What is going to happen?

dlimb2

When the price of silver and gold reach highs that have not been seen in years, !980's if that is possible, will people hold on to their high graded treasures or will they sell them into the frenzy.
I did not withness what occured in the 80's and was wondering if people will hold on to specific rare coins or sell them along with all the other silver.

nwcs

Silver won't get to $50/oz. Market forces and government tinkering will prevent it. But if both rise lots and lots and there is a lot of press about, I would predict that many low end coins will be sent in for scrap and probably some better coins accidentally by people who do not know what they are. And I'll hold off buying any coins then until the market collapses and I can buy them cheap.

Russ

Stupidly high silver prices really wouldn't have that much impact on coins other than bullion. If you have a rare silver dollar, for example, the value is numismatic, not precious metal content (less than 3/4's of an ounce). A little more of an impact with gold but, again outside of common date and bullion, not much percentage wise.

Russ, NCNE

lordmarcovan

I notice you say "when" and not "if". You really see that happening again in the future?

My old numismatic mentor tells tales of them smashing exquisite Tiffany tea sets with sledgehammers in the back room, to send 'em to the smelter for the silver content. Maybe the stories were slightly exaggerated, but there is no telling what sort of artistic and/or numismatic treasures were lost to the melting pot back then. I vaguely remember it.

The rarest stuff should be pretty safe, provided it isn't sold by people who are ignorant of its true value. Bullion value would have to really skyrocket to catch up with numismatic values on some of the better material.

If bullion price levels screamed to a truly obscene sum, I might sell off much of my dealer inventory that wasn't key date or prohibitively rare, but I would keep my sentimental items like my metal detector finds (even though a lot of them are only worth bullion value, anyway.)

dlimb2

Thanks guys, now I have a better picture and understanding. I would never sell my rare pieces no matter what the price of gold or silver become. I was just wondering what it must have been like back then when Silver did hit $50, not that it would ever again, but I could find some of my lesser valued coins which are only worth their weight in silver. Plus I really dont like the idea

Coulport

Many people did not know whether they had a rare date silver coin or not during the great silver melt.
When anything in US silver brought 20X face the stuff came in by box, bag and purse. Many partial sets were also just broken up and dumped. A couple of dealers I know locally dealt in huge volumes. Most times they didn't have the opportunity to inspect what came in and just counted it and shipped it to the smelters. Occasionally, I had some extra funds and was able to look through a 5 gallon bucket to pick out a few pieces. I have no doubt many rare and key coins hit the melt pot. It was a crazy time.

dlimb2

Wow that must have been a sight...can you imagine...I think I might have taken the time...I say wow.

roadrunner

I think we will again someday see silver over $50/oz. The govt won't be in any position to cap the move when it comes. How long it will last at those dizzying heights is anyone's guess.

roadrunner

Deadhorse

It was a wild time. Buyers were advertising with 30 second spots all over the tube. They were setting up in hotel rooms with several sets of scales and bags of cash.

Royal Coin here in Houston has a picture taken of lines of people blocks long waiting to get into their store. I sold off alot of stuff. Numismatic value on things was less then and at the peak you could get $30 for any silver dollar. I'm sure alot of common MS60 Morgans went the way of the smelter.

I dumped off all my albums and lots of common Morgan and Peace dollars. People were bringing things out of the woodwork, I have no doubt that the stories of smashing up tea sets are true. I saw lots of silver flatware, serving trays, jewelry, etc. being hauled in in bags and bags.

Looked like a convention of burglars at those buying places. It was, to paraphrase a popular comedian of the time, "A wild and crazy time".

Remember, given inflation, if silver were to hit the equivalent of $50 an ounce in 1979-80 dollars, it would have to go to something like $125 or more.

As far as I'm concerned, silver has been virtually free for the last 7 years with regards to valuation against inflation. Those who think it can continue to be manipulated down around the $5 mark are whistling in the dark, in my humble opinion.

bigbadchad777

Don't sell. Buy, buy, buy!!!

Skipper53

History has a bad habit of repeating itself. Lessons are quickly forgotten.
World events may be slightly different but the knee-jerk reaction is usually
the same.
I believe the intelligent collector will remember the work that went into
the collection and resist the impulse to sell even at double or triple the
original cost.
The time and money to replace it later might be impossible.
Just my humble opinion.

Skipper

cladking

At $50 per ounce huge amounts of silver come out onto the market. In 1980 there was
far too much really nice stuff being shipped off for melt for the demand for it. The highest
priced stuff did get pulled out, but lots of stuff that wasn't worth melt plus a few dollars
just got dumped. I never saw any rare coins in the stream but there were lots of really
neat coins that had real numismatic value. Proof and mint sets would have the cent and
nickel removed and the rest tossed in still in the plastic. BU rolls of some pretty good dates
and collections after they had a few keys stripped out went into the buckets. Of course a
lot of stuff wasn't really checked or wasn't checked carefully so some rarities no doubt did
get melted.

Much of the publics holdings of silver did hit the refineries in 1980 and '81 so if silver would
soar again it would play out differently this time.

The government has little or no interest in the silver market anymore and would probably not
interfere with an exploding market. The government does have an interest in stability and a
soaring market would get noticed. There is little which could be done to stifle the market if
the demand were broad based rather than caused by a few individuals.

This is not to say such a thing is likely just that it would be much different were it to recur.

291fifth

Rare coins won't be sold. If there were ever a run-up to 1980 levels I suspect the public and many collectors would dump their second rate material as fast as they could. Too many people remember how much they lost by not selling into that frenzy!

Newmismatist

<< <i>When anything in US silver brought 20X face the stuff came in by box, bag and purse. Many partial sets were also just broken up and dumped. A couple of dealers I know locally dealt in huge volumes. Most times they didn't have the opportunity to inspect what came in and just counted it and shipped it to the smelters. >>



You remember correctly. I was good friends with my local dealer also. Sterling silver candlesticks are molded & filled w/some type of claylike material. I used to watch them break them in half bang them against a post to got the filling out - I salveged several sets of near perfect candlesticks, some antique butter knives, etc & bought them for melt value - I had almost a bag of XF-AU to BU silver dollars - sold most because they were worth more as silver than as collectable coins - saved the better dates & better condition ones because my collecting instincts would not let them go to the smelter - they're now worth about 1/3 -1/2 of what the junkers sold for (used to call the nicer AU/BU ones commercial Uncs) - Saw lots of Mercs, Walkers, SLQs counted up w/counting machines, bagged & off the went to the smelting pot - An amazing time - If you wanted you could have probably put together complete sets of most 20th century silver coins as so much stuff was coming in as bullion. My dealer had piles & piles of blue whitman folders that had been brought in, the coins removed & the silver bagged & sent off to be smelted -

Skipper53

Wasn't that situation caused, or at least helped along by the Hunt brothers ?
Are they still around or are they resting comfortably in their silver crypts ?
I wonder if they were aware of the damage they caused, or cared .

cladking

They were the biggest losers in the debacle and were less culpable than many.

It virtually busted one and caused huge losses to the family.