Silver Culling? Conspiracy or Bad Luck?

[GarouLady]

I was wondering if anyone else has been getting this feeling as of late. With all the banks changing over to brinks and the banks withholding all the 'odd" coins, I am wondering if this is the start of a governmental plan to cull the silver from the common public. With gold and silver the only good sources of cash, gold being way way too expensive for us middle class poorfolks, silver is the new common man's gold. I forgot what date exactly it was but earlier in the century, the government actually made it illegal for the public to have gold and silver.And they just passed a law not 5 years ago that with copper going up in price, it is illegal now to melt pennies down for scrap. Now we are hearing stories of silver being harder and harder to find. I am getting the scary little thought that this is the government back door way of culling junk silver from the public hands. And yes I know they sell silver eagles through the mint but really who wants to pay their prices for one coin.

Anyone else want to chime into here.

Sincerely, GarouLady

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[ArkieBassMan]

I can't believe I'm wading back into this subject again. I must be bored.

The government is not culling silver, as, for now, they really do not have the means to do so...other than from possibly bags and bags of unwanted Eisenhower dollars that they are currently storing. They likely aren't even doing that as it likely wouldn't be cost-effective, but then again since when has our government worried about being cost-effective? At any rate, the Fed basically has no access to the coins to cull the silver. The Fed does not re-roll coins. They only ship out bags of shiny new, freshly minted coins directly to banks and to the coin courier services who kinda act like independant contractors. The coin couriers are the ones re-rolling the "used" coinage. Now are the couriers culling silver? Very little I believe. While I believe that it is naive to think that it has never happened, it is against company policy to do so and I just can't imagine very many folks would risk their job and possible livelihood over a few silver coins. However, it is possible - maybe even probable - that certain coin counting/rolling machines that some couriers use will reject silver coins much like a Coinstar brand coin counting machine. So in this case, some couriers in certain locations may be inadvertently culling silver. As old machines "wear out" and get replaced by new machines, this possibly may become more prevalent.

 

[Diver_Down]

Sweet! My clock was running a little slow. Thanks for the thread.

 

[fistfulladirt]

What's really scary, is the fact that we have only a little less than 3 months to get any remaining silver.

 

[Gilmore Happy]

Yes, I have proof of the conspiracy. Picture this, congressmen all having their "meetings", but in the middle of it all, are pallets and pallets of half dollar boxes. Armoured trucks keep bringing in more boxes, and they keep hunting. Yes, there are wars going on, yes there is world hate due to films, yes unemployment sucks...but these guys are hungry for their silver. Then after they have all went on a 3 day binge of hunting, bc they have unlimited bankroll, they simply dump them via some "tax" and they make money off the dumps. Rinse and repeat. I cant think of any other reason why Congressmen are all millionaires. Can you? theres your proof gents.

 

[CW3(ret) US Army]

I was wondering if anyone else has been getting this feeling as of late. With all the banks changing over to brinks and the banks withholding all the 'odd" coins, I am wondering if this is the start of a governmental plan to cull the silver from the common public. With gold and silver the only good sources of cash, gold being way way too expensive for us middle class poorfolks, silver is the new common man's gold. I forgot what date exactly it was but earlier in the century, the government actually made it illegal for the public to have gold and silver.And they just passed a law not 5 years ago that with copper going up in price, it is illegal now to melt pennies down for scrap. Now we are hearing stories of silver being harder and harder to find. I am getting the scary little thought that this is the government back door way of culling junk silver from the public hands. And yes I know they sell silver eagles through the mint but really who wants to pay their prices for one coin.

Anyone else want to chime into here.

Sincerely, GarouLady

The govt is not culling silver. As ArkieBassMan so well explained. The govt has also never prohibited American citizens from owning silver. What you are referring to was the law passed during the depression by the govt banning private citizens keeping gold. They did make a exception for gold jewelry. That law waw repealed in the late 60's or early 70's & that's why a private citizen can now own gold. I've found silver in Brinks, Garda & Dunbar boxes. The key to finding the silver in this hobby is to be persistant. Welcome to this hobby by the way. After a while it can be addicting.

HH
Gary

 

[Local_coins]

The government is too busy buying underwater mortgage companies to buy real assets like gold and silver.

 

[Ben Cartwright SASS]

I enjoy searching for silver in bank rolls, but that being said, the best way to get to accumulate silver is to buy "junk" silver coins, common date dimes quarters and halves at a coin dealer, or even ebay. If you calculate the actual cost of driving (gas and wear and tear) to a bank, the time involved to sort through the rolls, the cost of taking it back, if you even got a job one evening a week at minimum wage and took that money, say 4 hours at $7, so $20 after taxes you could buy 10 silver dimes. to get the same silver dimes in customer rolls or bank rolls, assume 10 miles round trip to a bank, that is a dollar of gas, but the IRS allows I think 45 cents a mile so the wear on the car and gas would be $4.50 and then 30-60 minutes to go through a box of dimes, I see that the average seems to be 1 dime per 2 boxes (my estimate) so that is 1-2 hours per dime, or 10-20 hours for 10 dimes. With a part time job you could get the same in 4 hours.

I have tried to buy a dime or two every time I go to by the coin shop, and now have several coffee cans full of them.

My final word though is that coin hunting in rolls is just plain fun! I feel like Indiana Jones, you never know what you will get! I have as much fun with that as I do gold panning, and alot more of a return.