I wonder what percentage of Post-1959 silver medals have been melted?

291fifth

I have to believe the percentage is very high but I still see some dealers trying to get more than melt for them at shows.

Medals of the post-1959 era, with a very few exceptions, have just never caught on. I wonder if they ever will?

The US Bi-Centennial medal series by itself is quite large but doesn't seem to have any following at all.

Melt-em, Danno?

cladking

<< <i>I have to believe the percentage is very high but I still see some dealers trying to get more than melt for them at shows.

Medals of the post-1959 era, with a very few exceptions, have just never caught on. I wonder if they ever will?

The US Bi-Centennial medal series by itself is quite large but doesn't seem to have any following at all.

Melt-em, Danno? >>




Tough call.

I'd guess extremely high percentages of some stuff has been destroyed and it's fairly low
on others. Things like silver mardi gras should be fairly safe because even though the de-
mand is tiny they tend to be highly valued by the owner so they don't get sold for scrap.
Some of the Franklin Mint material even though is very high quality will tend to get scrapped
because it's percieved as common and has light demand.

The ironic thing is that many of these later medals have very low mintages (<100) yet get
so little attention that they just get scrapped out.

There are countless bicentennial issues but relatively few are silver. None get much atten-
tion.

I think the attrition to date isn't really all that high on even the highest. Take the FM sil-
ver medals that commemmorate each year of the US. These were quite common and are
an exceedingly interesting series since there are numerous important themes represented
and they are exquisitely executed (for the main part). These are incredibly common rela-
tive demand and most will just get tossed in the scrap bucket. Some will get snatched
out by theme collectors and the bulk will destroyed. In 1979 they were too new to get
sold as scrap frequently and today they will be. While as many as 50% might be melted,
lost, or destroyed this number is increasing rapidly at this point in time. In only a few more
years this is exactly the type of material that might be decimated if this keeps up. US coin
and scrap will be the number one supplies for the refiners until the bulk of it is gone and
that just won't take long because they have the capacity to do it.

coindeuce

In the case of medals with oddball weights(think Franklin Mint) or composition, it is perfectly understandable that a high percentage would have been melted in the current market. The ARB medals are somewhat more advantageous to leave in medal form, with having the credence of being a U.S. Mint product and a uniform weight of 1 oz. troy of sterling silver.

SCDHunter

Here is one that won't be melted anytime soon!