Coinsandcanada.com

I am new to this forum and have dabbled with Coin Collecting a long time. I recently inherited a collection and am in the process of grading, sorting and cataloging many coins. One thing I am doing it separating the AG Silver quarters and dimes from around 1930 - 1966 inclusive. I've seen a lot of ads online for people wanting to buy silver however the most I've seen lately is an offer for 15.1 face value as of Oct 25, 2011. Given the spot price of silver is around $32 today and each quarter is 80% Silver with a weight of 5.83 grams, the offers don't seem to add up.

Each Silver quarter should contain (0.8 X 5.83) or 4.66 grams of Silver.
Given it takes ~28.35 grams to make an ounce, it takes 6.08 quarters to make an ounce.
Four quarters should therefore be 0.667 of an ounce or around $21.35 per $1.00 face value.
The pawnshops are offering $15 hence making around 36% profit on Silver.

Here is the question:

How does the bulk silver process work? I assume it is illegal to deface CAD currency yet somehow it does get melted down. The local pawnshops etc are obviously easily selling it to someone given the volatility and eagerness they pursue silver with. Does anyone know of a good blog post or article to explain the process in Canada? I obviously would want to sell the junk silver at the best price possible but also recognize there is work involved in smelting metal.

Are there any reputable places to deal with? I feel like I need a shower after reading some of the websites of the silver and gold buyers. Thank you in advance for any help.

At most larger coin shows, you will get 85-88% of the scrap value of the silver, depending on condition.... maybe 90% if all are in good shape. Only NEW coins weigh what the book says, so heavily worn coins do not come close to the published weights. The buyer isn't really making much profit, because he is handling and transporting the sdtuff and has to eat profit if the silver goes down in the interim. I'm not sure of your calculations, but I have done them from time to time and it comes out that post-1920 Canadian silver is EXACTLY .6 oz per face dollar. Use that as a rule of thumb. At $32/oz, that makes each face dollar worth $19.20. If you are offered 88%, then you'll get $16.90 times face. If all you are ofered is $15, find another place and, whatever you do, don't EVER take your silver or gold to the shysters at any local "Roadshow" production, where you'll be lucky to get $8 face.

Melting silver is perfectly legal .. what some of the buyers are doing borders on fraud. Just keep the .6 oz per face dollar in mind and expect 85% at a minimum.

Thank you. This helps a lot and makes sense. Follow up question - is there a list of good coin shows for Vancouver/Lower Mainland area including tips for attending? I looked but cannot seem to find anything until Nov 20.

My best advise is to look in the latest Canadian Coin News, where it lists the majority (but not all) of the shows throughout Canada in the "upcoming events" section of the paper. Only if the organizers send a notice of the event will it show up in CCN. I hope that this helps.

Thank you Bill! It helps a lot.

Thank you a billion! Really helps. Best wishes.

You can see some events in the calendar. There's the VNS annual coin show on March 31 and April 1st in Vancouver.

When calculating silver, you must use troy ounces, not imperial ounces. A troy oz. is 31.1 grams, not the usual 28.35 grams. As Bill in Burl has said, $1 of .800 silver is .6 troy ounces (as marked in older Charlton catalogues). It doesn't matter if it's dimes, quarters, 50 cents, or dollars, because they were all minted using matching weights e.g. a dime is 1/10 the weight of a dollar= .06 tr. oz..