Paying taxes with old silver coinage

[user removed]

USA went off the silver standard in 1964. Over the last 20 years as the previous generations have passed we have collected a small sum of old silver coins. I used to collect coins of some value and later sold them on ebay for $4000.

This year we had a Federal tax liability of $1500. I never give them more than I owe, don't like no interest on my money even though these days it's pitiful.

I have a can with a bunch of oild coins, so I dug all of the silver coins out. Since 1964 the govt claims we have had inflation of 750%, but US silver coins are worth about 14 times their 1964 face value, even though the silver content was only 75% of the original face value. Basically a dime which had
7.5 cents in silver then is worth $1.40 now. That works out to 18.66 times the original melt value of the coin in 1964.
Took the two bags (mine and the wife's) to a coin dealer today and sold them for $545. Pays a good chunk of the tax bill. We did not pay much for them, some of them were mutilated anyway and my father in law pulled them out of his cash register and stuck them in a jar, he died in 1999.
Man I love selling the govt back it's own coinage for twice the claimed inflation rate and 14 times face value.

regards
Mech

[oil pan 4]

If you sold them a year ago you would not have been taxed.
I guess this was that "change" they were talking about.

[cbaber]

My grandfather started a coin collection for each of his 10+ grandchildren when they were born. He collects and adds to each one until their 18th birthday, and then they inherit the collection.

I don't know anything about collecting coins, but I've got a 3 inch binder with baseball card sheets filled with various coins. I didn't ask how much the collection is worth, but I don't ever plan on selling it. I figure that by the time I can pass it on to someone, real physical currency won't exist anymore.

[user removed]

I call it "change you can believe in". Should have been the title of this thread.

regards
Mech

[XYZ]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

If you sold them a year ago you would not have been taxed.
I guess this was that "change" they were talking about.

I don't think he's saying he was taxed on the coin sale. I think he said he sold the coins to pay this year's taxes that were due.

[Xist]

This year, Turbotax asked if I wanted Amazon credit and even offered to give me a 10% bonus. I do not remember seeing that when I did my girlfriend's taxes. If you find out they are doing this next year, can you go into payroll, have them pay everything to Federal, do your taxes, and make 10% profit?

[kennybobby]

Very clever use of the old silver.

How much would you have to pay in taxes if you got a job where you worked and were only making $10 a day--but it was paid as a $10 face value (1/4 oz gold) coin. At the end of the year your earnings would be 52x5x$10=$2600. At that income you don't even have to file...

[freebeard]

Unless your employer is paying $100 for a $10 face value coin, you're working too cheap. And then, at that point it's all about speculating.

My impression is that every time you turn cash into gold or gold into cash, someone takes a cut.

[kennybobby]

Market price is like $350 to 400, price of gold plus coinage premium. It used to be a cash business when buying/selling with coin dealers. i've never had a problem using gold coins to make purchases--lots of folks like to get paid with real money, and you only have to pay sales tax on the face value amount.