A few days ago, something interesting happened to me. I’ve been a carpenter for thirty years and every time I’d tear a wall out, I’d look for the always elusive “hidden treasure” within. Last Thursday I was tearing out an old kitchen, preparing to install a new one. The old electric stove had been there for more than twenty years, so long that a layer of ceramic tile had been laid around it and the feet had been grouted in. I had to use a crowbar to pry it up and move it. When I had done so, I found a canvas bag that had been hidden under the stove for all that time. Inside the bag were rolls of Mexican silver coins. Two hundred and ninety coins all together. I showed them to the owner of the condo and we agreed to split them 50-50.
So, now I have 145 Mexican Silver Onzas, each one is one Troy ounce of 99.9% pure silver. They are all dated either 1985 or 1986, most are in rolls sealed with Banco de Mexico seals, and all are in Uncirculated condition. So now I’m wondering what to do with them.
The conventional wisdom seems to be that when the Economy starts to slide, precious metals go up - witness the recent hikes in gold. Silver has risen from around 13.50 in October to 16.46 today. My customer took his coins to a local, reputable coin dealer and got 15.90 each for them. Do you think it would be best to hang onto them for 3 or 4 months? Or do you think silver will flatten out and there won’t be an appreciable difference between then and now?
Or is it all (pardon the expression) a “flip of the coin”?
I don’t know much about rare coins, but as to the metal content, my advise is to not bother trying to predict the price of silver in the future. If you could predict silver prices, you could easily become a rich man, be the prediction up or down, without having ever found the coins.
It’s really more of an investment question than anything else.
Suppose that your rich uncle gave you $2300 as a gift. Would you invest it all in silver? Probably not. Fundamentally, how is the situation you are in any different?
By the way, it’s nice to hear that you were able to amicably divide up your find. One regularly hears about ugly disputes over windfalls.
I would be inclined to pick out enough of them to be “neat” (ones you would keep for the sake of keeping, plus ones you might give as gifts to others for birthdays/Christmas) and then sell the rest, putting the money into a more predictable investment, such as a CD, money market, or even a “value” based mutual fund as part of an IRA. Like the man said earlier in the thread, if you or anyone can predict what silver prices will do in the future, we wouldn’t be posting it on here.
Heh, the only “secret treasure” I’ve ever known of personally was a friend of mine who discovered a secret stash of bizzare pornographic super-8 movies in an attic while renovating.
Which is wildly overpriced. 1985-86 Libertads are selling on ebay for $17-$20 plus shipping. Now, you can probably get a good price on ebay if you sell them by the sealed roll. Unopened rolls tend to go for more because of the fact they haven’t been handled or searched. Nice find, by the way. I’m envious.