Coins ARE currency. This includes bullion and numismatic issues. You can take your 1 kg $30AUD 999 silver Kookaburra coin (with or without capsule) into your local bank (in Australia) and receive $30 in notes back. You can also do the same for a $200AUD gold coin. Pretty stupid idea if you ask me with the kilo coin containing over $600AUD in silver and the gold one also having a metal value well over its face value, but you can do it if you want and the bank will give you the face value in notes. NOW if your 1 kg 999 Silver Kookaburra happened to be a 2008 issue, untouched and still in its original capsule you could put it up for sale on here and probably get close to $1000AUD for it as it has a collectors value. HOWEVER if your 2008 kilo kook has been fondled, scratched or otherwise violated its value will be dramatically reduced - and yes this is a bullion coin. This is why NOT fondling your coins is a good idea - it also stops hairs growing on your palms.
Most bars will never see a lick of premium whereas early ASE's will have a noticeable premium if they are in uncirculated mint condition. 1986 pristine clean white ASE's are selling on ebay for a minimum of about 33% premium markup over the current spot price of silver. A very recent auction shows that people are bidding and paying high premiums for early mint uncirculated ASE's: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-Roll-1...561528?hash=item4885455fb8:g:41gAAOSwI-BWKT3A Sure, you can find crap looking 1986 ASE's that have obviously been handled selling with virtually no premium....and that's exactly my point. Handle coins and you risk throwing away money. Bullion ASE's in since 2009 have been minted in the 30-40 million range. A little more than 5 million ASE's were minted 1986. There's going to be a significant difference in premiums for high grade 1986 ASE's and recent years ASE's. In 1986, if someone were to take the advice of the type of person that says "yeah, throw around your ASE's any way you like....they're just junk circulating coins" then the fool who listened to that ridiculous advice would be throwing away money for no good reason at all. If you are into fondling silver, just buy bars....period. .
Those random year gold (and silver) Mexico peso coins on APMEX are bullion coins. APMEX may sell old silver and gold circulating coins but I occasionally go to APMEX just for bullion. Bullion coins are not meant to be put into circulation because the nominal currency minted onto the face of the coin is a far lesser value than the commodity value of the metal that makes up the coin. For example, a $50 bullion Gold Buffalo coin has a legal tender denomination of $50 on it but it will cost you in the very least $1,100 to buy one http://www.apmex.com/product/39598/1-oz-gold-buffalo-bu-random-year . If you buy a proof version from the U.S. Mint, it will cost you no less than $1,400. You really don't want to spend legal tender bullion coins like circulating money. That $50 will buy you about a couple of movie tickets, popcorn, Twizzlers, drinks for two people, and the parking meter fare....maybe. .
Can't say I'm not tempted just to try it. I've got a pile of $5 coins I'm gonna try spending just for kicks, might give me an idea what to expect. I really really want to try spending a $10 10oz kook at the supermarket, just to see what's up.
That's the problem with high purity silver. All those monsterboxes / tubes, how will the coins look like over decades? Base metal coins, much less prone to becoming ugly / worn in the 1st place, are replaced, melted when ugly / worn. The high premium of for ex the ASE has then been a waste. The drawback of a 90% circulation coin is 10% or so more weight at the same value. But if the silver price drops 10%, then that's just the same. If I had have the choice I wouldn't have bought pure silver coins, at least not in quantities. But their is little choice out there, the amount junk for sale is here too small for that. And it doesn't even need circulation as an objective, just easier storing / handling. In the end, the coins bought to store value are ment to be sold again. For ex the past decade / bull market, let's say 2000+, about 300 million ASE's were sold. How do those 80 million of the previous 15 years ASE, look nowadays? Which % was melted? Didn't came across any data on this. What do dealers (or anyone) do when they buy back ugly coins? I don't see such for sale, so do they send them in as scrap? Clean them (quite some work)?
