Question on Walking Liberty Halves.

[Whatsamobo]

Am I correct in calculating that a walking liberty half dollar is .36 of a troy ounce of silver? Based on the fact that one weighs 12.5 grams which would equal .40188 troy ounce and 90% of that is .36169.

I am trying to determine the value of a roll of 40 of these coins, which I am estimating is 14.467 troy ouces of raw silver and at say $12.00 an ounce for silver would be about 173 dollars.

Am I doing this right? Or am I way off. The reason I ask is that I have the opportunity to get 40 walking liberties at about $100 which includes the shipping.

[Bill]

That isn't too bad of a deal. One thing you should consider is the numismatic value over the spot value. While they might be in less than superb condition, the simple fact that they are old and harder to find than pure silver bullion adds somewhat of a collectible value to them. A good example of this is the Silver American Eagle. They weigh in at .999 troy oz of silver, yet go for more than spot price. Even more so if they are proof or have a high grade. Besides, if silver ends up doing what many seem to think it will do in a few years, then I don't see how it could be a bad investment. I'd do it.

-Bill

[Whatsamobo]

Bill,

Thanks for the response. I would have done it too if were actually 40 in a roll. But it turns out after futher research that there are only 20 in a roll for the $100 price. So the deal is not as good as getting 40 for 100 bucks. I was taking the numismatic value into consideration when making my evaluation. I figured at nearly half the raw silver value, for the price, and adding the numismatic value it was a screaming good deal. That is why I made the post. I figure something was just not adding up properly and wanted to make sure it was not me missing something or calculating incorrectly. Turns out is was either a typo in the ad or an intentional misslead, hoping the buyer would not find out until it was too late, in the end the seller was honest about what was being sold. Still even at the price for 20 coins it is a fair deal, base soley on the raw silver value. I may consider making the purchase, but right now my intent is to gather bullion, I am not really interested in any addition artistic or numismatic value at this stage of my silver investing.

[Bill]

We share the same silver investing interests. I started out buying 10oz silver bars off of ebay. But, I have found you'll get more for your money if you buy in bulk and stay away from ebay. I ordered 50oz from Northwest Territorial Mint. It took a while for it to be delivered, but the price over spot was far less than most typical ebay purchases. I actually placed another order through them about a week ago for another 50oz. While I do have a few numismatic silver coins, I'd much rather own bullion. It's simply more practical to deal with. It is what it is; pure silver. If you have numismatic, especially any of which appear in good condition, you usually have to go through the hassle of getting them professionally graded. Even then you may end up spending more than what a coin is worth to do so.

I have a very "Keep it simple, stupid" sort of attitude. For me, bullion is the way to go. A google search will easily turn up places from which to buy. To save you a few keystrokes, here's a couple of links...



http://www.monex.com/
http://www.nwtmintbullion.com/silver.php

-Bill

[Whatsamobo]

Bill,

We not only share the same interests, we shop at the same store. I purchased 100oz of Pan American bullion about a month ago from NWTM. It is good to hear from you that it takes a while to get the silver delivered. I got the impression they were a very reputable place to do business with and was impressed with their customer service, but was beginning to wonder where my silver was. Now I am not as anxious given your comments. The nice thing about the fact that NWTM sells the Pan Am silver is that I also own Pan Am stock, double dip investing.

The only reason I was shopping ebay was because I got a gift debit card and I figured instead of wasting the money on some toy or gaget I would buy some silver. I could not use the card to get cash so ebay looked like the easiest way to use it for silver given I got a good price. So far I have only picked up a one ouce bar but paid 17 buck which included the shipping. Not really a good deal. So I will stick with NWTM. Prices are looking pretty good right now too, but I will wait to see what happens.

Thanks for the links have been to both already (NWTM you knew of course) and agree with you that they are probably the two best out there. I have checked pretty hard for places to purchase bullion and those two ended up in my bookmarks.

Darren

[Ardent Listener]

For what it is worth, most of my 90% junk silver is in Walking Liberty Halves. I had a dealer that sold me them at the same rate he was selling other junk silver.