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Be Careful When Buying Coins
I saw an ad in Discover magazine from First Federal Mint offering one pound of old, worn silver coins for $359 (a similar ad is on their Website). Bulk 90% silver coins (typically quarters or dimes) can be purchased for about the same price as pure silver from companies like Monex. So what's a pound of silver coins worth? One pound = 16 ounces (I assume First Federal Mint is using normal pounds and not troy pounds), and according to the live quotes page from Monex, the price today for 90% silver coins is $7.51 per ounce. For 16 ounces, that's $120. OK, you'll pay more unless you buy in large quantities, but there is no way on earth that you should have to pay anything close to $359 for a pound of silver. It's about 3 times as expensive as it should be (at least if you just want to invest in silver and not a coin collection). Yes, I may be overlooking the numismatic value - they claim each coin has a grade of "very good" or higher, but VG is on the low end of the scale. And based on what I've seen, the bulk coins sold as 90% silver from silver companies include quite a few coins better than VG.
The First Federal Mint people stress all the benefits of investing in silver - but an overpriced investment means that you may be losing money the moment you buy. Be careful.