If the price of silver explodes will numismatic value of coins become irrelevant?

In 1980 the price of silver hit $48.07 , adjusted for inflation that would be around $139 per ounce in today's dollars. If silver hits that high again the value of a silver dime would be $10.06 and 25.14 for a quarter, $50.58 for a half dollar and a staggering $107.51 for a silver dollar. If silver hits that high again and stays long enough for refinery's to melt the coins instead of being backlogged like what happened in 1980, i fear that most coins made in the lass 100 years that are not high grade or a key date will be melted

 

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A number of low-grade key dates will also slip past unnoticed into the melting pot.

 

there were many factors that lead to that high price in 1980, I don't see it happening like that again, for many reasons. but nothing says it won't slowly creep up further or drop either for that matter, pretty sure you or I will not see a dramatic overnight price change like that again.

 

I agree, you won't have the Hunt's making the same mistake I am sure.

To the OP, you would see most coins hitting the melt bags except for sure keys. I would empty my albums saving just the really rare coins, selling the rest.

I had a great time in the late eighties buying bulk silver bags and getting semi keys, barbers, etc that were jettisoned in 1980 and by then were worth just fractions in melt value. Most of my low grade barbers, semi key Washington quarters, etc were acquired at bullion value this way.

 

Numismatic value has already become irrelevant in many cases.

Do you think a common date Roosevelt is worth $1.30 numismatically? Or $7 for a common date Walker slicky?

I don't know what the exact figure would be, but the catablog value of 90% of post 1940 silver coins has absolutely nothing to do with numismatic value.

 

That would be great if you are a seller. I'm a buyer right now trying to complete a lot of sets and I need the low grade coins so I hope the price of silver drops soon.

 

I wish the price of silver would double, hell I'd be happy with that!! I'm not greedy!

 

Many common dates of all grades would be melted too and perhaps no longer be considered common. TC

 

If the price rises slowly the incentive to melt will be less. You can always melt a bag of coins but you can't turn a bar back into the coins from which it came. There is a large market for bags especially from the survival crowd.

 

The price of silver already exploded. The question to ask is what happens to numismatic value when the bottom drops out [of silver]?

 

When prices rise, all coins except for rare ones become bullion. When the bottom drops out, "better" coins such as walking liberty halves, AG barbers and SL coins, mercury dimes, etc become more expensive since there is more of a numismatic demand for them than washington quarters, franklin dimes, etc.

I don't think there is much to worry about true melting this time. I hear junk silver bags are hot and commanding premiums right now, according to NN. I think most of the coins will survive, they will be in junk silver bags and invested in that way.

To the OP, another side effect of PM's dropping is that dealers have less cash around to spend, so the market for collector coins could get tight, meaning less cash around to purchase them, leading to lower prices. Truly desirable coins aren't tied to bullion values, though, and should keep their values long term.

 

Bags are popular now but if silver go's that high people will be less willing to buy old warn coins since they have less silver and every bit counts at that point. I don't think silver will dip that low, $5 silver and $250 gold are like .99 cent gasoline.. we will never see those prices again.

 

Spoken like a prophet. We won`t see silver go under $15 ever again. As for the junk bags, We are seeing people start to purchase more of them, but eventually I think people will have them melted as silver continues to rise. In order for the junk silver to rise on a numismatic level would have to require a frenzy of "junk melting," which might eventually happen. But from a bullion investors perspective, We usually don`t care about holding junk silver in the hopes that its numismatic value rises.....It`s all about the spot value. From a personal standpoint, I don`t invest too much in sterling....junk silver can take up far too much space......make mine pure.

 

Whew! EVER again for $15 silver when just a while ago it was about $10? You must really be certain in your prediction. I wouldn't say EVER again on something that happened so recently, not of something that over 700,000,000 ounces were mined last year, for the 7th straight increase, and something that emotions are playing such a part of its price right now.

You very well could be right, but to say never....not me.

 

I don't think the Hunts made a "Mistake". After the Congressional Hearings, it could not be determined exactly how much the Hunts made.....or lost. I truly feel, they pulled the biggest coup and tax dodge ever. Remember, they were shipping thousands of metric tons of silver to Sweden that was purchased for $2 an ounce. They were able to write off the one oil company and declare a huge loss, exempting them from capital gains taxation on other enterprises.

Anyway you figure it, I believe it was the result of careful planning and market manipulation never before seen on that scale.

IMHO

 

OK, you could be right. I just remember the holdings they had to sell off because of their declared losses on the trades when the market collapsed. You probably read more about it than I, I just remember the day they couldn't make their margin call and the price collapsed. Exciting times!

 

My understanding was that much of the Hunts silver was paper leveraged, they were not taking delivery of the physical metal. They controlled it, they didn't possess it. And going it the Hunts were worth about 4 bilion dollars, after all the fall out they were worth three billion. No matter how you look at it their net worth declined by 25%. Write off an oil company, take a loss, exempt your self from some taxes OK, but you're still worth a billion dollars less than when you started.