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Finding Junk Silver on Ebay - Tips and suggestions for New Zealanders

The best place to find junk silver, hands down, is ebay.com! Here is list of Ebay tips that you should for finding junk silver:

• Don't just search in the Coins category, look in the collectibles and antiques. Expand beyond coins, and you can find some deals!
• Don't forget to calculate shipping to New Zealand! USA sellers will have the best prices to New Zealand, followed by UK and Germany. Aussies and Canadians have extortionary shipping even though the currency is valued less than US or UK. I still haven't found any deals with Aussie and Canadian ebay dealers.
• Bid your highest price first. Why? Sometimes people will tend to move off bidding the closest it gets to the silver spot price. For instance I bidding for a roll of coins worth 40 usd, I am leading the bid at $38.00, my highest price. I am not interested in winning the auction, I am interested in getting a deal! Like minded people will realise that there is little room for a deal and move on to the next cheapest auction. I've won several auctions where it seemed like bidders have 'moved on'
• Don't get into bidding wars, unlike trademe.co.nz - there are plenty of coins to go around on Ebay.com - On trademe.co.nz you will notice that many coin sellers greatly inflate values even after shipping and exchange conversions. Ebay is the place.
• If you have items shipped from the USA - it can take 2 weeks to a month and half to receive them. Just be aware of this - the USA postal service, which is the cheapest option, is very inconsisent with delivery times.
• New Zealand Customs - try to keep your total purchase under $199NZD (now $130ish USD), I've need been confronted by customs taxes at this price. I've found American shippers to be very accomondating and often write the face value of the coins instead of the silver value. Remember to ask!
• Advanced searches are your best friend - Use it to find who ships to New Zealand and find coins within your budget!
• Be familar with the Coins. Eg, know that 1971 Eisenhower dollar only has silver if its minted in San Francisco! Do your homework and it will save you from stupid mistakes.

Canadian Junk Silver

I am not too familar with Canadian Junk Silver, but here is a general guide of Canadian Junk silver mintage:

Coin Silver Ounces

1920-1967 Dime 0.0599

1920-1967 Quarter 0.1499

1920-1967 Half Dollar 0.2999

1935-1967 Dollar 0.5997

Multiply the oz of silver with the current spot price of silver for the value.

For a more indepth look, read about Canadian Junk Silver Coins Here

I haven't bought any Canadian coins yet, but i'll keep you posted if I do.

How much silver is left in the earth?

Here are a few charts i've uploaded to show how much of Silver is left on the earth. We have less than 30 years left of silver left in the earth at todays silver consumption rates. This image was take from http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2009/04/26051202.jpg Click to enlarge image.

original image which show more resources, click to enlarge.

US War Nickels - 35% silver coins

During the Second World War, the USA need to use its Nickel and other alloys for the war cause. So during the war, the Nickel, or the five cent piece, was made of 35% silver, 56% copper and 9% Manganese. Production for the war Nickel began in 1942 and ended in 1945.

These are some of the cheapest investments in Junk Silver. Here are some unique facts about the War Nickel:

• War nickels have the largest Mint Mark of any coin featured on the back of the coin
• The coins tend to be darker and 'tarnish' easier than regular nickels
• Francis LeRoy Henning, a counterfeiter, tried to copy the 1944 War Nickel, but in doing so he forget the Mint Mark, therefore the fakes are easy to distinguish (and ironically of high value to collectors!)
• An error in minting the 1943/2 War Nickel - is a sought after war nickel
• There is an estimate that says 50-60% of all war nickels were lost to the smelters for their silver and copper contents. Read more about the great smelting of coins during the early 1980's here.
• Due to the small size and silver, its considered an excellent 'survivalist' coin.

Below is the list of years and Mintage of war Nickels:

Year Mintage

1942 P 57,873,000

1942 S 32,900,000

1943 P 271,165,000

1943 D 15,294,000

1943 S 104,060,000

1943/2 P unknown

1944 P 119,150,000

1944 D 32,309,000

1944 S 21,640,000

1945 P 119,408,100

1945 D 37,158,000

1945 S 58,939,000

For New Zealanders, this coin is an excellent entry into the Silver market. You can still pick up rolls of War Nickels very cheaply - check Ebay for the best deals (be sure to check postage as well, you should be able to have shipped to New Zealand for about 4 usd ($6.35 NZD).

To the Google Blogger {Not a spam blog}

Dear Google blogger bots,

I got a notice that this blog was marked as a spam blog. Its not, really! There is a human here! Honest!

Hope we can come to some kind of agreement so we can both co-exist peacefuly in the blogosphere.

Thanks
the blogger behind junk-silver.blogspot.com

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Coinflation.com - the first place to stop before buying Junk Silver

Coinflation.com shows the 'melt value' of junk silver coins from the USA. If you want to get the pure metal value of junk silver from the USA, this should be your primary stop. It doesn't have all the junk silver coins, but you'll find the most commonly sold ones.

Find the USA junk silver coin values here. This is probably the single most useful reference for American Junk Silver there is!