# Silver Frac Packs for bartering



## stamphappy (Jul 29, 2010)

I've never seen these before. They are called Frac Packs from Northwest Territorial Mint. They are advertising them as "fractional silver for the ultimate barter". The packs are these tiny little rounds and bars of silver from 5 grams up to 1/2 ounce which are 'barter friendly'. 

Here is the link as they are running a special. They are about $5 over spot prices on their silver prices. 

http://bullion.nwtmint.com/specials.php?cid=312

They are cute but I rather have junk silver as it's more well known. What do you think?


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

HMMMMM....very interesting. I would be more inclined to accept thosse in barter over say, a bracelet.

But look at this another way. "Somebodies" made dies and struck thosse things aimed at a specific market. Not a small investment for a supposedly SMALL market of preppers. And notice that the investment for the purchaser is not small either. I honestly can't afford to buy my silver that way; but obviously they believe the market exisits. 2012 marketing or other whispers on the wind???


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

Not near as good or cheap as junk silver coins.
Not a lot of people will recognize then but everyone knows what an old silver quarter looks like.


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

A quick look at APMEX $100-face junk silver by the bag indicates you'd get in effect an extra 20 oz of silver for an additional $450 buying circulated 90% coins from them at $2400 for $100 face (71.5 oz silver total). My general guess is that in any during- and post- crisis bartering situation, anyone who would ever accept privately minted PM bars and rounds would know exactly what the fair conversion rate would be for pre-1965 US coins as well, with many people more comfortable with the coins.


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## dirtman (Sep 15, 2011)

In 1980 when we also thought the S would HTF A guy named Howard Ruff made a fortune convincing us all the buy these bags of pre 1964 silver coins. We did. Turns out we didn't need them then. We kept them in a bowling ball bag under the bed. One of our daughters discovered the bag. We have five kids. By the time we found out what was going on they had spent the bulk of it on candy at face value. This time I plan to barter whiskey. It's been a hot item since forever.


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

I'd rather have junk silver coins, and I trust the purity of junk silver too.


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## Stephen in SOKY (Jun 6, 2006)

dirtman said:


> In 1980 when we also thought the S would HTF A guy named Howard Ruff made a fortune convincing us all the buy these bags of pre 1964 silver coins. We did. Turns out we didn't need them then. We kept them in a bowling ball bag under the bed. One of our daughters discovered the bag. We have five kids. By the time we found out what was going on they had spent the bulk of it on candy at face value. This time I plan to barter whiskey. It's been a hot item since forever.


My Mother was a Ruff fan. It took until 2011 to get our money back. She didn't live long enough for it to recover.


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## mypatriotsupply (Jan 21, 2009)

This reminds me that I haven't made a precious metals purchase recently. I went to the site with every intention of ordering, however they do not allow online ordering it seems and the last thing I feel like doing today is picking up the phone and speaking to a salesman. So I went over and made a purchase from Midas Resources..never bought from them either, but figured I'd give them a try. I was immediately disappointed by the message that was displayed on my order confirmation screen that said it could take up to six weeks for delivery. Maybe that's normal, I'm still rather new to buying silver/gold. Seems to me like a six week delivery time frame is a bit much though.

Edit: I stand corrected. Apparently the OPs link does have an online store, just wasn't easy for me to readily find from the original link. Shucks.


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

We have purchased for AMPEX and sold to them and the customer service there has been great. Dh is now giving nieces and nephews 1 oz. silver bars for their birthdays instead of toys. They all have way too many toys anyway and it is something their parents will put up for them to have in the future.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

dirtman said:


> In 1980 when we also thought the S would HTF A guy named Howard Ruff made a fortune convincing us all the buy these bags of pre 1964 silver coins. We did. Turns out we didn't need them then. We kept them in a bowling ball bag under the bed. One of our daughters discovered the bag. We have five kids. By the time we found out what was going on they had spent the bulk of it on candy at face value. This time I plan to barter whiskey. It's been a hot item since forever.


have they found your bag of gold coins, yet? OUch!! Don't know, but think if I had kiddoes running around, that knew how to 'spend money', and I had some of the 'real stuff' lying around, I'd'a educated them about real money (silver) and the current fiat money... and had them checking their change regularly, or even go 'bag hunting' for halves from the banks.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> We kept them in a bowling ball bag under the bed.


