Glossary
A short list of important terms that will help you buy junk silver.
Bullion: Silver bars and rounds that are not intended to be used as currency, money or legal tender.
Coin Silver: An alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper.
Face Value: The $ value printed in the coin. For example, 1 quarter = $0.25 face value.
LCS: An initialism of "Local Coin Shop". Often used on internet forums.
Melt Value: The $ value of the metal content in a coin. Most junk silver is 90% silver and 10% copper, but in this guide I only list the value of the silver content.
PMs: An initialism of "Precious Metals", including silver, gold, platinum and palladium.
Premium: Also known as markup. It's a small amount added to the price. Virtually all silver will be sold with an added premium. The premium usually varies between 5% to 20% depending on various factors. For example, 2 troy ounces of silver at a $20/oz spot price will cost 2 * $20 = $40. Then we add a 10% premium, so $40 * 0.1 = $4 premium. The total cost will be $44. Refer to the calculators.
RCM: Royal Canadian Mint.
Rounds: Silver bullion in coin form. Rounds look just like coins, but only legal tender can be called a "coin".
Spot Price: The current value of 1 troy ounce of silver. The spot price is set by futures contract trades on Wall St. and other exchanges around the world. The spot price changes constantly during trading hours, except weekends and holidays when the exchanges are closed. The current spot price today is about $0.00 / troy oz. The live spot price can be found on the monex website.
Sterling Silver: An alloy of silver containing 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. Sometimes stamped 925.
Troy Ounce: Silver is weighed and priced in troy ounces. A troy ounce is slightly heaver than a standard ounce. When dealing with silver some people substitute the term "ounce" when they mean "troy ounce". Be careful not to confuse troy ounces and standard ounces when buying and selling. If you're buying standard ounces thinking you're getting troy ounces, you're being shorted 10%.
Appendix
Helpful Links
Talking Bullion YouTube channel.
List of online silver dealers (from reddit.com)
Quickly get silver spot price and junk silver values from silverspotter.
American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins at The United States Mint
Live 24 hour silver spot price on Kitco
Stashing Junk Silver For Bad Times By John Silveira
Conservation And Restoration Of Silver Objects - Wikipedia
My Experience With Midwest Bullion Exchange
Disclaimers
I do not sell silver or work for a company that sells silver (I'm just trying to be helpful).
The information presented in this page is not intended to be investment advice. I am not an investment adviser.
The silver values and other information listed on this page are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Contact Me
If you have any questions, suggestions or comments I'd love to hear from you. My email is kevin@kevinsworkbench.com
Sources
The silver prices on this website are gathered from quandl.com on
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