I have been wondering if this could actually happen and it seems it may. Sometimes a proof set "tanks" as it were and this happened with the 2003 Silver set. Maybe my math is wrong but with current silver levels dealers may pay 11-12 times face for junk silver. In the case of the silver proof set at 11x face that's $14.85 just for the silver coins. Then you have an extra cent, nickel and dollar so let's just round it up to $16.00 at melt plus face. Now dealer bid on same set is now $21. Not much of a gap but if silver keeps going up I may as well dump Proof coins as junk silver. Retail on the Sacagawea from the set is $20 so I can dump them at say $8.00 and get over bid for the set plus still have the nickel and cent. Yeah, I know it's silly but sometimes my mind works that way. It is kind of intersting though. Thoughts?
Interesting indeed! It's not just proof sets- some 90% silver commemoratives are basically only worth their melt value, especially the 1982 Washington half and 1983 Olympic dollars.
It already did happen back in the early 80s. Hundreds of thousands (millions?) of silver (pre '65) proof sets were sold for melt value when silver was $50 an ounce.
Interesting thought. Of course, the catch is whether you can get a set in hand for $21. A quick check of e-bay shows $30 to your door and mainly higher than that. Ditto for a couple of online stores I usually frequent. Of course, it's still a valid point - if you can break it out and get $24 without working up a sweat, even $30 is a pretty risk-free price.
buy the junk silver. buy silver halves, you can get commons in cull or even g for spot plus 10% a lot of the time
Keep pushing the message, Clem ! Get everyone to start melting them, while I buy them up. Lower the supply and drive up the prices. Seriously though, I'm sure the prices will rise a little soon to reflect the silver increase.
