opinions on Sunshine Mints silver rounds

W

wnt

New Member
Hello everyone,

I have two questions:

My first question is about the Sunshine Silver Rounds. Apparently they have the SI Mint Mark, making it easy to authenticate them. I think that’s a great idea, however I’ve noticed that these silver rounds are slightly higher in price when compared to rounds made by other mints. My questions: is this increase in price worth it in the long run? That is, will these rounds sell for a higher price in the future simply because they are easier to authenticate? Or will that not really matter? I just don’t want to be paying extra in premiums without any kind of benefit long term.

My second question ties into my first. As a beginner, I’m not really sure what information I need to provide in the future to sell my silver rounds. What I’m trying to say is, do I need to provide any kind of certificate of authenticity/documentation to the seller that is purchasing my rounds? For example, I see a lot of silver rounds for sale on eBay, but none of them come with any kind of certificate of authenticity, should I be weary of purchasing rounds that come without any kind of documentation? I just don't want to run into any issues in the future because I bought silver rounds that weren't supplied with any COA or documentation.

Thank very much for your help!
 
The best COA you can get is an officially minted government coin such as the American Silver Eagle or the Canadian Maple Leaf and others... They are made to exact specifications making them their own COA. Junk silver (90%) is also its own COA as that is also difficult to forge. Get some coins, 90% silver and other types of bullion. When the time comes to sell use the coins and 90% to establish a relationship with a dealer before pulling out the bullion.
 
1. Choose coins (Currency) over rounds.
2. If coins are counterfeited Interpol will chase you around the world.
3. If rounds are forged, it's just a local copyright infringement plus fraud if sold as bullion.
4. If you choose to get receipts, even cash receipts, you have a providence for your bullion.
5. If you buy from a few dealers, Face to Face, there is a better chance of selling back to them in bulk in case of urgency.
6. The SI mint mark will form part of the forged copy!
 
Rounds don't come with Certificates of Authenticity, so you have nothing to worry about there.

Silver and gold coins also generally don't come with COAs. Typically gold bars come packaged with COAs or assay cards, and some silver bars carry them such as PAMP's and maybe Perth for example. (Note that in all cases I'm talking about how bullion comes new from the respective mint – I'm not talking about slabbed coins that come sealed in a slab with a formal grading. Those are numismatic products, not pure bullion.)

Sunshine Mint rounds can be had as cheap as other rounds, or for pennies more, if you know where to look. Check out Silver.com, SD Bullion, and BOLD Precious Metals. Sometimes JM Bullion, BGASC, and Provident will be competitive as well. Avoid APMEX – overpriced.

The Sunshine MintMark SI is probably worth something, even if only pennies more per ounce. It's hard to say, because it's hard to know how popular Sunshine Mint products are and whether people are looking for them. Contrary to other posts, the MintMark SI is extremely unlikely to be successfully forged. In fact, I'm not aware of any case of successful forgery, no videos or what have you. Forgers don't have the capability to reproduce stuff like that (yet). The only negative I see with the MintMark SI is that it required the decoder lens, and I'm not sure how many people have it (I assume the lens is more than a magnifying glass – I don't know how it works). That was a terrible mistake on Sunshine Mint's part. They should have developed a mark that didn't require any special products to read. The need for that proprietary lens severely constrains the market value of that feature – just a dumb, dumb mistake.
 
wnt said:
...That is, will these rounds sell for a higher price in the future simply because they are easier to authenticate? Or will that not really matter? I just don’t want to be paying extra in premiums without any kind of benefit long term...
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Won't really matter.

Rounds are rounds, bars are bars. Dealers charge 5-15% over spot usually. They buy back (you sell) for spot value minus 10% usually.

Bullion are bullion. Dealers charge 10-25% over spot usually. They buy back for roughly spot value.

The best way to learn the buy/sell spreads is to go to shops and sell some silver once you've stacked a bit. You will learn a lot. It all reverts to spot, so don't overpay on the front end.

Coins that are bullion or in capsules or shinier will tend to sell faster/better, but it all is based on spot price. You can always buy what you like to have and what you think looks cool, but in terms of price, it all follows spot. GL
 
About a month ago I bought two dozen rounds of Sunshine Mint from GS from their low premium buybacks. They are in my SDB now but if I recall correctly I noticed they were smaller in size then the kangaroos I put them with. Made me wonder how they could be smaller in thickness and width and still weigh 1oz.
 
SlyGuy said:
Won't really matter.

Rounds are rounds, bars are bars. Dealers charge 5-15% over spot usually. They buy back (you sell) for spot value minus 10% usually.

Bullion are bullion. Dealers charge 10-25% over spot usually. They buy back for roughly spot value.

The best way to learn the buy/sell spreads is to go to shops and sell some silver once you've stacked a bit. You will learn a lot. It all reverts to spot, so don't overpay on the front end.

