Joined
·
1,559 Posts
Smithy posted a link to his website in one of the threads. It shows a stack of coins being put into a forge and welded together. This reminded me of a good way to get your hands on silver for investment purposes.
American and Canadian coins - with the exceptions of pennies and nickels - contain large amounts of silver if they were minted before the late 1960's.
The actual "melt value" of the coins is many times greater than the face value. For example a 1964 United States Quarter ($.25) is worth $1.95 if you melt it down into silver.
One "roll" of quaters ($10.00) face value is actually worth $78.00. A lot of these old coins are just sitting around people's houses in old jars and cans.
An easy way to test if a coin has silver in it is to pass a magnet over it. If the coin jumps up and sticks to the magnet it has no silver. If it stays put it has lots of silver. If it hangs off the magnet limply it has a small amount of silver. Some Canadian coins at the end of the 1960's were still minted with a small amount of silver in them.
We all have older relatives that have cans full of old coins hanging around the house. Offer to roll up grandma and grandpas coins. Offer to pay them face value for the coins. Bring a magnet and roll up the silver separate from the normal stuff. Take the normal stuff to the bank. Pay grandma and grandpa the face value in bills. Keep the silver. They we're never going to spend the coins anyway and they are not collectors. They just didn't bother to roll the coins for forty years.
Also visit your local coin shop and ask what years of coin are worth more. I've found several "special" old coins that were worth a lot of money. Super old pennies from the 1900's and even oddball collector coins like aluminum nazi coins from 1940's germany. Passing the magnet will not sift out special collector coins. You need to inspect each one by hand for that.
Once you have your silver you have to find a person willing to melt the coins down into 1 oz slips or a large brick. This is the hard part. This is very illegal. The federal government will throw you in jail for destroying currency. I have a connection who buys the silver coins off me and then re sells it to a melter. I don't get the full value of the silver but I have no other choice. Nobody else is willing to risk going to jail.
He pays me about half the melt value of the coins. I was at my folks the other day and found a can of 1960's currency. I asked if I could roll it up for them. They looked at the can and said. "Take it and buy yourself some pop or something." I have not gone through the can yet but there's probably about $40.00 worth of silver in there.
American and Canadian coins - with the exceptions of pennies and nickels - contain large amounts of silver if they were minted before the late 1960's.
The actual "melt value" of the coins is many times greater than the face value. For example a 1964 United States Quarter ($.25) is worth $1.95 if you melt it down into silver.
One "roll" of quaters ($10.00) face value is actually worth $78.00. A lot of these old coins are just sitting around people's houses in old jars and cans.
An easy way to test if a coin has silver in it is to pass a magnet over it. If the coin jumps up and sticks to the magnet it has no silver. If it stays put it has lots of silver. If it hangs off the magnet limply it has a small amount of silver. Some Canadian coins at the end of the 1960's were still minted with a small amount of silver in them.
We all have older relatives that have cans full of old coins hanging around the house. Offer to roll up grandma and grandpas coins. Offer to pay them face value for the coins. Bring a magnet and roll up the silver separate from the normal stuff. Take the normal stuff to the bank. Pay grandma and grandpa the face value in bills. Keep the silver. They we're never going to spend the coins anyway and they are not collectors. They just didn't bother to roll the coins for forty years.
Also visit your local coin shop and ask what years of coin are worth more. I've found several "special" old coins that were worth a lot of money. Super old pennies from the 1900's and even oddball collector coins like aluminum nazi coins from 1940's germany. Passing the magnet will not sift out special collector coins. You need to inspect each one by hand for that.
Once you have your silver you have to find a person willing to melt the coins down into 1 oz slips or a large brick. This is the hard part. This is very illegal. The federal government will throw you in jail for destroying currency. I have a connection who buys the silver coins off me and then re sells it to a melter. I don't get the full value of the silver but I have no other choice. Nobody else is willing to risk going to jail.
He pays me about half the melt value of the coins. I was at my folks the other day and found a can of 1960's currency. I asked if I could roll it up for them. They looked at the can and said. "Take it and buy yourself some pop or something." I have not gone through the can yet but there's probably about $40.00 worth of silver in there.
