Have you ever heard the term "River Of Silver"?; and a follow up question.
SanctionII
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A dealer I know used this term recently to describe 90% silver and 40% silver coins trading hands as a commodity with the transaction price being a little above or a little below "melt", even though the traded silver most of the time never actually gets melted. He said that the coins just flow from one place to another like a "river". Thus the term "River Of Silver".
Interesting. wot.
The follow up question derives from the "River Of Silver" concept. I understand that during the 79-80 run up of silver to $50.00 per ounce, large amounts of silver coins actually were melted.
Starting in 1981 and contiuing through today, can anyone tell me how much of the junk silver coins actually make it to the smelter? In other words how much of the "River Of Silver" gets taken out of the river and actually melted?
Interesting. wot.
The follow up question derives from the "River Of Silver" concept. I understand that during the 79-80 run up of silver to $50.00 per ounce, large amounts of silver coins actually were melted.
Starting in 1981 and contiuing through today, can anyone tell me how much of the junk silver coins actually make it to the smelter? In other words how much of the "River Of Silver" gets taken out of the river and actually melted?
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Comments
It started in ernest in about Oct., '79.
I'd figure about 20/ 25% of the mintage of 1964 quarters were melted. It's stated
this way because 1964 quarters were vastly overrepresented in the coins that were
being destroyed. These were the coins that had been in circulation in '66-'68 that
the public removed. These were overrepresented in all the late date coins but es-
opecially in 1964 quarters. There were other coins overrepresented as well such as
BU rolls of '55 and later coins, proof and mint sets and the like. These others were
there in large numbers because they were readily accessible to coin collectors who
were well aware of the value of silver.
Probably more than half of all the coin melted since '79 happened before 1981.
Any estimates on the melt rate for war nickels?
I remember war nickels bringing a premium earlier than the other silver coins. Some dealers were paying $2.60 a roll in 1964, and postage was cheap enough to make it worthwhile to send them in.
I assume most of them have been melted, as war nickels are only about 35% silver and not competitive space-wise with 90% silver rolls and bags. They always seem to have a bigger discount to melt than the 40% and 90% coins.
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