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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Conder101, post: 26131203, member: 66&quot;]The law required them to by newly mined US silver, but that was for the silver eagles.&nbsp; I don&#039;t believe there is such a restriction for other coinage.</p><p><br /></p><p>The mint does not produce their own silver planchets.&nbsp; They get the planchets ready to strike from a private manufacturer though I do believe the mint supplied the silver to the planchet firms.&nbsp; In general if you purchase silver bars it is provided in .999 fine form.&nbsp; There are only a few of these planchet supplying firms and they produce planchets for mints around the world. </p><p><br /></p><p>Most if not all of these other mints are producing .999 fine coins so all the planchet firm has to do is roll out the bars, blank and upset them.&nbsp; Scrap can just be melted and rolled again.</p><p><br /></p><p>Pre 2019 to make 900 fine for the US mint meant that the 999 fine bars had to be melted and copper added.&nbsp; After casting the ingots they had to be assayed to be sure they were within tolerance (.899 to .901 fine)&nbsp; If they aren&#039;t they have to remelt, mix, pour and then assay again etc. until the assay came out right.&nbsp; Then rolled and blanked.&nbsp; Scrap had to be kept segregated and melted and assayed yet again before rolling and blanking.&nbsp; All this extra work and the copper alloy required meant that the cost of the .900 fine planchets was higher than the .999 fine planchets even though the .999 fine planchets contained more silver.</p><p><br /></p><p>The law change to achieve the change in fineness was minor.&nbsp; The original law said the silver coins had to be .900 fine, after the alteration it said they had to be at least .900 fine.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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