I'll Sell When Gold Hits $1750

As a rule many preppers prefer coin because it is more readily recognized by the GDP. Coins are more easily divided, and in many cases easier to carry. Bullion will be a bit harder to divide for smaller purchases. This is the opinion I've heard from many over the years.

 

Yea ,,, I was just wondering why the coins costed more , when it was still just 1 ounce of silver ,,, and then you had the spot price. I know the coins are prettier than the bars ,,, but I didn't know the reason for buying coins over bars. Basically ,, approximately ,, you could buy 6 bars , for the price of 4 coins. Just don't really see the benefits there.

 

Use shot to make change. Don't buy fractional bars. They are a rip off.

The big investment silver isn't coins. It's usually bars, 10 troy ounce, half kilo, full kilo, 50, 100, up to 1,000 ounce.

 

Its actually....Silver bullets that will take out equal amounts of bloodsuckers,Like Loup-Garu,Werewolves and politicians !

 

Try silver shot.

 

Not a fan of silver shot. For jewelry making fine, but as a trade good. Nope, you'll have to pay for an assay and you better have a lot of it to make it worth the cost of the assay and transport. 40 bucks for the assay alone and maybe 20 for fast ship. How much silver will you have to sell at a profit to make that 60 bucks back?

Better off buying a recognizable product like from a country's sovereign mint, reputable mint, processor with fineness and size clearly specified. Otherwise, you could be buying counterfeit product.

I'd steer clear of shot products unless you are using it for something other than a store of value. In SHTF, I'm not taking it and others probably won't either.

 

How do you counterfeit silver shot?
Check density, hammer it out, melt a sample, cool it off, unlike a coin or bar destructive testing isn't going to hurt value.
You are more likely to get drilled out tungsten rod filled gold Krugerrands than faked shot.
With shot it's reasonable to assume that the buyer could be melting it down immediately and they are going to know if something is funny with it. A faked bar or coin it could be decades or change hands multiple times before the fraud is discovered.

It's not about how much you have to sell its how much the price goes up, then it depends if you are selling to a dealer or selling at dealer prices.

 

C'mon OP, the 'average' person wouldn't know the difference between a mixture of lead and antimony (solder) and silver. Both silver in color, both heavier than aluminum. How many people know how to conduct a specific gravity test.
Fakes exist, but it's far easier to fake little round balls of metal that an intricate design of a coin.
I'm sticking by my opinion that shot sucks as a store of value. It's far better if you have an industrial use for it.

 

Why I don't have PM's

 

Really?
I expect most of not all of them to be feeding the flies around 10 days or however long it takes to die from diarrhea after they lose potable water.

 

The average useful idiot doesn't know the difference between hydroxychloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate.
Maybe I have an industrial use for it, I do have acetylene and oxygen torch and could easily and quickly melt it.
How come I have found numerous examples of faked coin and bars, but never shot?

 

But you bought the shot from a reputable dealer didn't you. Or did you get it in trade from guy that bought your old car?
You are missing the point. Besides you. Who knows if that's really silver shot. For all we know, it's some of those silver candies they sprinkle on cakes.

Again, without the ability to assay the quality of the shot, you would have to take someone's word that it was .995 or higher. maybe someone melted down some 90 percent coin and did the shot tower on it. Maybe it's only 80 percent Canadian melted down. Heck, it could be 50 percent or 40 percent. How will you be able to tell?

That's what I'm getting at. It's of unknown manufacture, unknown purity. And things go sideways .. most peoples words aren't going to be much. I'd rather have 10 pounds of silver in coin or bar from a reputable manufacture than a bag of shot of the same weight.

Maybe you have more knowledgeable folk in your AO. But for me, shot is basically useless.

 

Archimedes figured it out approximately 2,200 years ago, so you might say we have the technology.

Checks break down into to 2 groups.
Destructive and non destructive.
Some are a little of both, a small scratch is destructive, but isn't going to effect value as much putting a torch on a minted bar or coin until it melts.

Silver cake candys have maybe a density 10% of silver and are not nearly as shinny.

Silver has a density of about 10.5 grams per cubic cm. It's melting point is about 1760 degrees F.

