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Old August 16th 16, 11:24 PM posted to rec.collecting.coins
Ken Barr
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Posts: 476
Default What to do with Kennedy half dollars?

In article ,
Barney wrote:

I bought a roll of Kennedy halfs for spending purposes only. What I ended
up getting was about half of them from 1967 and 1968. Now I don't know
what to do with them.

I know I could use them at face value, but I also know they are 40%
silver...meaning (from what I've read the value of silver alone is close
to $3 each. I assume unless I'm a coin dealer...there's no way I could
even fetch close to that amount. I'm not a coin collector, and I'm not one
to be selling coins via Ebay.

So what do I do with them? How much could I expect to get by selling them
to a retail coin dealer? Would a retail coin dealer even buy them? The
condition of them are not anywhere near mint, or even uncirculated. In
fact they are kind grungy; and I have no idea if that means anything if
someone is buying them just for the silver content alone.


They are certainly worth more than face value, so don't spend them.

The current deeler buy on 40% silver is about 5.6 times face value,
or $2.80 per half dollar. This is generally BY THE BAG ($1000 face
value), though, so smaller quantities are generally purchased at a
smaller multiple. (It takes a lot more work to buy 200 lots of $5
face than one lot of $1000 face, so the deeler takes the value of his
time into account.) At a shop where I used to help out, when silver
was at this level, we'd pay between 4.0 and 5.0 times face depending
on the amount being purchased.

Just call a few local shops and ask "How much are you paying for
$xx face of forty percent silver?". They should be able to quote
you a ballpark figure, somewhat subject to change if the spot price
changes dramatically between the time you call and the time you
show up to sell.

--
Ken Barr Numismatics * * * *email:
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San Jose, CA *95152 * * Coins, currency, exonumia, souvenir cards, etc.
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