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Somebody talk me down off the ledge.

I see on coinflation.com that 40% Kennedy half dollars are worth $2.26 each, or $4.52 per one dollar of face value.

I can buy those coins on Provident Metals for $4.69 if I buy 100 of them, and with no shipping charges. That's a low premium it seems. Am I missing something?

Here's the catch. What does Provident pay for them? $4.05 per $1 for $4.52 spot value; which is 10.4% less than spot. Looking at 90% generic at Provident, it sells for $11.30 per $1, while the buy price is $10.67 per $1 face; which is about 3% less than spot. There has always been more demand for 90%, and probably will always be so. 40% is harder to sell when you want to do so. Now since prices have fallen much, I would recommend buying the good stuff, especially since 90% premiums are very low. Just my 2c.

They are less desirable because they weigh a lot per unit troy ounce and take up a lot of space so premiums are lower. But there are several positives if you can get past that.

When I find 40% halves in rolls I go through, I certainly keep them. But I've never bought them, except in very small quantities and one time when I found a pawn shop that didn't know what they were doing (they sold them to me for $1 each in 2009- I'd buy those all day long). I'd imagine that the dealer's profit margin on 40%ers will generally be higher. Exception: He might buy some at a little higher price if he knew he had an immediate sale. Otherwise, these might sit around for a while.

Since the silver is such a small percent of the total coin, refining costs for melting them down can be prohibitive from what I've heard. Ditto for any coin that isn't almost all silver. War nickels (35% silver) have the same issue and Mexican pesos minted from 1957 to 1967 are even worse (with only 10% silver).

I'd love to trade my 40%ers for 90%ers if I found a fair deal.

Thanks for the responses, all. Probably best to stick with 90%. I'd be satisfied if I could get some 40% Kennedys in change or in boxes like Saabman.

The 40%, 35%, 80%, 90% sterling etc can all be exchanged for .999 for a relatively modest fee. See scrapmans permanent ad. They all smelt and refine - silver is silver.

68Camaro wrote:The 40%, 35%, 80%, 90% sterling etc can all be exchanged for .999 for a relatively modest fee. See scrapmans permanent ad. They all smelt and refine - silver is silver.

Thanks for the info. It's OK to melt silver dimes, quarters and 50 cent pieces but not copper pennies?

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/busi ... nnies.html

On again off again. Currently only 1 and 5 cent pieces are banned.

I found a box of these buried in a local cemetery in 1976. I was just a kid playing Six Million Dollar Man in the dirt, then Voila! There were about 25 of them, all 40%. I still have all of them. I also found about 10 Peace dollars in the same cemetery!

Whenever you buy 40% from your LCS, always try making a deal. You should be able to get these at, or very close to spot price. I personally would rather have 90%.

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:I found a box of these buried in a local cemetery in 1976. I was just a kid playing Six Million Dollar Man in the dirt, then Voila! There were about 25 of them, all 40%. I still have all of them. I also found about 10 Peace dollars in the same cemetery!

Whenever you buy 40% from your LCS, always try making a deal. You should be able to get these at, or very close to spot price. I personally would rather have 90%.

In a cemetery? Was somebody trying to take their money with them?

Thanks for the advice.

Even though you can’t legally melt most U.S. nickels, that restriction doesn’t apply to the war nickels. Just like the 40% halves, I will keep war nickels when I find them, but don’t look to buy them unless someone wants to do something real silly like sell them for 25-30 cents each.

Usually don't buy 40% halves. I did make an exception a few years ago when I bought some BU rolls at spot. Otherwise, I stick with 90% and .999.

Contradiction wrote:

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:I found a box of these buried in a local cemetery in 1976. I was just a kid playing Six Million Dollar Man in the dirt, then Voila! There were about 25 of them, all 40%. I still have all of them. I also found about 10 Peace dollars in the same cemetery!

Whenever you buy 40% from your LCS, always try making a deal. You should be able to get these at, or very close to spot price. I personally would rather have 90%.

In a cemetery? Was somebody trying to take their money with them?

Thanks for the advice.

lol... maybe, but I have a feeling that someone buried them for safe keeping and work diggers came close to unearthing them... I simply got lucky. I imaged they were buried there in 1966, they were all 1965 and 1966.