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If the precious metals skyrocket, which coins are most likely to become extinct?
MrEureka
Posts: 23,949 ✭✭✭✭✭
In other words, which coins might see their entire population melted?
Andy Lustig
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
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I remember that the lowest price you could buy a Morgan Dollar for, even in VF, was about $40........
It's just that I got my PCGS grades.
I figure if most are melted then at least I will have a few surviving specimans.
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
are quite a few which would be simply decimated. A lot of modern silver
coins sell at melt value and have a very low demand. If you have silver
at $100 or $200 per ounce then almost all the modern silver you see in
dealer stock would cue at the refineries. Their customers would bring
this stuff in and that too would go to the refiners. Some of this material
is well distributed and this applies especially to the older coins like 1973
Bahamian sets and they would have protection by their numbers but oth-
er material was made in smaller numbers, more recently, and has just as
little specific demand.
Some of the most dramatically affected are less visible. Coins like a '40-D
quarter would have most of its mintage melted. Some older coins have
very low premiums in lower grades but most of the surviving examples are
in the lower grades. This would apply to many of the early 19th century
Mexican silver coins. Look at coiins like the Dominican Replublic 1897 1P
coin. These are quite scarce in decent condition but if the lower grade
ones were mostly melted there would be few at all. The Spanish govern-
ment melted most of the 500 P coins fifteen years ago and the demand is
so low for the survivors that they still don't have any premium. If large
numbers of these were now melted the number of survivors of even the
common dates would be miniscule.
Look for smaller countries with low domestic demand and minted in more
recent years. It's even better if there's little emmigration to wealthier coun-
tries from them. Look for larger coins and higher denominations. Of course
for long term demand there should be something attractive about them. The
Tunisia 1969 set is a good example of this. "Real" coins are more likely to
attract real demand in the future.
Most junk grade silver would vanish. I'd be the first in line to get rid of all my junk grade stuff.
Much of 20th century South African coinage, hard enough to find now, would be obliterated, since many of the dates/denominations are so cheap to get now. 20th century British threepences and sixpences, George VI shillings, florins and halfcrowns (1937-1946) would largely disappear.
Of course, if that were to happen, we'd be swarmed under by hyperinflation, so I wouldn't be doing any celebrating unless the cause was due to some new industrial demand.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
<< <i>All that Franklin Mint stuff... It still seems to be poison even though I suspect probably 20-30% of the population of several countries have likely already been melted. Someday... should I live to be 90-95, it might even be fashionable own them >>
I like some of those coins....I am not sure why...??
I give away money. I collect money.
I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.
40's Australia
50% Brit silver with no luster
G6 and E2 Canadian silver
French 20th century with no luster
nearly any Franklin Mint coins (Bahamas, Panama, Barbados, etc)
nearly all 1800-now culls
and many others. If silver even hit $20 and stayed awhile I think this stuff would be coming out of the woodwork. I think it's a shame to melt the GB and Canada but if I don't I sit on it forever since noone buys it. I can ship the Canada of course, but unless there are hundreds of dollars face value then it doesn't make financial sense.
As far as their entire populations being melted, I think many silver and gold issues from obscure/small countries in the 1960's-1980's are at risk. I have seen coins with a mintage of 99 go in the pot.
I agree with the above comments in that the coins most likely to disappear are damaged NCLTs from countries without a large collector base. I still keep a box of circulated US 90 and even 40% coins and don't know why. I guess that it seems like real money. If you cash it in because metal value goes high what do you have? A pile of wothless paper money!
Well, just Love coins, period.
<< <i>I guess except for the most worn 90% coins, is there really a point in melting coins instead of keeping them as they are as bullion in the form of a coin? >>
"Scrap" gets melted when there is enough difference between 999 and the
value of the particular type of scrap to profit by refining it. The only way to
stop it is to buy and hold the coins but, obviously, this is impossible and any
serious attempt would cause the value of the coins to go up so they wouldn't
be melted anyway.
Most of the time there are no coins being melted because it isn't profitable.
From time to time this changes and coins flow to the refiners as they are now.
This time it's because of the large demand of industrial users eating up the
large bars on the market while new production is insufficient to fill the gap.
It's probable that if the price of silver were to escalate dramatically the spread
would widen and the refiners would add capacity to profit from melting. This
isn't a sure thing buty instead depends largely on what form investors desire
to hold silver; ETF's, bars, coins, or other. I personally don't consider silver
futures to be silver at all since they are based soley on paper and promises
that couldn't be kept if silver goes higher. So long as silver does poorly then
these paper instruments might make you money on the short side but on the
long side you can only lose and you might lose big if you're right.
<< <i>1944 and 1945 US-Philippines 10, 20 and 50 Centavos would be melted en masse, though there would still remain huge numbers, since they were minted in huge numbers to replace the coinage the Japanese melted during WW2. >>
Please don't melt this:
<< <i>
Yikes! Before you melt Canadian George VI 50c check them for key reverse varieties! There's a couple of reverse varieties that fetch a considerable premium over melt in the year 1947, plus one in 1949 and one in 1950. A 1947 Curved 7 with Maple Leaf lists for $2,000 Canadian in F-12 according to the 62nd edition of the Charleton Guide! >>
Everything I melt is hand searched; especially carefully on brit and canuck.
<< <i>I guess except for the most worn 90% coins, is there really a point in melting coins instead of keeping them as they are as bullion in the form of a coin? >>
Good point. I think it would be advantageous, in fact, for a collector to hold the silver in coin form rather than having it melted (for cash, to buy other bullion). It's cheaper and simpler, and in fact the coins have a known and trusted weight and silver content. Besides that, they tend to be more convenient for smaller transactions (less than 1 ounce, which is an otherwise normally found size on the market). Sort of the reason these coins were made in the first place, as coins. I see nothing wrong with collecting/hoarding older silver coins for SHTF scenarios as well as regular bullion. I've been paying a lot more than bullion prices (2-4 times melt) for these (because that's the market rate):
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
As others have said, most of the 'common' post-WWII silver would melt in droves - the Bermuda and Bahamas predecimal stuff, Dutch Gulden and 2.5 Guldens, Austrian 5 and 10 schillings, Canadian .800 (excepting a few rare dates/varieties), Australian predecimal, etc. Also, many of the culls from earlier centuries would probably go, particularly the ones which were hard to identify.
What would survive?
Probably most decent shape pre-1800 coins, high-grade stuff up to the late 1800s, then anything later that was rare or particularly nice.
<< <i>Sure love all the Polish Zloty coins, I have to find some of those sometime. >>
Thank you, sir. I like them a lot too.
Perhaps we can work out a trade?
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." -Luke 11:9
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." -Deut. 6:4-5
"For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; He will save us." -Isaiah 33:22
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set