Is melting legal?

[surfin]

Ok my sister is a jeweler and she can teach me to smelt gold and silver but if you do that to coins is it legal? Who do you sell it to?

Is it better to keep them as coins? I hear everyone talk about melt value but does anyone actually get the going rate for silver if you put it in bars vs leaving it in coin. Which is more valuable?

Tons of questions from a new CRH

Ian

 

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[Silver_Fox]

A coin is a known silver content. If you melt it,you will have an unknown bar of metal. It will have to be assayed to show what it is. I would leave it as coin. Melt value is just a term. Some jewelers use silver coins for jewelry. Ask JD.

 

[Treasure-Slut]

Sometime in 2006 I believe, pennies and nickels were made illegal to melt and that law stands today. This is because their intrinsic metal content surpasses the face value of the coin and our government prefers these coins to stay in circulation as opposed to people melting all of them. It is also illegal to ship any of those coins out of the U.S. beyond the amoutn of 5 dollars. This is a new law though and any and all other coins are legal to melt and that is the only reason a jewler will typically buy silver and gold legal tender from you. Silver Eagles are really minted mainly for that purpose. They are considered Bullion in the coin books and have the silver content stamped on the coin, yet they are still $1 face value legal tender.