So at what price do people melt silver $?

Peaceman

Since silver was at $ 4 for so long.... at what price do you think people would go the extent of actually melting po/g coins for bullion? What happened in the 80's?

richbeat

I'd like to know, also. There may not be a set transition point, rather a gray area, a range where it might start to happen. Back in the time period you mention, silver got as high as $50/oz. or thereabouts. That was when the Hunt brothers cornered the market.

291fifth

While I have been told that a lot of silver is still being melted I doubt if much of it is silver dollars. The silver dollars seem to trade in an endless cycle of speculative buying and selling. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that most of what is being melted today is silver medals and sterling scrap.

cladking

Anytime the silver value exceeds the numismatic value then the coins are liable to be
melted. Right now it would just be AG common dates and culls. There isn't a pressing
demand for silver so not all of these will be melted before they find a buyer at melt val-
ue to save them from destruction. If prices didn't increase then you'd start seeing the
nicer circ dollars getting melted in the ten or eleven dollar per ounce range and it wouldn't
pick up too much till it got close to $15.

MoneyLA

when the price of silver is above the numismatic value of silver coins, including silver dollars, the coins go to melt.

right now, common silver dollars in circulated condition sell in the range of $10 to $15 each, so the price of silver would have to exceed the $15 price to cause coins to go to melt.

ironically, as the price of silver bullion goes up, the numismatic value of coins will also rise.

but as we saw in the mania of 1980-81 bullion or melt value can easily exceed numismatic value.

cheers, alan mendelson