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1970 silver art
13th April 2011, 04:21 PM
After I left work, I decided to go to a local coin dealer that was on my way home from work. I went in there to look for 1-oz silver art bars. They did not have much silver in stock when I entered the coin shop but I decided to look in their .999 silver bin to see what they had. Something caught my eye. I noticed that there was an NGC slabbed silver coin thrown in the .999 silver bin. I only saw the reverse side of the the 1-oz silver coin. At first, I thought that it was a silver Australia Kookarburra but I told the dealer that I wanted to take a look at it. When I looked at it, I realized that it was one of the Lunar coin series that was enclosed in an NGC slab.

At this point, I was deciding to get it but I was not sure yet because, from what I have seen in the past, these Lunars usually have high premiums over spot silver and I was not sure how much he was asking for it. I asked him how much he wanted for it. When he told me, I was surprised when he told me that he was asking $40 for it. At that point, I told him that I was going to buy it. Even though he was asking $40.00 for it, I ended up paying a total price of $43.70 for it because of a sales tax. Spot silver closed today at $40.66/oz (Kitco Quote). Since this dealer was located in Tennessee, a sales tax was applied to this purchase. Despite the sales tax, I still thought this was a good price for an NGC MS-69 slabbed Lunar Snake silver coin.

It is very rare that I buy 1-oz gov't minted silver coins because I am a silver art bar collector and I usually buy 1-oz silver art bars. This is the only slabbed bullion coin that I have in my silver stack. I like this coin a lot. Here is what it looks like. Sorry for the small picture but I had to upload it in the forum because photobucket is offline.

EDIT: I mis-labeled the JPEG picture. It is a Lunar Snake. Sorry for that. :-[ :-[ :-[

ximmy
13th April 2011, 04:27 PM
WOW!!! ungraded that is a $70.00+ coin... you scored big today... Congrats ;) :)

ximmy
13th April 2011, 04:32 PM
Here's one slabbed by PCGS... that recently sold on the bay...


http://cgi.ebay.com/1-oz-Lunar-Silver-Snake-Coin-2001-Australia-PCGS-MS69-/160570065434?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2562b8c21a


$134.08 eek!!!

1970 silver art
13th April 2011, 04:47 PM
Here's one slabbed by PCGS... that recently sold on the bay...


http://cgi.ebay.com/1-oz-Lunar-Silver-Snake-Coin-2001-Australia-PCGS-MS69-/160570065434?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2562b8c21a


$134.08 eek!!!


HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!

I kinda figured that these Lunar Snake coins had high premiums on them but I had no idea that they were getting that high of a premium on ebay. I did much better than I thought when I bought mine today for $43.70.

mike88
13th April 2011, 04:56 PM
nice score, congratulations

osoab
13th April 2011, 05:31 PM
Very nice Art.

I'll buy it off of you for $45. ;D

1970 silver art
13th April 2011, 05:53 PM
Very nice Art.

I'll buy it off of you for $45. ;D


:ROFL:

I like your sense of humor. ;D I like this coin a lot. ;D I am keeping this silver coin. :)

The year is still young but I think that this NGC MS-69 Lunar Snake silver coin might be my best silver score of 2011. This purchase ranks very high among my best silver scores of all time. :)

SLV^GLD
13th April 2011, 05:53 PM
Last I checked the ungraded versions were running just north of $100. To buy one at spot is an incredible deal. I mean, these things were selling for $40 in 2008.

I have a 1/10 Au snake only because it was an acceptable premium to pay at the time.

1970 silver art
13th April 2011, 06:44 PM
Last I checked the ungraded versions were running just north of $100. To buy one at spot is an incredible deal. I mean, these things were selling for $40 in 2008.

I have a 1/10 Au snake only because it was an acceptable premium to pay at the time.



I am just making a wild guess here but there must not have been a lot of these 1-oz silver Lunar Snakes minted in 2001. I usually do not buy graded 1-oz gov't minted silver bullion coins but this was an exception because the price was excellent.

madfranks
13th April 2011, 07:05 PM
I was not sure how much he was asking for it. I asked him how much he wanted for it. When he told me, I was surprised when he told me that he was asking $40 for it. At that point, I told him that I was going to buy it.

I love your play by play description, you leave nothing out.

BTW, that's incredible to pick up something like that in the generic/bargain bin!

Glass
13th April 2011, 07:12 PM
you should be able to get the numbers of those that were minted from the perth mint web site or a google search if it is not already on the package. That is definately a deal to brag about. Nicely done!

1970 silver art
13th April 2011, 08:10 PM
I was not sure how much he was asking for it. I asked him how much he wanted for it. When he told me, I was surprised when he told me that he was asking $40 for it. At that point, I told him that I was going to buy it.

I love your play by play description, you leave nothing out.

BTW, that's incredible to pick up something like that in the generic/bargain bin!


