Tried my hand at melting silver this past week, took last years scrap, broken pieces of chain, single ear rings, toe rings etc...and made some silver bars, 5.3 ounces of scrap!!! Saw it done on youtube...so I had to try..lol
Why bother, when all you have to do is to send the junk silver to the refiner in exchange for cash or bring it in to a shop which buys and sells junk silver.
The bars would be harder to sell as they have to be tested to determine silver content, whereas before you could determine purity by the stampings on most articles.
Also, there is a cost in the energy used to melt the silver, and some silver would be lost in the process.
Then there is also the time lost to do this.
I am not knocking anyone for doing so, I just don't understand the benefit other than to experiment
I think it's a great idea and gonna give it a shot........when I get enough to bother. It would be cool to make a coin size mold and strike it with a personal design.