Is it legal to melt silver coins?

Ciccio

It came out in a italian forum. I was telling them that with silver at these levels there is the chance that a lot of silver coins are going to be melted but one of the guys said it is illegal since they are legal tender.
I know that you cannot melt copper (not even take it outside the US) and I know that refineries melt coins (and have done that in the past).
Still, I am not sure if this is legal or just allowed.

jmski52

Ciccio, I believe that the prohibition on melting silver coins was discontinued. I don't remember which year, but I think it was around the first silver runup in 1979-1980, but it could have been a few years later.

piecesofme

smelt away with the silver...what a shame copper cant be done.

Ciccio

Google is my friend...and AboutAg too! Btw, where is he?

AboutAg

Is it Legal to Melt U.S. Silver Coins?

Yes.

Although many claim that it is not legal, it is. The practice was banned starting in 1967, but then allowed in 1969. See Kiplinger's Magazine, January 1974, last paragraph.

It is, however, illegal to melt U.S. pennies and nickels (silver 'war' nickels can be melted). See the 120-Day Ruling Press Release and Final Ruling Press Release, and recent/current law at the U.S. Mint website (which also confirms that melting silver coins was illegal from 1967-1969). The full law can be found at gpoaccess.gov.

The reasons for these are simple. There are no longer any silver coins in circulation, so melting them has no effect on day-to-day transactions. However, melting pennies and nickels removes them from circulation, so it would harm the U.S. economy for people to melt them.

AgBlox

Not to derail this thread but...I like what AboutAg is doing and I contemplated doing something similar myself. I do not like the fact that he/they have swiped damn near every photo I've posted without even asking if they could use them. One of the reason I no longer post photos on this site.

Ciccio

<< <i>Not to derail this thread but...I like what AboutAg is doing and I contemplated doing something similar myself. I do not like the fact that he/they have swiped damn near every photo I've posted without even asking if they could use them. One of the reason I no longer post photos on this site. >>



I thought he asked for permission.
I am sure some members gave him pics and information in order to build his website, which is very good btw.

If you post crappy pictures like me, nobody will take them!

botanist

<< <i>Not to derail this thread but...I like what AboutAg is doing and I contemplated doing something similar myself. I do not like the fact that he/they have swiped damn near every photo I've posted without even asking if they could use them. One of the reason I no longer post photos on this site. >>



Don't trust everything you read on that AboutAg site either. In just a moment's glance I noticed several apparent errors. For example, the site contains the following statement:
"A ton of silver always means a metric ton, which weighs 32,150.7466 troy ounces." I believe that is plain wrong, and that statistics in tons of all precious metals are in troy tons.

1jester

I thought a metric ton was also spelled "tonne" as opposed to the regular spelling "ton".

I also thought AbougAg specifically asked for information and pictures, and stated on his site that if he'd borrowed pics from people, he'd be happy to remove them upon request. Or perhaps my memory is failing me in my old age?

konsole

They are probably ok with people melting silver coins because they probably assumed that people would hoard the silver coins so they may have produced more clad coins to compensate and therefore have enough coins to meet demand. 20+ years ago I would assume that coins exchanged hands alot more frequently and therefore wore out faster, so the silver coins have a double whammy. The other base metal coins only have the single whammy of being removed due to heavy circulation and so didnt need to be replaced anywhere near as fast.

I don't have the numbers but based on what I have seen, there is an unusually high number of 1965 coins in circulation and my guess is because they knew that the silver would be hoarded when it was removed from coins and they needed to compensate for it.

So it probably has alot more do with them knowing the silver would be hoarded and there wasnt anything they could do but just alow the silver to be melted.

Ciccio

<< <i>I don't have the numbers but based on what I have seen, there is an unusually high number of 1965 coins in circulation and my guess is because they knew that the silver would be hoarded when it was removed from coins and they needed to compensate for it. >>



That's a very interesting fact and I noticed it too.
I often find 1965 quarters and dimes!

bstat1020

He did not ask me to take my pics either. I asked him to put bstat or something on the picture but it is still not there.

Doesnt really bother me, but would be nice to have my name on my pictures.

Bstat