How do I know it's not x, y or z.
The number 1 way silver is faked is its pure silver poured with a steel packer and steel is magnetic.
Putting a steel packer in a sliver bar is quick, cheap, easy, low tech and requires no specialized equipment or chemicals.
A magnet or density check will reveal the fraud. Usually on larger poured 50 ounce and bigger bars.
Copper is close to the same density, but also close to the same melting point. Other metals have a lower melting point, so you are unlikely to get a silver bar with a copper packer. I have never heard of it happening.
The number 2 way silver is faked on smaller bars is garbage "made in china silver" is actually 1 troy ounce of copper or brass that's been silver plated.
It fails the density and scratch test. If you're dumb enough to be tricked by plated copper or brass you deserved it.

How do I know if someone didn't melt grandma's Stirling silver set into bars?
Stirling is harder and more durable than pure.
It looks different too, Stirling is 10% copper, you put 999 fine silver next to Stirling and the difference is very obvious.
Also that person is a moron because grandma's silver set was likely worth substantially more in the form of a set even if incomplete then as a block.
Early junk silver has the same appearance.
Late 90% junk silver is made from silver, copper and nickle. Because late 90% junk silver is alloyed with nickle its really hard to compared to pure, but they look simular.
Late junk silver differs from early because has a whiter appearance, but not like pure, it's substantially harder and the really high nickle found in very late, 1965 and up coins would fail a density check by a lot.
Early junk silver looks more like Stirling.
If in doubt try to scratch a piece of Stirling with pure and vice-versa.

How do you know it's not plated shit, density check, if some how it's right at 10.5 and you are still in doubt just gouge the surface. Likely to find a very soft lead-tin alloy even compared to pure silver and with a very low melting point.
This is a pretty elaborate hoax, the fraudster would have to be able to do math, work out the correct lead to tin ratio to achieve 10.5, work with welding equipment, have chemical and electrical knowledge. It really would be a waste of tallent.

The time and energy it would take to pass junk silver as pure would nearly match the cost of producing the hoax. You would have to round up a bunch of junk silver which is typically sold around 90% of spot, but with no over spot premium so it is cheap compared to pure silver, melt it down, pour it into legitimate looking bars as not to draw further scrutiny, then plate it with pure silver with a plating durable enough to perpetrate the hoax for an extended time.
You're better off melting down junk silver, marking it as such and charging a small premium. You could ask 90% of spot then charge $3 or $4 over spot, make some money and not end up in the bottom of a river with rocks in your pocket.
Or sell your junk silver and buy real pure silver.

So your tests are non destructive.
Look at how shinny it is.
Magnet.
Weigh it, if it says one or 5 or 10 ounces but isn't then something is fishy.
Density check.
Hell just dropping it on a hard surface and listening to the sound it makes.

Destructive.
Scratch test. With a knife to reveal copper or some lesser metal or against a known pure bar to check hardness.
Melt it.
Hammer it out, look for hidden surprises.

If it density checks at 10.5, melts at mid 1700F and is really shinny it's going to be real.

 

And by the time it takes to conduct the tests. The starving individual takes you out, the goods he was trading for the silver shot for and his silver shot.

Again, lightly processed silver ore, shot or what ever is something I strongly recommend that most people avoid for SHTF. Unless you are close to Oil Pan 4, and his doors are open for the industrial grade silver barter or you use it in the manufacture of something. Otherwise walk away.

OP4, you and I are going to have to agree to disagree.

I think it's almost the worst way to build a silver stash. The only thing worse would be to have the seller hold it for you in their 'vaults'. Novices aren't going to able to determine if it's real or not (from both buyer and seller sides)

And you think it's a great way to get silver closer to spot and is awesome. You also give way too much credit to folks being able to quickly determine quality of a material.

 

If that's what you are worried about then its probably best just to go hide in the woods and avoid all contact with anyone.

 

I'm for commerce and trade. Once the desperate and dangerous useful idiots die off.

 

Yes, some coins and rounds could be counterfeit, but as long as all parties are unaware of this it's all good. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

 

People have been trying to fake gold and silver for as long as they have been used as a medium of exchange.
Same goes for cash, checks, money order, silver or gold notes, other goods and services.

 

If you don't have known pure samples, scales and some type of graduated cylinder for checking volume then you don't stand a chance at telling real from fake or accepting the correct amount.