Silver Question

[WiseOwl]

Forum Friends,
I want to start investing in silver now that I have a little bit of extra income. Where would be a reputable place to purchase either old coins or ounce bars without getting ripped off? I am new to coins so I would love to have some of yalls awesome opinions and input. Are the Kennedy Half Dollars worth anything? What about a 1972 One Dollar Coin? Indian Head penny from 1890? penny from 1942? I have a few of these thats why I am asking.

Thanks

Wise Owl

[runtothehills]

I buy mine here, http://bullion.nwtmint.com/ I buy the Pan American brand. You will always pay over spot, unless you are going to buy a million dollars worth.
I was buying silver less than a year ago for $20 per oz., now it's at $36..........CRAZY! Silver is manipulated, very bad. I think we will see $60 silver this year.
Demand for sliver is above production............If you want to learn a lot about silver, go to www.sliverseek.com and look through all the articles.

[runtothehills]

One other thing to consider, is............I hope you have your food storage built up, before you invest in silver. You can't eat it! If you go to someone's house and want to barter 50lbs of rice for your silver, and you and your family are starving............he might say he want's 100 oz's! What are you going to do???..............just a scenario to consider. My thought, food will be more than gold and silver combined.

[Benn Gleck]

I agree with RTH, you should make sure your are good to go on Beans, Bullets and Band-aids first. Then PM's.

With that said I buy mine at local coin shops. I went to several and after finding the one I like made several purchases. The dealer and I have since built a business relationship and I think I get a little better treatment than someone fresh off the street.

[WiseOwl]

I add to my bullets, beans, blankets and bandaids weekly but now I have a lil extra to buy maybe an oz or 2 every other week.

[Bull]

I've shifted to investing in different metals, like lead and brass. Seriously though, I have completely shifted to survival stuff rather than silver or gold. But, if you want to do it, I say get old quarters, dimes, and half dollars. They have 90% silver content. Plus, when things are ever at a point that you will be able to use them, they are easily recognizable by anyone. Someone can look and know that you have an old, silver quarter. They might be skeptical about a more exotic coin or bullion. They are small enough increments to be easy to trade - you might not want to trade a whole oz of silver for something. I used www.bulliondirect.com when I got some 1 oz silver bullion and had no problems, but I can't give you a first hand account of anywhere else. The Kennedy half dollars are supposed to be good from what I have learned.

[trkarl]

When I first started buying silver I opened an account at www.bulliondirect.com. I would wait til I had a couple hundred ounces bought and then have it shipped to me. It's hard to believe 100 oz bars I was buying for 500 bucks are now more than 3500 bucks. Maybe you should check out a few coin shops and get to know some owners until you can trust them. Talk to them and look at the merchandise up close. Don't get sucked into numismatics as unless you really know your stuff you will most likely get ripped off.

There is some pretty good advise here: http://the-moneychanger.com/entry.phtml

Here is another good site: http://www.apmex.com/
Of course there is always: http://www.kitco.com/

But no matter what you decide just remember: If you can't see it, touch it, taste it, and smell it, then it ain't yours. In other words ALWAYS take delivery.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Examine why you are buying the silver. Is it a hedge against inflation (think long term) or for barter/trade after TSHTF. Junk silver (90% silver pre-1965) is good to use for TSHTF as it will be recognized as "coin" money, but be valued as "silver" money. If someone walks up with a silver colored slab/bar, who knows what it is...90%, 50%, 99.9999%? Silver bars are usually marked, but I could see that they will be cut or split/shaved and possibly be somewhat unrecognizable. For a SHTF scenario I feel junk silver dimes would be easily recognized and be in small enough values to purchase small or less expensive items. Junk dimes, quarters, Morgan dollars and American Eagles are some choices. Where I purchase (local store) the junk silver has the lowest premium over spot price. When you purchase American Eagles you will pay a higher premium over spot. Bars will have a lower premium than the AE's as well, but as stated earlier less recognizable than the others. 100oz bars have very low premiums, but will be useless (not worthless) in a SHTF crisis but will be good for a hedge against inflation. If you just need a few items and you only have a 100oz bar, well how bad do you need the items, because the seller may not have change.

As far as 1909-1982 pennies, they have melt value of $0.03 and 1946-2011 nickels have a melt value of $0.07. Both of these are in circulation and can be found if you watch your change. Some people on various blogs and forums are saying that the nickel may be the "penny" in a SHTF crisis. You can see melt values at www.coinflation.com Hope that helps some.

[WiseOwl]

Thanks for the advice yall. To be quite honest, I am looking for silver as an investment, just incase the better end of the spectrum occurs and nothing "drastic" ever happens but if TS DOES HTF, I WILL have some sort of currency. I would also like to have it to pass down to my son one day. I am wanting to buy junk dimes just to have for my preps for the "just incase" factor, which is the same reason we all prep. So I would buy them from coin shops? I also collect gemstones. I have a good bit. I think that they could be used for barter in the PAW.
My good friend and semi mentor, collects Morgan Silver Dollars and Silver Coin Sets and has been for 40 years. He tries to get me into buying those sets but thats just way out of my price range.
I just want to get into something semi affordable that I can work into my prep budget.

[Klayton]

May I suggest if you are going to buy silver, avoid the "old" silver you mentioned. It is SERIOUSLY overpriced and unless you plan on being a collector its worth just the same as a new one if using it for trade to the average person...

[WiseOwl]

How awesome is this...Today we were cleaning out the garage, going through boxes of my wifes..*cough cough** trash **cough cough** stuff and I find literally two handfulls of 1964 and older Dimes and half dollars! WINNING...lol

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Gotta love those old boxes.....

[WiseOwl]

She worked at a bank right after high school and they actually just traded them out to here for post 1965 change!!! WOW...I wish I would have known her back then, I would have brought the whole change jar up there...ahahha

[Knobster]

E-bay. Search for 'junk silver' and you'll find plenty of dollars, quarters and dimes. I've purchased all of my silver this way for a couple of years with no problem. Although it is getting harder to win the auctions...