Thread: US silver coin rarity issues

Straight from pcgs
Things to draw from htis article.
75% of all US silver coins were melted in 1979-1980
75% of all circulated morgans and peace dollars were also melted.
Meaning morgans and peace dollars are very common in high grades.
Meaning most smaller coinage spare the kennedy half dollar are very rare in most years and dates.

Its very long but an interesting article. Shouldnt it chnage the way we treat silver coins? Is it fair to say that silver war nickels, silver dimes and silver quarters will acheiev unheard of numismatic value due to diminished numbers? Who knows if we can ever understand the actual outcome on rarity from the great silver meltdown of 1979-1980.


http://www.pcgs.com/articles/article496.chtml


AFTER THE MELTS: WHAT'S LEFT IN SILVER COINS?

Ed Reiter - January 19, 1999
Normally, the value of a coin is based on how many were made. In years to come, however, the value of silver United States coins may hinge to a greater extent on how many were lost. Millions have been melted for the recapture of their metal, and the impact on coin collecting -- while still not fully gauged -- is likely to be great as time goes by.
edited - copyright rules - post a link to the article the next time

Add ones circulated so much they are no dates. There may have been rare ones in the melt just not recognized. Add ones purposely mangled. (I did this in my younger days putting them on railroad tracks.) Add ones made in to rings or other jewelry. Also when they say 75% I wonder what kind of percentages were dimes, quarters, halves, dollars. Also this is all estimates not hard numbers. So a grain of salt added.

Originally Posted by Silver Goose

Any one guessing if we are melting silver today and what rate ??? 1% ?

Just looking for an opnion or better yet educated guess..

We are absolutely melting silver today. Each and every day thousands upon thousands of silver coins go to the smelters. But the vast majority of them have no numismatic value - they are melted because they are only worth melt.

In later years, whatever effect this has on the remaining population of any given coin will be determined by the market. But it usually takes years for this to even be determined. The scarcity of certain date/mint combinations will become evident when demand exceeds supply and prices will rise - or they won't.

That's how the market works, and always has worked. It will never change.

About 6 days a week here in Huntsville silver & gold and jewelry come in to my buddy's shop as coin to sell at melt $$$$.as the price go up the faster the folks bring thing in.I go down to his shop 3 or 4 times a week to see what going to Silvertown but sometimes he will call if it a coin I have list on the HSVC,coin list you want or need.

this one that came in this week.I just wish I found before it went in to circulation

Originally Posted by cerdsalicious

Straight from pcgs
Things to draw from htis article.
75% of all US silver coins were melted in 1979-1980
75% of all circulated morgans and peace dollars were also melted.
Meaning morgans and peace dollars are very common in high grades.
Meaning most smaller coinage spare the kennedy half dollar are very rare in most years and dates.

Its very long but an interesting article. Shouldnt it chnage the way we treat silver coins? Is it fair to say that silver war nickels, silver dimes and silver quarters will acheiev unheard of numismatic value due to diminished numbers? Who knows if we can ever understand the actual outcome on rarity from the great silver meltdown of 1979-1980.



AFTER THE MELTS: WHAT'S LEFT IN SILVER COINS?

Ed Reiter - January 19, 1999
Normally, the value of a coin is based on how many were made. In years to come, however, the value of silver United States coins may hinge to a greater extent on how many were lost. Millions have been melted for the recapture of their metal, and the impact on coin collecting -- while still not fully gauged -- is likely to be great as time goes by.
edited - copyright rules - post a link to the article the next time

No, or,,, If 75% of silver US coins were melted before 1980 there must have so much laying around that people were propping up doors and using it as boat anchors by the bag!
To believe that and all that has been since then (30 years) and is being melted right now, well golly jee folks there wouldn't a scap of silver left in the world.

The most common item in every, and I mean every coin shop, dealers table, old peoples dresser drawer and bank box is US coin silver. It has never been rare, is not now, and will not be for at least another 100 years.
Look folks I'm just a little old fellow from East Tenn. and may not know much but what I do know is what is what I see. I see silver everywhere, all the time, every one has it and nobody has to search to find it - those are facts, (at least down here).
The only aspect of any U.S. silver that may have suffered (and thus be less left in the market today) during meltdown was common date BU rolls of dimes, quarters and halves from 1950 forward. Yes, these were melted also as most were not (and still not) worth much over melt value. Truly original bank wrapped rolls of U.S BU coin silver may be a fraction of original mintages left. Even that does not or will not make it rare or very valuble in and of itself.

The 75% of all US coin silver was melted before 1980 figure only could be correct if at one time bags of silver were as common as dirt and worth little more!!! I would go with 45% to 60% but never 75% - not here anyway.

Jello,
Still a nice looking coin and a good save from the smelter.
Wish there was an accurate way to do a census of what
is remaining these days.
especially after the 79-80 melt. I remember seeing tons come through just one local dealer here in Michigan and I was in his shop on average of two days a week going through his cases to see what would fit in my collection.
One day that stands out in mind is when one guy brought in 10 boxes roughly
(regular size moving box's) 2 foot high 3 foot long and 1.5 foot wide full of Blue Pack and Brown Box Eisenhower Dollars. They all went to the melter.
Made me wonder how many times across the country that scene was being repeated when Silver was between $40.00 and $50.00 bucks an ounce
It almost seemed to be a frenzy of activity then.

Stewart

Now from my perspective and every other dealers, and salvage and smelters point of view. If I could get over spot, for the coins intact, why should I melt them?

It depends on how fast you need to turn them to recover your money. Today the pace is much slower than it was back in late 79/early80. Today you can probably take a little time and sell them as investment bags IF you are known for doing that and have a steady clientele. During the big silver rush of 79/80 there were a LOT more sellers than buyers of "investment bags" and even a medium sized operation might be taking in 40 to 50 bags a day at 20 to 30 thousand dollars a bag. That is $800K a day just for the silver coin. That is $4.8 million a week. These guys didn't have that kind of money they could leave tied up while they wait for investment bag buyers to come in, they needed to turn that money NOW because they needed it to cover the checks they would write for more silver the next day. So every night they would ship what they bought that day off to the smelter who would wire the payment to their bank the next morning so they could do it again.

By the time they do all that I am psoitive a majority of smelters, were unable to smelt the coins at peak prices, during 1979,1980.

That is true they couldn't. And as the smelters got backlogged the discount they paid back of spot got larger and larger and the discount back of spot that dealers paid for the silver got larger as well.

In addition my dad who was alive and young at the time claims that it was easiier to get bags of 90% silver coins back then today.

Sure it was, becase any shop you went into before closing had bags of the stuff on hand that hadn't been shipped out yet. If you wanted one they just quoted you a price a little above what the smelter would pay them and you could walk out with your bag of 90%. Come in first thing in the morning they wouldn't have it. But they would less than an hour later. Silver coin isn't coming in anywhere near as fast today as it did back then, so it is harder to buy a bag of it from your local dealer.