REPORT FROM THE FIELD FOR Monday November 3, 2025. Bad traffic. Arrived 10 minutes before closing. Shop not busy. And me not in a buying mood for anything ordinary at these prices, despite the recent dip. So much only looking for exceptional finds that I left 4 US Assay Office rounds behind.
The generics tray was nicely populated.
And I had 2 immediate questions for them:
1: Were they paying different for 999 verses 925 and 900 silver? I asked because some refiners are so backlogged in silver scrap that they’re just refusing anything that’s not 999 already to be melted into 1000 oz industrial bars. Nothing that required extra work on their part. Word even was that someone had put out the word to not pay over 50% for 900 coinage silver because they really just didn’t want it. My LCS, however, said that they were buying it all at basically the same value based on silver.
2: Were they selling excess to refiners who only wanted 999, buying from wholesalers, or basically in balance between what they were taking in and what was going out. They said that they were in balance, not selling excess to refiners, and not buying from wholesalers in recent months. That is a nice place to be.
I feel, all things considered, that I’m in a good spot with the silver I own—neither looking to buy much more, nor sell any significant amount of my stack. So I was super selective today, looking for oddballs for trading (u/surfaholic15) and unique items I haven’t seen before. As I said above, I actually passed over 4 US Assay Office rounds based on price and available funds to commit to silver.
And as a result, I took home these 4 rounds. A Cornerstone Mint round (they had 3) that I hadn’t seen before. A popular Don’t Tread on Me round. A Cripple Creek Colorado prospector/train round. And a Liberty Silver poker chip round.
Although time was ticking, I looked in their mystery treasure case and saw these tubes gold so thin that I’m sure if you uncapped them, the gold would float right out. Despite the high price of gold right now, they were sure that these were being sold at a profit. Amazing what you can do with gold.
And I saw very little gold on sale. That seems to go out about as fast as it comes in. I asked what they were paying for 1oz Maples and AGEs. They told me 95% of spot for either one. No penalty on the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf here.
And that’s it for today.
Posted Nov 5, 2025, 11:44 PM UTC