.

Todays coin show had several guys with some foreign stuff. The best deal I could find was 5% under spot. Most were going for 1% or spot. Still a nice thing to see that you can still some silver for under spot these days. Most coin shops and adds I read are at or above. Good luck out there!

Other items observed
Eagles spot plus 3
Morgans and Peace 24-26

AGgressive Metal wrote: Also, those coins are valued by English preppers the same way we value ASEs and junk 90% because they are the most recognizable coin for common people there.

This isn't really the case tbh given they have been out of circulation since decimalisation in 1971, A huge portion of the UK population wouldn't recognise them at all, let alone as being silver.

It's different stateside as technically any of those old coins is still legal tender.

Myself, if I'm going with non .999, I always try to choose stuff that has the silver content marked on it somewhere such as Mexican or Cuban coins; or at the very least a well known old coin such as the Maria Theresa.