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If the precious metals skyrocket, which coins are most likely to become extinct?

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.

Comments

  • In the last big silver melt in the 80's an awful lot of Roosevelt dimes, Washington quarters and Franklin Halves hit the melting pot.

    I remember that the lowest price you could buy a Morgan Dollar for, even in VF, was about $40........
    No,no- the kids and the cat are all right honey.
    It's just that I got my PCGS grades.
  • bidaskbidask Posts: 13,834 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Recently, I have been collecting certain modern gold and silver foreign coins.....from the 1950's to ealy 80's. Crown size.

    I figure if most are melted then at least I will have a few surviving specimans.image
    I manage money. I earn money. I save money .
    I give away money. I collect money.
    I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.




  • jfoot13jfoot13 Posts: 2,669 ✭✭✭
    Other than unrealeased new issues with metal value over face I would venture to guess none...
    If you can't swim you better stay in the boat.......
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,307 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Of course no series is likely to be destroyed in its entirety but there
    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.
    Tempus fugit.
  • wybritwybrit Posts: 6,952 ✭✭✭
    I know that I'd be bringing all of my worthless slider Morgan and Peace dollars in if silver even hit $75 an ounce.

    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.
    Former owner, Cambridge Gate collection.
  • coinkatcoinkat Posts: 22,721 ✭✭✭✭✭
    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

    Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.

  • bidaskbidask Posts: 13,834 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <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 manage money. I earn money. I save money .
    I give away money. I collect money.
    I don’t love money . I do love the Lord God.




  • BlackhawkBlackhawk Posts: 3,897 ✭✭✭
    Do you think thatm much of this stuff actually gets melted? It seems to me that an awful lot of what is bought up by bigger coin operations is sitting in bags...unless it is actually junk, i.e. culls.
    "Have a nice day!"
  • Even now I melt:

    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.
  • 7Jaguars7Jaguars Posts: 7,228 ✭✭✭✭✭
    PM me if you have original packed undamaged 1981-1985 Franklin Mint and I will generally beat melt by enough to make it worthwhile.


    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!
    Love that Milled British (1830-1960)
    Well, just Love coins, period.
  • When I picked up a bunch of Washington quarter rolls as 90% and found several rolls of 1960-1964 in mint state I had the same thought. Their not worth much now, but what if most were melted?
    Remember, I'm pullen for ya; we're all in this together.---Red Green---
  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,466 ✭✭✭✭✭
    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?
    In memory of my kitty Seryozha 14.2.1996 ~ 13.9.2016 and Shadow 3.4.2015 - 16.4.21
  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,307 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <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.
    Tempus fugit.
  • 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.
  • FilamCoinsFilamCoins Posts: 1,899 ✭✭✭


    << <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:

    image



  • << <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.
  • 1jester1jester Posts: 8,638 ✭✭✭


    << <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):


    image


    imageimageimage
    .....GOD
    image

    "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
  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,466 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sure love all the Polish Zloty coins, I have to find some of those sometime.
    In memory of my kitty Seryozha 14.2.1996 ~ 13.9.2016 and Shadow 3.4.2015 - 16.4.21
  • BjornBjorn Posts: 529 ✭✭✭
    What would melt?

    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.
  • 1jester1jester Posts: 8,638 ✭✭✭


    << <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?


    image


    imageimageimage
    .....GOD
    image

    "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
  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,892 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ttt
    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • ZoharZohar Posts: 6,629 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Andy - a 6 year wait to bounce this thread... are you anticipating a metals move? I have and have stuck with it, yet the market seems to think otherwise image
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