Silver:  Westchester Gold and Diamonds

Steve Duke: We have what we call junk silver, which are your ninety percent silver coins that were printed from 1964 and before. Used to be able to spend them for their face value, and then what happened, the bullion value escalated so high that they were pulled out of circulation because a silver half dollar is now worth somewhere in the neighborhood nine to ten dollars.

Why would you spend it for fifty cents? You would not. What happens, these are put in bags in one thousand dollars in face value, which translates into seven hundred and fifteen ounces of pure silver. They are traded on the stock exchange. If someone wants to buy silver contracts, this is what backs a silver contract.

A lot of people like the one ounce coins. This is a good way to save coins. It is fairly inexpensive, it is divided already and you know what you are buying. You can buy from private companies that manufacture them, or you can buy them.

The US government makes silver coins as well. They make what we call Silver Eagle. It has a denomination of one dollar. So you do not have to pay sales tax on that. If you are buying silver bars or silver rounds from different minting companies, you do have to pay sales tax on it. Whether you want to be a gold person or a silver person, we always suggest to people that you probably should have a little bit of both.

Westchester Gold and Diamonds is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday through Friday; 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday and by appointment at your home or bank.
Westchester Gold and Diamonds is located at 4200F Tamiami Trail, Port Charlotte, FL 33952.
Call (941) 625-0666.