melted silver coins and their effect on prices of coins going forward

phrostie · Jan 22, 2009

Alright, this has probably been talked about before but since I don't have coins to go through right now I'm pondering the above mentioned question. In the late 70's early 80's silver hit a high of $50 / oz. Since coins are melted to make silver bullion, I was wondering what the impact is on the prices of these coins as melted coins were not tracked. Granted I'm not taking into account condition and grading, just number of coins.

How do we as coin collectors know that for instance a certain year was not mostly wiped out? Do we just assume a normal distribution based upon years...has anyone done any type of research into this or even thought of it?

Just food for thought, happy hunting!

fistfulladirt · Jan 22, 2009

I don't think it's illegal to melt the silver coin right now, I know there is a ban on copper melt. FFD

fistfulladirt · Jan 22, 2009

Fistfulladirt said:
I don't think it's illegal to melt the silver coin right now, I know there is a ban on copper melt. FFD

If it's illegal, why have a "melt value" on silver coin?

phrostie · Jan 22, 2009

well ok, disregard melt part then, the underlying question still remains and is what I'm more concerned with... :wink:

snake35 · Jan 22, 2009

Its not illegal to melt silver coins.

phrostie · Jan 22, 2009

ok done with the discussion of silver melting of coins, onto the discussion about silver coins of pre 1964 and how many are actually left. Is there some sort of mathematical model on attrition of coins??

treasurefiend · Jan 22, 2009

ac385 · Jan 22, 2009

I have been thinking about this also. It would seem like the value of the coins would fluctuate with the price of silver and silver content and therefore they would not need to be melted down. Why the need to actually destroy them and convert to silver?

jim4silver · Jan 22, 2009

Nobody knows how many were melted. I don't think it really makes much difference right now in that there are still enough of even the rare years so that the coins are not very high priced.

There were so many coins minted that even with the ones melted being subtracted from the herd, there are still lots out there.

Jim

Shake-N-Bake · Jan 22, 2009

jim4silver said:
Nobody knows how many were melted. I don't think it really makes much difference right now in that there are still enough of even the rare years so that the coins are not very high priced.

There were so many coins minted that even with the ones melted being subtracted from the herd, there are still lots out there.

Jim

Correct there was way to many of certain years minted. Take the 1964 dimes between the P's and D's there was 2.3 BILLION minted; 1964 Quarters 1.3 BILLION minted; 1964 Halves 435 MILLION minted. Untill the demand passes the supply the price will not change(unless silver goes through the roof). Right now you can still find ROLLS AND ROLLS of silver coins.
Jason

jim4silver · Jan 22, 2009

Shake-N-Bake said:
jim4silver said:

Nobody knows how many were melted. I don't think it really makes much difference right now in that there are still enough of even the rare years so that the coins are not very high priced.

There were so many coins minted that even with the ones melted being subtracted from the herd, there are still lots out there.

Jim

Click to expand...

Correct there was way to many of certain years minted. Take the 1964 dimes between the P's and D's there was 2.3 BILLION minted; 1964 Quarters 1.3 BILLION minted; 1964 Halves 435 MILLION minted. Untill the demand passes the supply the price will not change(unless silver goes through the roof). Right now you can still find ROLLS AND ROLLS of silver coins.
Jason

I have recently seen rolls of BU Peace Dollars selling for 18.50 per coin if you buy 20 coins. That is amazing to me a coin that old in such great condition is only a few bucks more than one is a much lower grade condition.

Jim

coinmojo · Jan 22, 2009

Here you go

Every newbee wonders the same thing, and I too posed the same question, and LJ responded to it as she ponderd the same question and provided a link to a very interesting article.

Below is my post and LJ's link is in the 2nd responce.

It's all reletive..

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,150763.msg0.html#new

Mojo

golden silver · Jan 22, 2009

I just recently read an article on this. In the late 70's leading up to 1980 many coins were melted of all sorts. Oddly enough the ones that were melted least were the silver dollars. I for one don't know where they all ended up. Maybe people just held on to them or the fed kept a majority. The result of the great melt was that 2/3 rds of all the silver in circulation was melted down. That is a hell of a lot. It would have continued until all the silver coin in circulation was destroyed if the price of silver had not dropped. One interesting fact is that many of the coins that were the most rare or the key dates became more common and the common dates became the key dates. I will see if I can't find the article for you guys.

-Golden Silver

coinmojo · Jan 22, 2009

golden silver said:
I just recently read an article on this. In the late 70's leading up to 1980 many coins were melted of all sorts. Oddly enough the ones that were melted least were the silver dollars. I for one don't know where they all ended up. Maybe people just held on to them or the fed kept a majority. The result of the great melt was that 2/3 rds of all the silver in circulation was melted down. That is a hell of a lot. It would have continued until all the silver coin in circulation was destroyed if the price of silver had not dropped. One interesting fact is that many of the coins that were the most rare or the key dates became more common and the common dates became the key dates. I will see if I can't find the article for you guys.

-Golden Silver

GS I Think it's in my post / link

Mojo