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with more and more silver coins going for melt

what does that do to the value of what ever is left? In terms of collectibility that is.
"If I had a nickel for every nickel I ever had, I'd have all my nickels back".

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    fcfc Posts: 12,805 ✭✭✭
    not much. any coin worth saving will be picked out by the dealers and set aside.

    for example, good looking barber dimes, all dates.
    any errors like clips.
    obvious mint state coins will be set aside and priced accordingly.
    any peace or morgans that are good looking will be priced higher
    by the dealer and resold.

    etc...

    the true junk gets melted and there is metric tons of it.
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    dbcoindbcoin Posts: 2,200 ✭✭
    so if you bring a bag of $1000 face coins, a dealer is going to sort thru that to look at coins? I doubt it. They are going to resell it as fast as they can to the refiner and it's going to get melted.
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    jmski52jmski52 Posts: 24,013 ✭✭✭✭✭
    so if you bring a bag of $1000 face coins, a dealer is going to sort thru that to look at coins? I doubt it. They are going to resell it as fast as they can to the refiner and it's going to get melted.

    Most dealers won't have the time or inclination to look at any of the coins they are moving in bulk.
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    I knew it would happen.
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    291fifth291fifth Posts: 25,222 ✭✭✭✭✭
    During the big melt of 1979-80, the real swill was sent to the melting pot. There used to be a lot more very low grade Barber coins around than there are today. I don't see today being much different. It will be the low grade junk that tends to actually be melted.
    All glory is fleeting.
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    cladkingcladking Posts: 30,328 ✭✭✭✭✭
    In the short term it has very little effect on availability or price of
    much of anything. Only coins that are worth less than melt are at
    high risk of suffering the fate. This means it will largely be culls and
    high mintage and low demand coins.

    But if you look at this in the long term then another picture entirely
    emerges. Even 1964-D quarters with a mintage of 700 million might
    suffer another severe drop in numbers. These are ubiquitous so they
    aren't going to disappear overnight but time has a way of making ev-
    everything gone. Very few '64-D quarters are worth over melt today.
    They pretty much have to be solid gem to be worth saving and this
    means large percentages can be destroyed. Most of these aren't ev-
    en checked for the scarce type "b" reverse or the scarcer clad reverse
    so more of these will be destroyed.

    '40-D quarters are often heavily worn and there isn't enough demand
    to protect them. These already suffered in the treasury melt of '68/'69
    and will be affected again. The mintage is too low to keep melting these
    in large numbers. Coins like the '82 Washington half will lead the charge
    into the cauldrons and populations could be decimated if this goes on
    for any lenght of time. Fewer than about 1% of these are high enough
    grade to be protected from destruction.

    A lot of what's being melted won't be missed in the foreseeable future.
    How many tens of millions XF 1962-D dimes do collectors need? But
    there will be some things affected in the short term and in the long
    term nothing is safe.
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
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    lope208lope208 Posts: 1,960 ✭✭
    It all depends on how high silver climbs. If silver reaches $50/oz again, then it becomes profitable to melt even some mid-grade coins. We'll have to wait and see, but hopefully we don't lose too much more of the old stuff.
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    fcfc Posts: 12,805 ✭✭✭
    if a bag of 1000 face walks in they will probably end up reselling it
    to someone besides a smelter.

    and yes, they will take a peek inside. if you saw mint state luster
    on a lot of the coins are you telling me a dealer will not set it aside
    for a closer look later?

    i think they would.

    it is the true junk that gets melted.

    for example a bag of 1000 morgans and peace walks in. they can
    easily sell those low MS coins for 13-15 each all day. why send them
    to a smelter when they can sell them at local shows or in the store?

    i am talking normal business, not a line of 20 people going out the store. that is a different creature and rarely happens. matter of fact
    the most people i have seen inside a coin store at once numbers around 5.
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    cladkingcladking Posts: 30,328 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>

    for example a bag of 1000 morgans and peace walks in. they can
    easily sell those low MS coins for 13-15 each all day. why send them
    to a smelter when they can sell them at local shows or in the store?
    >>




    Melt on a Morgan is $12.66

    It's hardly unusual for things that don't sell rapidly or easily to go into melt buckets even with a little premium.
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
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    fcfc Posts: 12,805 ✭✭✭
    It's hardly unusual for things that don't sell rapidly or easily to go into melt buckets even with a little premium.

    surely you must be talking about lower grade examples. i am discussing
    nice looking mint state ones. would not a dealer pull out anything
    that was obviously 63 and higher?

    it only takes a moment to grab the good looking ones and replace
    with garbage examples.
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    I wonder just how much low grade coins are left. During the early eighties tons of them went for melt. Today there are many collectors and others that just were not around back then and todays prices seem high in comparison to what they knew only a few years ago. Would they not be tempted to throw silver coins, battered or not, into the pot?
    "If I had a nickel for every nickel I ever had, I'd have all my nickels back".
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    vplitevplite Posts: 1,385 ✭✭✭
    Judging from the 90% bags I've seen at flea markets and coin shows there is still plenty of junk that has yet to be melted.
    The Golden Rule: Those with the gold make the rules.

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