Printable View
Does any one have a knowledge if the 40% half dollar that are 40% 60% alloy of AG CU --- can it be brought back to there original metals . I consider them a good investment but if they can't return back to original they are maybe not a good investment .
yes they can be seperated from each other, however Gold/silver/coin dealers usually pay atleast 90% spot price making it more profitable to sell them at that price vs. refining (refining costs are high) Also, it is illegal to destroy U.S. Coins
True I was not considering the refine processes , but wonder if the true cost to separate makes that a true investment many years down the road . Seems it's more an vestment on faith that yes silver is there @ 40% but the cost to separate is the real truth .
the 90% are a different story .
It's generally thought that you're better off leaving it as a coin, simply because it's a known quantity of silver. Once you make it an ingot, there's no way of certifying it's content, unless you have it done by a known refiner, and that makes it cost prohibitive
Leave them as is. It will cost you 50% of total silver to have it refined. Cost of chemicals is cost prohibative. Plus as was mentioned it is illegal to destroy us currency.
Silver is silver. As long as you know the percentage of silver, it doesn't really matter if it's 5% silver; someone wants it and will pay you for the value of the silver.
I will tell you this as a big coin guy and silver coin enthusiast. Go with the 90% halves. Among the collectors and just plain old sliver coin hoarders 40% halves are looked at as junk in terms of silver coins. Now obviously they have their value but the demand and willingness to buy are not even close to the 90s. That being said buy 1 90 instead of 2 40s.
That answers the question Yes I also like silver & .999 or 90% you know if the SHTF
you have silver that can be melted for what ever use was needed cause it's not cost prohibited .
Legitimate coin sellers sell the 40% with the same rules as silver & it's ok if you want to be a part of that wish silver coin after all $100 face will sell for $500 but really when push comes to shove are you really buying usable silver , it seems not .
For now it's a coin to speculate with but not to put all you eggs (silver ) in that basket . It is the Fiat of the silver coin world . The sellers push " it's silver at 40% " with a low over spot price
I feel many buy it with out understanding it's an alloy . But there is a positive . since many people buy silver ETF's (paper silver) they never even own the AG , they gamble . So one can purchase the 40% with the hope of a gain and a small gain can be taken advantage of due to low over spot .
& worst case you still always have face value . Now any way now I see it's not really a pure silver with little effort .But potentially it is a good alloy for electric conduction
As to the federal law sure it could be enforced but silver seems not to be enforced as our currency is not made of it and the loss of it does not harm our current coin production as a loss .
Those coins are from a day gone by that was our silver the people of the USA had silver as currency.
it was taken from us .
We've had theoretical future scenarios post's like will All copper coins be replaced by steel
all said and done still respectable that our coin currency is copper nickel . except the penny .
As far as I know, the only U.S. coins codified to be illegal to be destroyed are the penny and nickel (2006) because of the Cu content in the current nickel is 80% and the pre-1982 pennies 95%. You could melt 90% and 40% silver all day long but why would you as some as said the old coins are easily recognizable for what they are and if the shtf there will probably be a lot more things to trade than just silver or partially silver coins. My experience is that the 40% Kennedy halves have pretty much gone the route of the 90% (from my little experience of buying a $500 box from a bank this winter after Christmas and finding 0.0 out of 1,000 coins). If you're going to have to buy a silver coin from someone, might as well buy a 90%. Better yet, because the new full 1 oz. US Silver Eagles don't have the collectors value of being old, just pony up with those and not have to worry about refining the other metals out of them. If shtf, cut those up into quarters for easier trading. That's how "pieces of eight" came to be from back in the day...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2cahZ21Fs0
This clears up a big issue , I have to except it as true
They call the 40% a clad coin so the out side of coin is true silver
with pure copper in center . It is important to clarifier as it is not an alloy of AG CU
they are sandwiched together separate metals .
I have been told nickels are a alloy of 75% CU 25% nickel AKA Cupronickel
I had believed the same concept was of the 40% called AgCu
Since they are sandwiched together the metals are isolated and a refiner
with precise control could manage .
interesting is the 90% appear to not tell of of being a clad with a 10% copper center
so the 90% could be a mild alloy . But I see now after research the use of the word Alloy was used with 40% when actually it is a sandwich
construction.
Any info as to 90% construction would be of help .
I think your right CH that the 90% are an alloy. The Kennedy halves are big coins and could easily be clads, although modern quarters are also clads so I don't know how thin a coin would have to be before it wouldn't be easy to make it a clad, maybe there is not limit (isn't a modern dime a clad?). Try cutting a 90% quarter or dime in half and look at it under a jeweler's loop. You should be able to see if its a clad or not.
Current coins are a copper center and Cupronickel surface .Taking into account 90% is an alloy thats ok.
I have found when bringing in scrap silvers the acid test and speed of response color informs tester of quality
and they pay according to there expertise .
Once I brought in some circuit breaker contacts I had from scrap finds . I had seen many on Ebay and figured they were silver also
well my friend at the shop tested and with his skill told me " Some silver and nickel " most important was not enough silver to pay as silver .
Scrap silver at 90% will test out as does a sterling , A honest silver shop knows how to pay .
I know this is an old thread, but the topic (40% silver) is still pertinent. I want to add something to it, as a long-time collector and stacker of silver. In addition to the 40% halves (the 1965 half in the photo above is NOT real because they didn't have mintmarks that year), let's also throw in the 35% silver wartime nickels (made from 1942-1945, but note that some of the 1942's didn't contain any silver as it was a transition year). In general, I'd say that those coins with smaller percentages of silver are much more expensive to refine. In terms of legality, wartime nickels can legally be melted, but not U.S. nickels from other years.
If someone wanted to trade me, say, 100 ounces of silver from 90% halves for 100 ounces of silver from my 40% halves (ASW, or "actual silver weight" as they say), I'd do the trade any day. Yes, I'd be giving them more coins, but in exchange I'd be getting something that would be easier to sell, and likely even easier to barter.
Of course, the 40% silver coins take up a lot more room than the 90%ers for the same amount of ounces of pure silver. That for many people can be bad. But it can be good for someone of modest means who wants to make it look like they've got a big stash. Also, if you want to keep some decoy coins at home (instead of stored offsite where the valuable stuff should be), 40% silver halves may fit the bill.
I like having some decoy coins around (that either look valuable but really aren't) or that are counterfeit. I know it is illegal to sell counterfeit coins, but I figure that if someone steals mine and tries to sell them, that is their problem to be concerned with. If you want to have some coins that have only 10% (yes only 10%) silver in them, look at the Mexican pesos minted from 1957 to 1967. You should be able to buy them for about $1 each. CAUTION: Many people (including me) consider these to be pretty UGLY coins.
The melt value as of July, 2018 is approximately 80 cents each, but actually melting these things would be silly IMHO. Yes, I do have them as decoys in my house in case I am caught by surprise in a robbery attempt.