Is the government destroying Morgan Silver Dollars?

That would make the mintage numbers for those years virtually worthless.

Ruben

 

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The Fed did have machines for separating the silver from the clad back in the late 60's early 70's, but it was retired back in the early 70's when the amount of silver in circulation fell low enough that it no longer justified its use. There is even less silver in circulation today. And they do NOT have a machine that separaters the SBA dollars from the Sac dollars.

 

270 million silver dollars subtracted from the total amount of Morgan’s I did a rough count give or take a few million came up with 650 million Morgan’s



650
- 270
________
380 left before the 80s melt wow

PS
I wonder if the 270 million had any Trade or early dollars in the count?

 

Probably, although as I understand it, most of the coins melted had never left government storage. They were minted, bagged, and melted. They never saw the inside of anyone's pocket.

 

Probably since we know there were bags of seated dollars still in the vaults in the early sixties so there were probably even more bags of them there in 1918. I doubt if there were any Trade dollars there though. Trade dollars were not considered coins, they were just so much bullion and most of them had probably been melted down as they came in. (examination of old Mint reports would tell us.) They would not have been stored with or counted as dollars.

I can't verify it, but supposedly even some Draped Bust dollars came out of the Treasury hoard during the great silver certificate exchange period of the early 60's.

 

It can literally make you ill to go to a coin show and watch the bullion buyers there.. buying bags and bags of silver dollars and knowing they are on their way to be melted down ....
then again there are some nice modern commems but it's still sad to know 'there goes another slice of history ...'

 

baloney to the story.
Banks don't melt coins, and the Fed doesn't either.
They do recycle metals, but thru the mint or elsewhere.

 

If your dad is a liar, he's not a very good one. Just misinformed.

 

I was under the impression that most bullion buyers keep "junk silver" in coin form, because there is a ready market for it, because there is a cost to refine it, and because some people prefer it. I don't think there's much melting going on.

 

There's still the misconception, I see, that the Fed. Res. sorts coins for silver and such, which isn't quite true. Someone already said, but I'll repeat, that coins leaving the Fed are sorted, but those coming in are not, at least in the sense of picking out the silver. Everything coming into the Federal Reserve branches never see the light of day again, because they have been sent there because of age or ware. Silver, copper, clad, paper...it's all recycled once it comes in. Anyone who owns a nice new silver eagle...chances are it started life as a nice new Morgan a hundred years earlier.

But, the good news is, coinage doesn't get sent in too often. I read once where the lifespan of a typical coin was supposed to be three years, but the average stays in circulation more than 20! That tells me it's not just us who hoard money...the banks do as well, which is good news for silver hunters.
GUy~

 

coleguy,

You are confusing the federal reserve bank with the US Mint.

The federal reserve sends back out to circulation everything it receives as long as it's machine countable. AS the fed only accepts machine coutable coins, that covers every coin they receive. The even recirculate $1000 bags of eisenhower dollars. Get to know the person at your bank responsible for ordering coins and if they let you bug them every month, you will find a bag.

The mint requires that all noncurrent coins be marked as such and can be sent back through the fed. All mutilated coins must be sent directly to the Mint in Philadelphia and they only pay melt value for mutilated coins.

It's all in the cash handling procedures from the Federal Reserve Banks.

 

I am not an expert on specific Fed sorting practices, but I am going to disagree with those who say the Fed doesn't "sort" coins. It stands to reason that they absolutley do run them through some sort of counter that also rejects coins that are out of tolerance. That would be based on weight, size, and magnetic signature. How else would they make sure foreign coins and counterfeits did not get passed along?

As for silver, if you try to use a silver coin in most (all ?) modern vending machines, it will be rejected because it does not match the settings for modern dimes or quarters. I imagine that fed uses the same sort of process.

As for sorting SBAs from Sac $, why would they? The SBA is considered a valid coin that the Fed WANTS to reissue. So, there is no desire on their part to separate them out. Also, the magntic signature of the SBA is the same or very similar to Sac/Prez dollars, so sorting would be difficult or impossible.

 

You dad was pretty close to the truth. The banks aren't collecting and melting Morgans as a matter of policy, but it seems like there is are a lot fewer silver coins around than there was, say, a decade ago. I'm not sure how much went into the melter and how much into the sock drawer. -- This is just a casual observation.

 

Yes, your Dad is right! There is a conspiracy to melt all of the Morgans. They had high populations and are being melted down. I did not think that the Morgan Dollar bust was as good looking as the Peace Dollar. Strictly from an artistic point of view.

 

hmm... it couldn't be all of those coin collectors? now, could it?
Nah, it has to be a government conspiracy.

 

I receive so many foreign coins while searching rolls that while the Fed claims on their website to remove foreign coins, I doubt they make any sort of serious effort. I've even got a lithium battery in a roll of nickels.

The Mint has stated on their website in the past that they planned to start removing SBA's from circulation, but I doubt it will be a significant effort. I can't even find the statement on their website anymore. The Fed's cash handling procedure still allows for SBA's and Sac's to be commingled.

 

this sounds similar to the canadian gather and melt of some of their coins to recuop the metal value

 

In most major urban areas, banks don't deal with coins.

They collect them and deposit them with the feds. They order fresh rolled coins from the feds. While there is no charge to deposit or withdraw coins from the fed, there is a fee if one deposits and withdraws like denominations within a week. The banks do contract with armored car services to handle the pickup/dropoff activities. Smaller banks may just contract directly with the armored car service and let them figure out where to pickup and dropoff the deposits/withdrawals.

It's all on the Fed's Cash Handling procedures which can be found on their website.

Again the only coins the fed reserve sends back to the US Mint are the ones labelled uncurrent and that decision is handled by the individual banks sending the uncurrent coins to the fed reserve. Most banks find that to be a hassle and if the coin is machine countable, just put then in with the normal coins.