To be honest with you, this is only one part of the story. The whole day began when I decided to sell some common minted silver art bars today to another local coin shop that was located just over the state line into Georgia. Since spot silver was around $40 today, I decided to sell a few silver art bars. I did this during my lunch break from work. Since there is a coin show in Georgia starting this Friday, I was planning to use the paper profit to find and buy some rare silver art bars at this coin show.

I have been "upgrading" my silver art bar collection during the first 14 weeks of this year. Basically that just means I have been selling a lot common-minted silver art bars to local dealers and was using the paper profits from those sales to buy rare silver art bars that are on my wish list. As of today, I have been successful with my "upgrade" and my silver art bar collection looks much different than it did 2 years ago. I have a lot more rare '70's silver art bars in my collection now and that was my goal for 2011. From this point on, I can just concentrate 100% on buying the rare silver art bars that are on my wish list.

Anyway, after I sold those silver art bars, I had my cash from the proceeds of that sale and I went back to work to finish out the work day. As I mentioned, there was a coin show in Georgia that starts this Friday and I was planning to use that cash (in addition to the cash that I already saved up) to find and buy some rare silver art bars while at the show. Once I left work for the day, I decided to go to another coin shop that was on my way home to see if I could find any rare silver art bars that were on my wish list. In the past couple years, I have had some good luck in finding rare silver art bars for .999 generic silver premiums at various local coin shops in my area. That was why I decided to go to this other coin shop on my way home.

As I mentioned in my OP, this second coin shop that I went to did not have much silver and they did not have any 1-oz silver art bars. The NGC MS-69 1-oz 2001 silver Lunar Snake was a total unexpected find because I was not looking for it. Not only was it a total surprise to find a silver Lunar Snake coin but to find a graded one that was priced at the same price as .999 generic bullion. That unexpected find made my day. That is one reason that I still want to buy locally from local coin dealers and from local coin shows. I just feel very fortunate to have several coin shops in my area that I can go to and I also feel very fortunate to have 4 regional coin shows that I can go to a year that are within 35 minute driving distance. Even though I have been concentrating on buying rare silver art bars on ebay, I always go to several of the local coin shops because you never know what you will find at a .999 generic silver premium. This Lunar Snake silver coin is just an example of what I can find at the local coin shops for low premiums over spot silver.

SLV^GLD
13th April 2011, 08:59 PM
The mintages do not mean shit in the Lunar series. It's all about visual appeal and I suppose buyers' birth years.

Here's some mintage numbers (http://www.silverbullionworld.com/lunarmintage.html) to put some perspective on this lesson. Bear in mind the 2000 Dragon has by far the highest premium but nowhere near the lowest mintage. This is strictly a factor of demand.

Premium is very high on that 2001 1oz Ag Lunar Snake but premium is rather low on the 2001 1/10 Au Lunar Snake. However, the mintage numbers are drastically lower for the 1/10 Au version. Here's some mintage numbers (http://www.golddealer.com/australian_chinese_lunar.html) for the 1oz Au Lunar series that shows much lower mintage numbers for Au variants yet premiums are considerably higher for Ag coins. I tend to believe that over the course of time the mintage numbers will begin have a greater effect on the collector prices. It is for this reason that I like to buy the 2oz, 5oz and 1/2oz Ag coins and the 1/10 Au coins in the Lunar Series. I still get the 1oz Ag coins but strictly to keep my collection going. These stupid things are addictive as are the Kookaburras and Koalas. Perth puts out god work, that is for sure. I also have to collect the philharmonics simply because I have one of each year since it is relatively new.

The only other coin I force myself to buy each year is the Britannia series because I managed to make a complete set of those coins when FLRacingGal sold off her set a couple years ago. TomD started that obsession with his picture of the 2003 coin. Now, THAT is a high premium set of coins to collect.

Son-of-Liberty
14th April 2011, 06:03 AM
That is a really nice looking coin.

DMac
14th April 2011, 06:11 AM
Great find Outlaw

SilverMagnet
14th April 2011, 08:49 PM
I've always loved the Australian coins since I first started buying the Kooks. I would continue buying them if they weren't so damn expensive.

Robert
16th April 2011, 03:21 PM
WOW $40 !!! I would take that off you for $80!!

1970 silver art
16th April 2011, 05:19 PM
WOW $40 !!! I would take that off you for $80!!


Nope. Not for sale. I do not want to sell it because I like this coin. :)

Thank you for bringing this up because I went back for a second day to a big coin show in Georgia and I saw an ungraded 1-oz 2001 Year of the Snake silver coin in the original capsule. Just out of curiosity, I asked the female dealer how much it was and she called someone to get a price on it and once she finished the call, she told me that it was $75.00. When I heard that, then I realized that I was very lucky to be at the right place at the right time to buy my NGC MS-69 graded 1-oz Lunar Snake for $43.70 from a local dealer.