Coins that are bullion or in capsules or shinier will tend to sell faster/better, but it all is based on spot price. You can always buy what you like to have and what you think looks cool, but in terms of price, it all follows spot. GL
Click to expand...

This is completely false, and is refuted by just going to any dealer's website, to their rounds and bars pages. Rounds are not rounds – they vary in price quite a bit. Bars are not bars – they vary in price quite a bit. Freedom Girl rounds are a good example of rounds that always fetch more, and PAMP and maybe RCM are good examples of bars that fetch more. Here's one example of all the price variance among 1 oz rounds: https://sdbullion.com/silver/silver-rounds/1-oz-silver-rounds

Sunshine Mint rounds are more expensive than a few other rounds as SD Bullion. This is not unusual.
 
Alloy said:
This is completely false, and is refuted by just going to any dealer's website, to their rounds and bars pages. Rounds are not rounds – they vary in price quite a bit. Bars are not bars – they vary in price quite a bit. Freedom Girl rounds are a good example of rounds that always fetch more...
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Ummm, yes. We realize some rounds and bars are priced higher than others by bullion sites, eBay sellers, coin shops, etc. That doesn't mean they are "more expensive"... they simply have a higher price than others. You are only seeing one view since you are here primarily to promote the bullion sites.

...What the OP is asking is if some will have higher sell value than others for the buyer when they go to unload them. That cannot be determined by looking at dealer website list prices; that is among the most common mistaken assumptions that new stackers make. What the dealers try to sell for and what they'd buy back for are TOTALLY different numbers, and that buy/sell spread (and their buy from mint vs sell to customer spread) should be expected... it's how they make their living. Especially with numi coins, it is the same as antiques or sport card or many other collectibles dealers... they might offer you $60 for a "$100" coin.

Any generic rounds (Freedom girl rounds or Sunshine or RMC or Engel or whatever else) will all be bought back for the same price at 95% of coin shops... and that will be spot price minus roughly 10%, depending on silver market. Govt bullion, esp fancy Perth rounds or pandas or eagles or other great condition ones, might fetch spot or even a bit more on a good day or hot silver market. Lesser bullion like maples or philharm is usually spot minus 5% or so... again, depending on market.

No, selling to coin and bullion shops is not the way to make the most money, but it is the way most people liquidate. It is important to know what to expect. Could someone make a bit more selling piece by piece on ebay or something? Maybe... with shipping and fees, probably not. GL
 
SlyGuy said:
Ummm, yes. We realize some rounds and bars are priced higher than others by bullion sites, eBay sellers, coin shops, etc. That doesn't mean they are "more expensive"... they simply have a higher price than others. You are only seeing one view since you are here primarily to promote the bullion sites.

...What the OP is asking is if some will have higher sell value than others for the buyer when they go to unload them. That cannot be determined by looking at dealer website list prices; that is among the most common mistaken assumptions that new stackers make. What the dealers try to sell for and what they'd buy back for are TOTALLY different numbers, and that buy/sell spread (and their buy from mint vs sell to customer spread) should be expected... it's how they make their living. Especially with numi coins, it is the same as antiques or sport card or many other collectibles dealers... they might offer you $60 for a "$100" coin.

Any generic rounds (Freedom girl rounds or Sunshine or RMC or Engel or whatever else) will all be bought back for the same price at 95% of coin shops... and that will be spot price minus roughly 10%, depending on silver market. Govt bullion, esp fancy Perth rounds or pandas or eagles or other great condition ones, might fetch spot or even a bit more on a good day or hot silver market. Lesser bullion like maples or philharm is usually spot minus 5% or so... again, depending on market.

No, selling to coin and bullion shops is not the way to make the most money, but it is the way most people liquidate. It is important to know what to expect. Could someone make a bit more selling piece by piece on ebay or something? Maybe... with shipping and fees, probably not. GL
Click to expand...

Sorry, I was too brusque with you earlier. I'm not assuming the OP would want to liquidate at a LCS. There are lots of options as you mention, but one you didn't are the same online dealers people tend to buy from. Some dealers give you their buyback price on the product page. Provident is one that comes to mind – here's their house round: https://www.providentmetals.com/provident-metals-prospector-1-oz-silver-round.html

It's under their price table.

I think it's a safe bet that rounds and bars that sell for more from dealers will fetch more. The bid-ask spread doesn't contradict the fact that higher priced items can be sold to dealers for higher prices. You see it on Provident's page there where if you look at their cheaper buffalo round, the buyback is less than for their prospector round.

I'm not here to promote dealers. I wrote a pretty good article about getting the best prices when buying, which included affiliate links. The links I've supplied in this thread are just standard non-affiliate links. SD Bullion or Silver.com are usually the cheapest, so I tend to link to them by default, and then I remembered Provident's buyback price feature. It might come down to shipping as you mention, but shipping doesn't have to be expensive if people keep their dimensional weight low and use USPS First Class instead of UPS or FedEx. LCS aren't always an option – I never found any good ones in Phoenix, and online seemed to have better prices.
 
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