Anyone have information on European coin melting?

PuddlePirate

My neighbor is a Polish National. When I had him over to look at some Polish coinage I collected and to ask some questions he told me that in Poland "all this money is no good, when Euro's come out everyone sends this money to banks and government and they melt it all, they melt everything."
Now I have no doubt he is telling me the truth, I would just like to get some information if any is available on just what this "European melt" is entailing and if there are any records available to the "public". While the recall of coinage is nothing new, not even in the USA, I have a gut feeling that the "European pre-euro common coinage" is about to become a true rarity. Its a pity really, there is some really neat coinage out there on the "darkside".
Thanks in advance!

theboz11

China in it's search for raw material has found it profitable to gather that coinage for melt also. Glad I bought early. The coins in circ grade will be rarer than the Mint stuff

cladking

The world started moving away from coins made of precious metals in about 1950, and
the process was largely complete by 1967. Silver coinage begun after this time were to
a new standard with a much lower percentage of silver compared to face value. Gold coins
intended for circulation were not issued after this time (except Japan).

Before 1950 coins were rarely destroyed by the issuer. There was simply no point in it and
if they were recalled few would be redeemed since the people figured they were good me-
tal and keep them. Since 1950 one series of coins after another has been destroyed when
there was currency reform or inflation. In fact, this is now the typical way in which a coin
ceases to circulate. Collectors worldwide had refused to embrace the modern coins until only
very recently so there is a tendency for most issues to circulate in their entirety for decades
and then whatever hasn't been lost to time and tide to be destroyed in furnaces.

Just as finding information for any era (including the present) about the coins actually cir-
culating in a region it is often even more difficult to learn what coins are being destroyed.
Occassionally a central bank or mint will publish such information but without knowing ex-
actly what had been circulating much has to be assumed to garner much useful information.
One thing that is a relative constant is that small denominations don't appear to get turned
in with the same frequency as the larger denominations. To some extent this in pretty in-
tuitive since there is little reward for gathering up the lowest denomination coins and hauling
them to the bank. Small denominations also usually have far higher attrition rates due to
their higher velocity at some periods of their usage and their low value. Even their generally
smaller size contributes to this higher attrition. Large denomination coins get turned in in
much larger percentages since their souvenir value won't be as important to most owners
as their cash value. Coins like the German 5M coins are mostly redeemed where French 1c
coins end up in poundage and as makeshift washers in construction.

It's generally estimated that fewer than 90% of the extant higher denomination coins are
turned in and redemption of smaller coins can be quite low. In my experience though, there
appears to be no lower probability of higher grades and better dates being melted than
typical coins.

Many of the coins which have been melted over the last few decades were not saved in unc.
There simply wasn't much interest. Many of these coins do appear in mint sets but frequently
production of these sets were very limited and high attrition has been the norm for these. It
is a good idea to look at some of the valuations of more recent mint state coins in Krause. For
those who haven't kept up there will be many surprises as coin after coin and series after series
proves to be elusive and the prices are changed to reflect this. Look at the Portuguese Escudo
or the Greek coins from the '50's.

There are rarely any announcements when these coins are destroyed and even when there
are they are widely ignored or buried deep in a publication. The coins are often shipped intact
to steel mills and other metal melters to be used as alloy. Huge amounts are used in this country
representing issues that are not reported to have been destroyed. Most are used in other coun-
tries though because of the high cost of transportation and the great availability of Canadian
mined nickel in this part of the world.

laurentyvan

Once again Cladking turns in a top-notch post response. Very informative-thank you!

PuddlePirate

CladKing - Thanks for the Very informative response.
I find it interesting how "book" prices like in Krause are only a guideline average for varied coinage. Indeed I have been trying to build up my Greek coins samples and am having a very difficult time doing so, countries/principalites like Andorra are not easy to come by at all.
I was pondering the question of the "obsolete" coin recall/melting of the European coinage prior to the Euro and how it would affect my collecting good specimens that take my fancy as well as the generic "world" coins that can be bought in bulk by the lb or kg when some era's and countries are difficult enough as it is.
Thanks once again for responding.

doug

Askari

Excellent post, Cladking!! Coins from the last few pre-Euro years will probably never be rare. A lot of people tend to save these from circulation in the anticipation that they'll become rare and therefore valuable; ditto first-year issues. In reality, it's the early and middle years that become rare, especially in higher grades, because they were common rather than new and no one thought to put them away.