Falling by the Way-Side AG

[Dozer D]

Just last night as I sat watching TV about how many of our animal species (animals, birds, fishes), are becoming an extinct breed in our own lifetime. Now relate how each one of us, as we draw off silver coins out of circulation, are creating a dying hobby that we all entirely enjoyed at first. It is becoming more & more difficult to find anything at all, only because we expected so much. Just think about it for a moment, with all of us CRH'ers out there week after week, drawing off the system as many AG coins we could possibly find. We are in essence making our own silver coinage extinct. Together as a whole we are drawing off hundreds or even thousands of coins each week? Just around the turn of this century, there were still millions of monarch butterfly's that made their yearly migration. Today only three or four million still survive. Although the silver coinage produced was in the billions & billions, how much of that has fallen to the melting pot for other uses, as opposed to GOLD that is never consumed. Our hobby as we see it today, is becoming a doomsday albatross. In time it will all become extinct just like the dinosaurs, only to read about in history books. Just something to ponder & think about. Cherish what you find today, for it will NOT exist tomorrow.

 

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[enamel7]

Most silver doesn't go to a smelter. The big companies that sell to the collector buy them for a low price and sell at a higher price. Those bought either stay in a collection until someone sells, dies or has it stolen. The family could also just dump them back into circulation. Companies can still make more selling "junk" silver for a little over melt than smelting them.

 

[enamel7]

Also gold is used in electronics just like silver.

 

[Liu21]

No one is melting junk silver coins... So they are not permanently removed from the system, they're just withed out of the system. Most coins in someones possession will reenter the system, due to ignorance. Trust me. If people can find Indian head cents, barber dimes, and etc... while CRHing silver coins will be in the system for a long time to come....

 

[fistfulladirt]

I've found more silver in the last half-dozen years than I have since I started in the mid-1970's.

High unemployment, lots of roll hunters (and no internet btw).

Before the Hunts run-up in the early '80's, finds were very tight! After the crash, much was dumped back into circulation.

Same is happening now. Depressed silver prices and lots of solid rolls being found. Weak hands are dumping again.

 

[mAGma]

Eventually maybe...but what youre describing will never happen in any of our lifetimes. way too much volume spread over way to many people. Sorry if youre finds have been low, but thats not the case for everyone

 

[ArkieBassMan]

The hobby isn't doomed to die anytime soon. As FFD stated, there is at least as much silver in circulation now than there was in the 1970's. Silver coins haven't been produced in 51 years yet there is still enough out there that several people actively search for them. I don't see any reason for that to change.

 

[FormerTeller]

Every time a CRH dies, there's a good chance that his finds go back into circulation. Sometimes it seems like more silver is going into circulation than is taken out of it. The only way the hobby dies is if either the silver is all melted (unlikely), or if banks realize how much money they're losing to CRH operations and cease selling to us (unfortunately, much more likely...)

 

[gordon and tanner]

You ever think how blessed our hobby is, that the size and color and even the look of most of our coins have not changed in 150 years or so. What will kill this hobby is if they change size of our coins. I would guess that most countries around the world have had changes in the size of their coins, this puts a halt to old coins remaining in circulation. (I do not think many Nazi coins from the 1940's are still in circulation, in Germany) I think we have to thank the vending machine community for this.

Keep on Searching

Dad and Tanner