Minting own silver

[Kidvinie]

Hi Guys, I'm looking for some advice. I bought 36 kilo of silver from Bullion Vault around 9 years ago (value down about 30%) and I asked to take possession of the silver while it was at a lower price knowing that they will charge me VAT however plus commission, however they will only send me a bullion of 1000 OZ of which is no good to me. I was wondering how and if it was possible to melt it down and mint my own 1 kilo or smaller bullions but how would I do that? The only way I can think of is to drill holes to create silver filings in able to work with it. Any advice? 

[MikeG1978]

Speak to @ilovesilverireallydo he may know a way 

[ilovesilverireallydo]

4 hours ago, Kidvinie said:

Hi Guys, I'm looking for some advice. I bought 36 kilo of silver from Bullion Vault around 9 years ago (value down about 30%) and I asked to take possession of the silver while it was at a lower price knowing that they will charge me VAT however plus commission, however they will only send me a bullion of 1000 OZ of which is no good to me. I was wondering how and if it was possible to melt it down and mint my own 1 kilo or smaller bullions but how would I do that? The only way I can think of is to drill holes to create silver filings in able to work with it. Any advice? 

Where are you based and have you taken delivery? I can arrange to get smaller quantities of silver - kilos or 100gms made out of it but there may a production cost. 

[FTYBR]

On a serious note, can you please make sure you take delivery of the 1000oz bar and upload some photos 📸🤩

Sorry to be of no use but I will probably buy some of your pours 👍

[Kraken]

7 hours ago, Kidvinie said:

1000 OZ of which is no good to me

There's plenty of uses for a 1000 oz bar: a door stop, a mantelpiece ornament... The possibilities are endless!

Seriously though, pure silver is quite soft so if you've got a saw that can cut through steel you'd probably be fine - you could then melt the smaller pieces individually and cast them.

2 hours ago, FTYBR said:

On a serious note, can you please make sure you take delivery of the 1000oz bar and upload some photos 📸🤩

Seconding this.

[Martlet]

Hope they deliver the full 36 kilo and not short change you?

I wouldn't take a large bar if you dont want it, I'd sell the allocation back to them, buy gold of same value with the cash to avoid the VAT.  Dont know what tax situation is (in Spain?), you may be able to book the loss against any other profits made or carry forward for future. 

[ilovesilverireallydo]

3 hours ago, Martlet said:

Hope they deliver the full 36 kilo and not short change you?

I wouldn't take a large bar if you dont want it, I'd sell the allocation back to them, buy gold of same value with the cash to avoid the VAT.  Dont know what tax situation is (in Spain?), you may be able to book the loss against any other profits made or carry forward for future. 

They would severely underpay on that

[Kidvinie]

3 hours ago, Martlet said:

Hope they deliver the full 36 kilo and not short change you?

I wouldn't take a large bar if you dont want it, I'd sell the allocation back to them, buy gold of same value with the cash to avoid the VAT.  Dont know what tax situation is (in Spain?), you may be able to book the loss against any other profits made or carry forward for future. 

They want 10% (100 oz) in silver as commission. Like I said, they really don't want me to take it out of which I find totally pointless in using their service if that's the case. I may as well have just put my money in an ETF

[Martlet]

1 hour ago, Kidvinie said:

They want 10% (100 oz) in silver as commission. 

Well thats not an advert for their service.  Sell and exit, no good reason to give them 10% and cost another 20% in the process. 

[SilverGameOfThrones]

Take delivery ASAP 

Music will not run for long 

[MrUpwardlyMobile]

4 hours ago, Kidvinie said:

They want 10% (100 oz) in silver as commission. Like I said, they really don't want me to take it out of which I find totally pointless in using their service if that's the case. I may as well have just put my money in an ETF

You’d have made more money on an ETF.

[silverdocket]

15 hours ago, Kraken said:

Seriously though, pure silver is quite soft so if you've got a saw that can cut through steel

In my opinion not a good idea.

Cross contamination from the blade might affect the purity.

Take delivery and sell it to one of the refineries or someone on here... You never know.

[Kraken]

3 hours ago, silverdocket said:

In my opinion not a good idea.

Cross contamination from the blade might affect the purity.

Take delivery and sell it to one of the refineries or someone on here... You never know.

That's possible, but if you have a clean blade and don't let it heat up too much I'm not sure how much of an issue it would be in practice - the blanks for coins are cut using steel dies, and jewellers have special saws. If you were concerned, you could sand the cut edge to take off the potentially contaminated layer, or use a laser cutter (an expensive option, but if you've got 36 kg of silver you're trying to take delivery of, it's likely to be comparable in price). Additionally, you could always send the finished product to an assay office to get the silver content verified.

[SilverDrum]

I just had a little search on the tube and found this. 1000oz of bar's being made into shot very simply. Just a bucket, blowtorch and a mesh to melt upon...then you could process a little easier. 

 

[MrUpwardlyMobile]

2 hours ago, SilverDrum said:

I just had a little search on the tube and found this. 1000oz of bar's being made into shot very simply. Just a bucket, blowtorch and a mesh to melt upon...then you could process a little easier. 

 

That’s basically a really scaled up (and obviously slower) version of what people do to turn scrap sterling Items into shot before reusing it to pour sterling art.

[MikeG1978]

Inhave some sterling silver that i am thinking of melting down to shot but wasnt sure if there was much of a market for it 

[MrUpwardlyMobile]

12 minutes ago, MikeG1978 said:

Inhave some sterling silver that i am thinking of melting down to shot but wasnt sure if there was much of a market for it 

I’ve never actually found sterling shot for sale absent looking around for it out of curiosity.  It’s really just used by sterling manufacturers and people in the art world that make stuff with it. 
 

I think the general consensus in stacking circles is that a sterling item is worth more as an existing item unless it’s ruined and is truly scrap material.

[MikeG1978]

Mine is ruined smashed up knife handles etc 

[MrUpwardlyMobile]

17 minutes ago, MikeG1978 said:

Mine is ruined smashed up knife handles etc 

The problem with selling shot sterling is that its purity and metal composition aren't confirmed for a buyer unless it’s assayed.  It’s even less validated than home poured silver bars and rounds.

[MikeG1978]

True i may weigh it in as can stil see the hallmarks still

[SilverDrum]

8 hours ago, MrUpwardlyMobile said:

That’s basically a really scaled up (and obviously slower) version of what people do to turn scrap sterling Items into shot before reusing it to pour sterling art.

Well if you know how to do it quicker and cheaper, then let the OP know 😆 that is the point of this post after all..