Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I checked on the price of junk silver

and found that it's way down. Placed an order for $100 face. What puzzles me is that I have paid 13-14x face for it so why the drop in price? The dollar sure ain't worth more these days. I'm not smart enough to figure all this out.

Hype seems to be the driving force. I've yet to figure out any logic for the precious metals.

This might help you Mickey

http://www.coinflation.com/coin_calculators.html

Thanks that's helpful.

Keith, that's interesting but really doesn't tell me what is driving the silver coin market or I'm too dumb to realize it...which may be the problem here.

Inflation is worse than it was 2-3 years ago when I paid ~$1400 for $100 face for junk silver coins. Now they're down around $1000 for the same coins.

I didn't buy the coins as an investment but as a safety net so the drop really doesn't concern me as to the value of my coins but I can't imagine why the drop in price. Things certainly aren't any better.

Demand is down. Hype can only drive a market so long. People run out of money and those that haven't figure they've got enough for right now. I've bought Morgans for $4 and it wasn't that long ago.

I've sold silver twice in my life. Once when the Hunt brothers went nuts and bought a shotgun with the money (I was a lad at the time) and again about 2 1/2-3 years ago when it was going for $43 and ounce.

Buy low, sell high.

Simply put, a strong precious metals market makes the dollar look bad. (and it is bad)

The Federal Reserve owns the printing presses that manufactures the dollars. It's advantageous to the Federal Reserve for their product to be perceived as being valuable.

The Federal Reserve is a very powerful, very corrupt entity.

So,...anything that makes the dollar looks bad is going to be manipulated,....by any means necessary,....for as long as possible.

The only real question is,.."How long will it be possible?"

I made $800 when I was a kid when the price soared in 1980. Most of the coins where ones I found going through rolls of coins and in change. I still occasionally find silver coins in change, two dimes and a quarter in the last 2 years. They are fairly easy to spot as the color is a bit different, plus no copper visible on the edge.

I remember hearing something a while back that a ship loaded with silver that was sunk during WW II was found near England(?). There was speculation that this discovery would drive down the price on silver in the future. This was several months ago. I know this is vague, at best, but that is what I remember. I confess that I have not kept up with the price of gold, silver, etc., in some time so I really did not give it much thought when I heard it. Hopefully this may offer a clue as to the price drop and not add too much to the confusion.

I was in a jewelry store yesterday that makes custom jewelry for many of the high end jewelry stores in the DC area & was told the same story. They have large volumes of gold & silver & I have dealt with them for over 20 years.

I get your question asked of me pretty regularly, mickey, and my answer soley of my own opinion is the commodity markets MAY have some influence over them in the short term by very big players messing with prices. Generally speaking metals are a major hedge against dollar devaluation, best addressed by cost averaging into them for long term. Short term it's anybodies guess, the big guys don't let me in on the secret.

I misunderstood Mickey. I thought you were looking for a price breakdown. Sorry

No apology necessary, my friend. I placed an order for another $100 face just as soon as he can scrape it together. That will give me a little over $400 face for whatever good that will do if the SHTF...plus I have a lot of primers, bullets and powder.

Mickey,

The entire market is driven by the daily spot price of silver. It peaked, along with gold a few years back and has been in steady decline since. The silver sport today is just over $19 and ounce. It peaked around $37 in 2010.

Junk silver (silver coins) always get a slight premium over spot at retail, and a discount at wholesale. The big guys sell at retail and you are a wholesaler.

One important thing to remember about circulating silver coinage ... it's 90% silver and weighs a fraction of an ounce. So a silver dollar with 90% silver content and weighing 27gr is about .7224 ounces of silver.

p.s. - the spot price is driven by speculators using a complex algorithm of factors. It used to be supply and demand, but that formula went out the window years ago and world market factors determine what the daily spot will be. The Hunt brothers were able to drive the market up in the late 70's and early 80's by buying up huge shares and creating a large demand in relation to supply. They couldn't do that today with such an impact on the market.

I get your question asked of me pretty regularly, mickey, and my answer soley of my own opinion is the commodity markets MAY have some influence over them in the short term by very big players messing with prices. Generally speaking metals are a major hedge against dollar devaluation, best addressed by cost averaging into them for long term. Short term it's anybodies guess, the big guys don't let me in on the secret.

MColeman - Where do you buy your face bags from, if you don't mind me asking?

i blaim my grandmother for getting me into coins and especially watching for silver coins.....while not scrap this is what i couldnt pass up as a token of my trip to Oz

About 3 years ago I decided I wanted 100 Morgan Silver Dollars,
No reason, just wanted that many.
I'd buy a few, then maybe 10 if I had some extra $$'s. When I started they were about $33 depending on condition, when I finally got my 100th they were $25. Haven't seen them for any less.
I now have started on trying to collect 50 of the Liberty ones, have about 25 now and mostly they cost me $20/23.
They usually are in better condition, but not as sought after as Morgans.
I've collected them for my grand kids to fight over some day. :>)
On the other hand I've bought a proof American Eagle Silver Dollar every year starting in 1999, back they they were about $30,my 2014 from the mint was $52.95, their price doesn't seem to be going down.