With silver spiking, the melt value of junk silver has been outpacing numismatic coin prices in some cases. I noticed that a local antique dealer had some constitutional silver for sale well below melt. At the time, the melt value of a mercury dime was $2.96, and this dealer had 2 Mercs marked at 2 dollars each. So I found myself in the middle of what you might call a moral quandary. On the one hand, I didn't want to take advantage of this guy, who was an older gentleman, friendly, and clearly more interested in numismatics than silver. On the other hand, I didn't want to insult him by insinuating that he didn't know the value of his products. And then there was the fact that we're only talking about $2. Would it really be so bad to only underpay by $2? It's only $2. But then again, it's only $2, which isn't going to break me if I "donate" it to this gentleman by paying more than asking price.
In the end, I decided to bring it to his attention. I wouldn't have felt right paying under melt without him realizing it. He probably priced them years ago when silver was much lower and hasn't kept things updated. He said he didn't much care, and was happy to move the merch for the asking price. He said he had a bunch of Mercs, more than he could count, and he got them all for much less than $2 per, so he'd made his money on them. I was satisfied with this answer, so I bought the 2 for $2, plus 1 other at $3. I'm curious how others would have handled the situation. What would you have done?
