Money for Metals - Tip #2

I have been getting some great feedback on my first Money for Metals tip, about returning cans and bottles, so it is now time for another tip! This tip actually comes from one of my good friends who has been doing it for years. What he does is collect lost coins off the ground. I know it sounds simple, but I have seen him in action and he usually gets $15-$20 a month (almost enough for an ounce of silver).

The beauty of this is that he doesn't go out of him way to do this and simply finds the coins when going about his day-to-day life. So for no investment (money or time) he gets free money that other people have dropped and most people walk right by!

I asked him if he had any tips for my readers and he gave these three secrets:

1. Look down! - most importantly you have to be looking at the ground to spot the coins!
2. Don't be afraid! - Don't be shy, pick up that coin! It may just be a penny, but every penny counts.
3. Some places are better! - parking lots are gold mines! When people take out their keys or get out of their car they often accidentally drop coins. Also, people are usually in such a hurry they don't bother picking them up. On the other hand, downtown in large cities is usually bad because there are homeless people who look for coins and will likely beat you to the coins.

So here is my plan - I am going to try this out. I will write some updates to the blog when I get to various milestones ($1, $5, $10, $20, etc) so you can see how long it takes me. Let me know if you do this and how it works for you!

2010 Silver Maple Leaf Coins?

Well, we are half way through 2010 and there have yet to be any new coins (other than the regular 2010 coin). Well the Olympic coins are marked as 2010 they were actually released in previous years and not actually 2010.

I am really hoping they will come out with something, since I would love to have a new coin to add! Anyone know of any planned releases?

Money for Metals - Tip #1

You may love collecting coins and precious metals but simply can't find the money to invest as much as you would like. In this new segment, Money for Metals, I will teach you some of my tricks to increase the amount of money you can invest.

Tip #1 : Can/Bottle Returns

The average North American drinks between 70-85 litres of beer per year and between 170-200 litres of soda. Additionally, most provinces and states charge deposits on each can or bottle of these drinks that are purchased. You can get these deposits refunded if you return the cans and bottles, but a surprisingly large percentage of people do not!

So combined, the average North American drinks around 240-285 litres of these beverages which works out to 720-855 cans and bottles each. With a typical deposit being 10 cents per can, that is $72.00 - $85.50 that is being thrown in the trash each year! And that is for each person in North America! Wouldn't you rather have that money invested in coins and metals compared to just tossing it out with the garbage!

And if you don't mind hunting, think of all the cans and bottles your neighbours are throwing out! In your neighbourhood alone there is likely $5-$10 worth of cans and bottles in people's recycling bins every trash day! Why not go get it and help the planet and your wallet!

Stay tuned for more ideas and feel free to submit your own. I am always interested to hear about how people finance their investments.

How Much Silver in a Complete SML Collection?

One thing I have been wondering lately is how much pure silver is in an entire collection of silver maple leaf coins? It is quite a large set of coins, so here is my calculation of how much silver you would have:

1 oz coins:
23 yearly coins = 23 oz
11 regular privy marks = 11 oz
12 Chinese zodiac privy = 12 oz
12 Western zodiac privy = 12 oz
7 coloured maples = 7 oz
3 hologram maples = 3 oz
3 Olympic coins = 3 oz
15th anniversary of loonie = 1 oz
2 lighthouse coins = 2 oz
Gold plated maple leaf = 1 oz

sub-total: 75 oz

10 oz coins:
1998 Coin = 10 oz

1/2 oz coins:
2006 Wolf = 0.5 oz

Sets:
15th Anniversary(1+.5+.25+.1+.05) = 1.9 oz
Arctic Fox(1+.5+.25+.1) = 1.85 oz
2004 RCM(1+.5+.25+.1+.05) = 1.9 oz
Lynx(1+.5+.25+.1) = 1.85 oz

sub-total: 7.5 oz

Total:
75 + 10 + 0.5 + 7.5 = 93 oz of silver

There it is! As of today, October 7 2009, a complete set of silver maple leaf coins would contain 93 troy ounces of pure silver. Based on the current price of silver as I write, $17.78 USD per troy ounce, the collection would be worth $1653.54 USD based entirely on the precious metal in the coins.

1998 Titanic Privy Mark Silver Maple Leaf

Here is my newest silver maple leaf! This one commemorates the most famous ship in the world, the Titanic. In my opinion, this is one of the nicest privy mark images of any of the silver maple leaf coins. There is also a very interesting story about the release of this coin. Even though the mintage of this coin was 26000, the coin was sold out nearly immediately. Was it that popular? Actually, a private distributor purchased nearly all of the coins thereby making themselves the only supplier of the coin. Sounds to me alot like ticket scalping, buying all of a rare product just so you can artificially inflate the prices. Luckily now the coin seems to have spread out and can be obtained through most of the usual sources, so everyone can now enjoy this wonderful coin!

Correction to Silver Maple Leaf List

Unfortunately my previous list of the entire collection of silver maple leaf coins was incorrect. The following errors were part of my list:

• The 2007 Maple of Long Life is not a silver maple leaf. It is an $8 coin that weighs less than one troy ounce. This coin is often improperly thought to be a silver maple leaf because of its name, it is similar of the other holographic, Chinese themed coins.

Sorry for the errors on my part, and if you see any more let me know. I strive to keep the most up to date and correct list of silver maple leaf coins.

My 5 Most Wanted - October 5 2009

This is a regular post I plan on doing, where I list the 5 coins that I want to get the most (and why I want them). Here is the first list. As you can probably tell, I am trying to get all of the 2009 Silver Maple Leaf coins by years end and working on the Chinese Zodiac privy mark set.

5 Most Wanted:

1. 2009 Silver Maple Leaf - This one isn't very exciting, but I'm aiming to have a silver maple leaf from every year.
2. 2009 Year of the Ox Privy - Again, I want the 2009 coins but this one is also one I need for the Chinese Zodiac set. Also rare with only 8000 minted
3. 2008 Year of the Rat Privy - A low mintage of 8000 makes this a tie for the rarest in this series.
4. 2007 Year of the Pig Privy - Again, only an 8000 mintage.
5. 2002 Year of the Horse Privy - No real reason for this pick, seems like it might be a fairly easy one to acquire. Probably because its mintage was 25000.