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My ad on craigslist has been working pretty well. About twice a week I get a call from people wanting to sell a few US coins. Interestingly, more than half of them also have a few foreign silver coins. I have not been buying any foreign coins.

I don't know the silver content of every foreign coin, and I don't want to carry a book around on the topic.

Can anyone suggest a reasonable "standard" silver percentage factor that I can go by, where I won't lose to much, but I'm not ripping off the customer too bad?

I can carry a small gram-scale with me. I would like to just weight their foreign coin(s) and offer them $x.xx per gram; based on the "standard" purity factor times the current spot.

I see that Mexican coins range from 30% to 92.5%, but are mostly 72% or more.
Canada ranges from 50% to 92.5%, but are mostly 80% or more.
Australia is either 50% or 92.5%, but after 1945, they are all 50%.

So, looking at the above, maybe a "standard" percentage factor could be 50% or 60%? With silver at around $30 today, that would translate into about 55 to 65 cents per gram (28g/oz), on any foreign coin. I'd win some and I'd loose some.

What do you think?

I think you're going to need a book. Too much variability.

This is tough and I can totally relate to this. A couple months ago, I scored really well at a garage sale and found some foreign silver coins (several countries). It took me several hours to go through it all, despite my existing knowledge of coins plus having a 1901-2000 Krause book.

I have also thought about how I could do this as well locally in my area. But at the end of the day, there is no easy solution. The main issue that you're going to run into is that there are not that many interested parties who like foreign silver coins (even if they do collect US junk silver). On top of that, the local coin shops are obviously going to pay you even less than regular US junk silver (90%,40% etc), especially if the countries are not Canada or Mexico.

Are you looking to turn it for a quick profit? (I'm assuming Yes for foreign coin). If this is the case, then I would see what the local coin shops (or another local collector) will pay (or trade) you for foreign silver coins and then allow yourself a 20% safety margin under that, just to be safe. For example: if the coin shop (or local collector) is willing to pay you 80% melt on Canadian/Mexican/Swiss/Philippines silver coinage, then I would offer to buy at 60% of melt from your Craigslist customers. In other words, you need to find what the market is in your area.

Of course, you'll have to explain to your customers why you can only pay 60% melt etc. Personally, I would just tell them that there isn't any market for foreign silver coins, that they tie up a lot of your time (research etc) and that you're going to have to sit on them for an unknown period of time, thereby tying up your FRN's (or what the sheeple call money). Of course, if they don't need an explanation and just want to get rid of them at any price, then it really doesn't matter. Lastly, ff they have some non-silver foreign coins that they also want to dump, then only agree to pay by the pound, if it's a large decent lot (example: $3/pound).

Even then, you're going to have to know foreign silver really well, what years they stopped making silver coinage etc; I wouldn't carry the Krause book with me when meeting customers, but I would keep a small list with me (countries, years etc), just to verify, before making the sale.

Knowledge is power, so the more you study/know, the better off you will be. I would also recommend that you go to local coin shows whenever you can and hit up all the dealers that have foreign coins at their tables, so that you can actually see the physical coins themselves.

Just my opinion. I'm sure others here will chime in too. Good luck!

Whatever system works for you, then go with it...knowing that sometimes you are going to make out whilst other times you are going to get burned!

If you believe your "norms" to be accurate, you could simply buy all Mexican coins for x/gram, all Canadian for y/gram, and all European for z/gram.

In other words, you don't have to have one set $/gram, you can have a standard that you pay per country.

Or you can have a little chart of the most popular coins that you see.. ie Canadian .25; mexican libertads, etc... and then you can always refer to that so you don't have to carry around a book...

Or you can buy a kindle and an e-book of the price guide, and look hip and cool

I would expand all the countries and than print this off.

http://currencydebasement.com/high-silver

Lists almost every single coin from almost every country. Its a small book but will save you money. I would NOT pass up the silver coin from any country if you can buy it right.

highroller4321 wrote:I would expand all the countries and than print this off.

http://currencydebasement.com/high-silver

Lists almost every single coin from almost every country. Its a small book but will save you money. I would NOT pass up the silver coin from any country if you can buy it right.

I second this 100% and the link above is the same link that I was intending to give you as I read the thread.

Someone mentioned not silver foreign coins. I would pay less than $3/lb

Also, watch the mexican coins. I believe some were as low as 10%

highroller4321 wrote:I would expand all the countries and than print this off.

http://currencydebasement.com/high-silver

Lists almost every single coin from almost every country. Its a small book but will save you money. I would NOT pass up the silver coin from any country if you can buy it right.

DOH! <facepalm> I forgot my new tablet/phone is a better computer than my older notebook! Of course I can use that site to look up coin values. Thanks! I just bookmarked that site in my phone's browser.

Cheers!
Greg

Hi there-

I second knibloe and HCBBT- Make sure you buy it at a good price, so if you have to sit on it you've made a good profit, but as mentioned, I WOULD NOT pass up any silver from anywhere, I don't care if it's from Uzbekistan (and real of course).

A very good alternative is ebay. Even with all its fees and crap, you cannot beat the market that that site has. If it's silver and listed at market price, it will sell. If you buy at 60% of melt and list your foreign coins on ebay at melt, the ebay fee is about 12%, so you're making a nice 28% profit- then use that profit to buy more recognized silver- happy happy!

JMO, wags

I ALWAYS try to buy the foreign. I find much better deals in foreign than US. Sometimes I have a look at a baggie and make an offer - take it home and pick it apart. Its lots of fun if you're a nerd like me and can be really profitable. I've lost a few times too.... but eh. Its still fun.

It pays to have the Krause book handy to ID them.

I got several oz's off of ebay for 20% of melt because the seller had no idea what they were and the ad had no info, I used the picture to spot a couple dozen Australian Sterling coins.

OneBiteAtATime wrote:I ALWAYS try to buy the foreign. I've lost a few times too.... but eh. Its still fun.

I have lost a few times as well. The good thing is that every time I have "over paid" for silver it has increased and I end up making out on the deal. I wish that 3-4 years ago I had "over paid" on a lot more deals.

I found a dvd on ebay that I keep in my laptop. It contains basically all of the Standard volumes covering the 1600's to present. Probably pirated, but I really didn't care

I love the foreign as well. I buy them whenever I can. I generally assume .50 average purity when I see a mixture. It's hard to go wrong with that estimate. Then Ill take them home and go through the Krause book. I've also had the joy of scoring some base matel coins of decent value.

I think the secret is to sell them a soon as you can, or at least keep them seperated by purity. I made the mistake of just throwing them in a bag. Than all of a sudden I wanted to sell and had 2 large freezer bag with mixed silver coins to go through. It was a huge pain in the butt.

Thogey wrote:I think the secret is to sell them a soon as you can, or at least keep them seperated by purity.

I keep mine separated by purity. It's amazing how many bags that takes. I have everything from 10% to 92.5% and there has to be at least 15 different purities to contend with but eh... It's all silver.