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I occasionally buy lots of junk silver from various sources who sell here and elsewhere. It never ceases to amaze me what some people will sell. I guess they rationalize that low prices justify the condition of the coins they send out. To me it just flags an internal warning bell... "never buy from this seller again." When more than half of the coins you receive are bad slicks, you should learn a lesson from that, and if you don't... well you have no one to blame but yourself. In attempting to pull coins from lots that I wouldn't want to receive myself (and thus, wouldn't want to sell to other members) I frequently pull up to twenty percent of Mercs from lots, and up to forty percent of Walkers. These aren't just old, heavily worn coins, but could also include just ugly stuff, for instance nearly blackened from heavy toning coins, those that have initials carved in them or where some idiot cut the rim into a pattern... or drilled holes in them. Among the Mercs, most of the cull pile will result from 1923 and earlier coins upon which you can barely discern the date. Do you really want to receive coins like that? Ok, sure, I'll admit to hopefully searching the 1916 dimes that I'm about to toss out, hoping for a D, but the rest just hit the "sell-to-an-online-dealer-during-the-next-price-spike" pile. I don't have the time to date check every coin that comes through, I just edge check them and remove the obvious thins.

So... where is this tale going? I decided to declutter my desktop this morning, and took a more careful glance at some Walkers that were going into the sell to APMEX pile. Thought they were all garbage coins due to heavy wear. To my surprise, after looking closely at one, I could still see the 21. Probably about an AG-3. No mintmark, but hey, not bad for something I was going to sell for their offer price of just above melt.

Maybe I need to take a closer look at the stuff I throw away?

I need to buy $200 worth of 90% coins bad slicks & uglies. I'll pay spot/melt for the ASW. These will go to a silversmith friend who will melt them and add 2.5% .999 Ag by weight to make .925.

IdahoCopper wrote:I need to buy $200 worth of 90% coins bad slicks & uglies. I'll pay spot/melt for the ASW. These will go to a silversmith friend who will melt them and add 2.5% .999 Ag by weight to make .925.

the only problem with this idea is that APMEX is also paying melt for these (15.3X face, not ASW per wt) which they they turn around and sell for $16.2X face http://www.apmex.com/product/19562/10-face-value-lot-of-90-silver-coins-cull

they require me to sell in certain minimum amounts ($300 to $500 face) to get their more favorable rates.

I wanted to ask but not go off topic- but why buy 90% to make sterling when you can by sterling scrap for well under spot already at 92.5% pure

Robarons wrote:I wanted to ask but not go off topic- but why buy 90% to make sterling when you can by sterling scrap for well under spot already at 92.5% pure

I was thinking that too, but to venture a guess, I doubt everything marked and bought as sterling scrap is really an exact .925, so by buying government coin and adding pure silver, you can be sure of what you're getting.

That is what I am assuming- Sterling flatware and bowls etc. tend to be spot on, jewelry rarely ever is. But it never be quite be .925 and I guess adding silver to sterling scrap to get it to a true .925 cannot be done

The other option is just to get .999 silver and dilute it .925 w/o the premiums of 90%

I have about 2000 ounces of various Franklin Mint sets that are either Sterling or .999... but I just can't sell them for melt. They're too pretty

I don't mind finding a few slicks/culls when I buy 90% BUT if 20% of what I bought was this way I wouldn't be happy at all.

I set the slicks/culls aside, and when the GSR (or relative premiums) get attractive enough, they get traded off to a big dealer.

AGgressive Metal wrote:

Robarons wrote:I wanted to ask but not go off topic- but why buy 90% to make sterling when you can by sterling scrap for well under spot already at 92.5% pure

I was thinking that too, but to venture a guess, I doubt everything marked and bought as sterling scrap is really an exact .925, so by buying government coin and adding pure silver, you can be sure of what you're getting.

Yes, this is why he want coin silver and then makes his own .925. After he silversmiths something, he marks it .925 and wants to be sure it is correct.

IdahoCopper wrote:

AGgressive Metal wrote:

Robarons wrote:I wanted to ask but not go off topic- but why buy 90% to make sterling when you can by sterling scrap for well under spot already at 92.5% pure

I was thinking that too, but to venture a guess, I doubt everything marked and bought as sterling scrap is really an exact .925, so by buying government coin and adding pure silver, you can be sure of what you're getting.

Yes, this is why he want coin silver and then makes his own .925. After he silversmiths something, he marks it .925 and wants to be sure it is correct.

Well, if he was making an honest effort to produce .925....

WHO is going to doubt him? Is there anyone on the planet who would go melt down jewelry to have it assayed to ascertain that it was .925... instead of .923, or .926?

beauanderos wrote:I occasionally buy lots of junk silver from various sources who sell here and elsewhere. It never ceases to amaze me what some people will sell. I guess they rationalize that low prices justify the condition of the coins they send out. To me it just flags an internal warning bell... "never buy from this seller again." When more than half of the coins you receive are bad slicks, you should learn a lesson from that, and if you don't... well you have no one to blame but yourself. In attempting to pull coins from lots that I wouldn't want to receive myself (and thus, wouldn't want to sell to other members) I frequently pull up to twenty percent of Mercs from lots, and up to forty percent of Walkers. These aren't just old, heavily worn coins, but could also include just ugly stuff, for instance nearly blackened from heavy toning coins, those that have initials carved in them or where some idiot cut the rim into a pattern... or drilled holes in them. Among the Mercs, most of the cull pile will result from 1923 and earlier coins upon which you can barely discern the date. Do you really want to receive coins like that?

Yes, please.
http://realcent.org/viewtopic.php?p=253518#p253518

beauanderos wrote:Well, if he was making an honest effort to produce .925....

WHO is going to doubt him? Is there anyone on the planet who would go melt down jewelry to have it assayed to ascertain that it was .925... instead of .923, or .926?

Another factor is the silversmithing. Every alloy composition has different characteristics. Even a small percentage change in the elements making up the alloy can make a difference in hardness, malleability, etc. When he uses his hand tools to carve the silver into artworks, it is a lot easier for him when the alloy batches are as close to identical as possible. Then the metal will react/respond to his tools in a predictable way. That makes his work easier and his art better.