CoinHoarder, are you talking to me? I try to leave no stone unturned. I have sold 40% for $2 a coin, the legitimate going rate at the time. $1 per coin from dealer who advertises they buy "junk" silver coin is insulting. The dealer at the show who offered that price per coin I now just pass by neither buying from nor selling anything to him.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
@CoinHoarder said:
So, it sounds to me like as far as "junk silver" goes, you stick to 90% U.S. constitutional silver ONLY.
So if your intent is stacking for profit, stay away from the foreign "junk silver", and below 90% U.S. "junk silver".
Good to know! Better to find out now rather than when you go to cash it in.
Does that make sense?
Everything except the use of the word “constitutional” in regards to.900 fine junk silver. It is a non sequitur.
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
@cladking said:
Very few US coins have been melted except for 90% silver. ...Probably around 20%.
Not only does the US have a relatively stable economic system which protects coins and paper but it's rarely profitable and legal to melt them.
Most estimates I've seen are much, much higher. Except for a brief period in the late 1960s, as far as I know it has always been legal to melt 90% silver. I vividly remember late 1979 / early 1980 when coin shops were inundated with customers cashing in massive amounts of silver coins to take advantage of the then high prices. Most of these coins went to refineries, which themselves struggled to meet demand. Aside from the 1980 price spike (and a similar one ten years ago), there were several extended periods of time when 90% silver traded below melt, and my understanding is that many dealers would send junk silver coins to smelters rather than tie them up in inventory.
many dealers would send junk silver coins to smelters rather than tie them up in inventory.
I don't know if extremely fine Mercury dimes qualify as junk silver, but I knew a dealer who was sending them to the refinery around 1980. He said to me, "What am I supposed to do? Save them?" He told me that they didn't even have time to check Mercury dimes for scarce dates that's how volatile the silver market was in 1980.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
@cladking said:
Very few US coins have been melted except for 90% silver. ...Probably around 20%.
Not only does the US have a relatively stable economic system which protects coins and paper but it's rarely profitable and legal to melt them.
Most estimates I've seen are much, much higher. Except for a brief period in the late 1960s, as far as I know it has always been legal to melt 90% silver. I vividly remember late 1979 / early 1980 when coin shops were inundated with customers cashing in massive amounts of silver coins to take advantage of the then high prices. Most of these coins went to refineries, which themselves struggled to meet demand. Aside from the 1980 price spike (and a similar one ten years ago), there were several extended periods of time when 90% silver traded below melt, and my understanding is that many dealers would send junk silver coins to smelters rather than tie them up in inventory.
The FED was able to pull a lot of silver out of circulation in '68/9 and all of this was melted and is in addition to silver melted since. Total drawdown on something like 1963 quarters is over 50% due to attrition and melting.
The 1978/80 melt was too brief to make a huge impact. The 2008 to date melting doesn't affect such a large proportion of the coins being traded because there are lots of buyers for coin.
The ban was lifted about the time the FED stopped recovering silver in July of 1969. My estimates do tend to be conservative but when you see truckloads of coin being melted it's easy to overestimate.
Frankly it would please me to no end if more of these have been melted since it implies we are already living hand to mouth with silver supplies. I've long been bullish on silver. I know it's been a lousy investment.
@Cuprinkor said:
Check out MJPM.com (Corvallis, Oregon)
He's offering to buy 40% silver clad JFK halves for around 6X face (and sell for 7.86X face).
Might be a place to consider if you accumulate 50/+ pieces in the future.
Hey! Corvallis is my town! Small world...
I've been in that shop just a couple of times recently. Owner seems a nice guy, been in the biz for ~40 years. Supposed to be open on Fridays, but the last 2 times i snuck away from my work on a Friday afternoon, nobody was there.
100th pint of blood donated 7/19/2022 . Transactions with WilliamF, Relaxn, LukeMarshal, jclovescoins, braddick, JWP, Weather11am, Fairlaneman, Dscoins, lordmarcovan, Collectorcoins, SurfinxHI, JimW. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that who so believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Comments
CoinHoarder, are you talking to me? I try to leave no stone unturned. I have sold 40% for $2 a coin, the legitimate going rate at the time. $1 per coin from dealer who advertises they buy "junk" silver coin is insulting. The dealer at the show who offered that price per coin I now just pass by neither buying from nor selling anything to him.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
Everything except the use of the word “constitutional” in regards to.900 fine junk silver. It is a non sequitur.
Most estimates I've seen are much, much higher. Except for a brief period in the late 1960s, as far as I know it has always been legal to melt 90% silver. I vividly remember late 1979 / early 1980 when coin shops were inundated with customers cashing in massive amounts of silver coins to take advantage of the then high prices. Most of these coins went to refineries, which themselves struggled to meet demand. Aside from the 1980 price spike (and a similar one ten years ago), there were several extended periods of time when 90% silver traded below melt, and my understanding is that many dealers would send junk silver coins to smelters rather than tie them up in inventory.
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
many dealers would send junk silver coins to smelters rather than tie them up in inventory.
I don't know if extremely fine Mercury dimes qualify as junk silver, but I knew a dealer who was sending them to the refinery around 1980. He said to me, "What am I supposed to do? Save them?" He told me that they didn't even have time to check Mercury dimes for scarce dates that's how volatile the silver market was in 1980.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
The FED was able to pull a lot of silver out of circulation in '68/9 and all of this was melted and is in addition to silver melted since. Total drawdown on something like 1963 quarters is over 50% due to attrition and melting.
The 1978/80 melt was too brief to make a huge impact. The 2008 to date melting doesn't affect such a large proportion of the coins being traded because there are lots of buyers for coin.
The ban was lifted about the time the FED stopped recovering silver in July of 1969. My estimates do tend to be conservative but when you see truckloads of coin being melted it's easy to overestimate.
Frankly it would please me to no end if more of these have been melted since it implies we are already living hand to mouth with silver supplies. I've long been bullish on silver. I know it's been a lousy investment.
Hey! Corvallis is my town! Small world...
I've been in that shop just a couple of times recently. Owner seems a nice guy, been in the biz for ~40 years. Supposed to be open on Fridays, but the last 2 times i snuck away from my work on a Friday afternoon, nobody was there.
Hey Moursund:
Corvallis is my hometown!
Good place to grow up.
I've been in the Portland metro area since '92, though.