Crooks always look under beds.

Valuables need to be better secured


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Ever heard of "pieces of eight"? This was basically the same concept. Folks would cut a silver dollar into 8 pieces to use for smaller purchases.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

tinknal said:


> Ever heard of "pieces of eight"? This was basically the same concept. Folks would cut a silver dollar into 8 pieces to use for smaller purchases.


Mostly it was the Spanish "silver dollar", on which the US silver dollar is based, and was actually legal tender in the US until 1857. It was an 8 Reale coin, often called "a piece of 8", which has a large cross on the back, making it easy to chop along the lines of the cross, making "quarters". People did this because fractional coins were so scarce in the colonies and early years of the US.

The quarter would be further cut in two pieces, making a "bit". This is the original of our current quarter, which you sometimes used to hear call "two bits".....two 1/8 pieces of a Spanish coin.


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## DanielY (Aug 25, 2011)

A bowling ball bag full of silver coins and some store took them at face value. From children no less??? I think I would be getting an investigation started.


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## Old Swampgirl (Sep 28, 2008)

Could this perhaps be where the old football cheer originated? You know: "Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar. All for the Tigers, stand up and holler!"


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

jamala said:


> We have purchased for AMPEX and sold to them and the customer service there has been great. Dh is now giving nieces and nephews 1 oz. silver bars for their birthdays instead of toys. They all have way too many toys anyway and it is something their parents will put up for them to have in the future.


I tried giving my nephews silver eagles for gifts one year. They lost them the same day they got them. Their parents thought I had given their children some junk. 
These were the same people who took all of the silver my grandfather had collected over his life and exchanged it for face value at their local bank.

I found out to not give silver as a gift to anyone who didn't know anything about it.


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## Guest (Feb 7, 2012)

pancho said:


> Not near as good or cheap as junk silver coins.
> Not a lot of people will recognize then but everyone knows what an old silver quarter looks like.


 What Pancho said.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Ask yourself. Would you trade a bag of potatoes for two little chips of shiney metal? If it comes to swapping metal for food, pennies will have a whole new life. Silver for goods and services, gold for land.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> A bowling ball bag full of silver coins and some store took them at face value. From children no less???


They didn't take the WHOLE bag.

They took a few coins at a time


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

DanielY said:


> A bowling ball bag full of silver coins and some store took them at face value. From children no less??? I think I would be getting an investigation started.


Certainly underhanded, unless the clerks were as dumb as the kids, but nothing illegal.


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

90% silver is the way to go. I personally like roosevelt dimes, & they are at much less risk of being counterfeited, though you still need to be careful about it.

BTW, silver was over $34 again today, I believe it is going to continue creeping up over the summer.


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## edcopp (Oct 9, 2004)

stamphappy said:


> I've never seen these before. They are called Frac Packs from Northwest Territorial Mint. They are advertising them as "fractional silver for the ultimate barter". The packs are these tiny little rounds and bars of silver from 5 grams up to 1/2 ounce which are 'barter friendly'.
> 
> Here is the link as they are running a special. They are about $5 over spot prices on their silver prices.
> 
> ...


A little simple math with the old $2 calculator will show that on the 51.29 troy ounce offer the premium (markup) is $4.80 per troy ounce. That would be $246.19 profit for them on a single order.

A better idea might be to forget the order and just take the $246.19 that would have been lost in the shuffle, and go buy some junk silver dimes. See your local coin shop for this. When using silver dimes a little will go a long way in a barter situation. That dime will always get you a cup of coffee, and probably a refill too.


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