Millions of dollars in World War II silver recovered from deep ocean

Some exciting news from CNN this morning...thought I would share.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/15/europe/world-war-ii-shipwreck-silver-recovered/index.html

 

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I can't believe the British government kept this under wraps until now...according to the article the British government got their hoard back in 2013 and melted all of the silver...100 tons of it...I would of thought that the coins would be worth a lot more than the price of silver considering the historical precedence.

 

Interesting Story! I love finds like these. Here is an example of a 1 Rupee that was found

 

Sad that they melted it. Easier and quicker, I guess.

100 tons. Wow.

Edit: repost
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/silver-shipwreck-recovery.262401/#post-2130413

 

Typical government act of doofus bureaucrats who know nothing about coins, (like those advocating melting "illegal" 1933 Double Eagles), think just melt them down, rather than sell them to those in the collector/investor realm for much more.

 

Perhaps there was a silver shortage after all.

 

This story stinks, or it doesn't. http://deepoceansearch.com/City_Of_Cairo.htm

The suggestion that government bureaucrats 'know nothing' of numismatic value in salvage is ridiculous. I also wouldn't presume that ALL the coins were simply melted on orders of the British Government, without any examination.

There may be more here than meets the eye, but I doubt it. Suppose any corroded alloy coin would be smelted as scrap. It wasn't worth the time to 'coin roll hunt' any rarities? That's likely correct.

I imagine the market for cleaned, common date Silver Rupees is not worth the effort. Bullion, it was.



By contrast, I can only imagine what would happen to whatever Indian coin market exists if 50 metric tonnes of numismatic grade Silver coin got dumped on eBay. Collectors, be grateful it smelted!

 

The numbers of coins minted never changes. Likewise the value of rare or common date coins never takes into account the number melted. All one needs to verify this is to consider the millions of silver coins of the United States that have been melted over the years. The supply and demand factor plus grade has always dictated coin value and will until coin collecting ceases to be a hobby ... which is never going to happen.

 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue.It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of a rhetorical strategy (e.g. in politics), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation.


Corroded & cleaned common-date silver coins of the late 19th early 20th C. are properly called junk silver/ bullion. Cleaned Silver Rupees currently sell USD$9.-12. on eBay. Net fees, a seller isn't realizing a significant numismatic premium over Spot, now. Demand is LOW. Adding MILLIONS of such low-end coins to market will not improve their prices. Get real, please.

50-100 metric tonnes of numismatic grade Silver Rupees (~8 MILLION coins) dumped on eBay and every other possible coin auction site would greatly diminish those respective coin values, depressing prices for decades perhaps. It's utterly delusional to "think" otherwise.

 

Erroneous thinking defended by an logical mind that tries to base a conclusion on common commodities dumped on the market is summed up best by a movie character quote by one Forrest Gump "Stupid is as stupid does". As I stated "supply and demand and grade" determine price in the collecting world, but buyers of silver are not always big byers, nor are they always collectors. In other words, believe what you will but silver coins on any market are scooped up by far more people than mere collectors of obsolete Indian Rupees. The value of silver has not dropped due to 50-100 metric tonnes of silver bars added to the market and neither would it have caused the value of silver Rupees to plunge when hitting the market, because the overall value of silver didn't change.

 

I never like to hear the word "melting". They need to quit doing that.

 

Ed23-
Are you joking?! Wow, that kind of thinking borders on pathological.

You really believe the dumping of ~8,000,000 numismatic-grade Indian Silver Rupees wouldn't chop that particular coin market, overnight? Holey smokes! Do any legit dealers agree with that notion?

Grading that obviously corroded junk would have been a pricey fool's errand. The British govt was well within reason to smelt and sell its bullion. Maybe they did so to avoid the screeching of coin-nutters, and justified even more so in that.

Should we be surprised there's no conspiracy theory, yet? lol

 

Most times shipwrecked silver is smelted, reformed into rounds/bars and then sold at a premium to mark the ship that went down in a historical significance especially in this case as it was during WWII. I would have bought a bar!

 

Maybe. Not all collectible bullion wins the prize. SS City of Cairo wasn't a famous wreck, was it? I'd guess the accountants just figured it was too much hassle and the margins not worth it. English VAT and all.

I know nothing of cleaning coins . Do you think these common dates would be valuable, cleaned, to a serious numismatist? (How much mass does a cleaned coin lose, from that state?)

 

Ah, the truth surfaces ... everyone who disagrees with your way of thinking is some kind of whacko conspiracy theorist. One might wonder had you had been asked, might have said melt all the large hoards of silver and gold coins discovered in the 20th century from the Atocha, SS Republic, SS Central America, the Bother Jonathon to the Saddle Ridge Hoard all because, heaven forbid, they were encrusted with the elements and might have to be restored by a conservator. BTW these were buried a lot longer than the SS City of Cairo by a century or more.

The trouble with your way of thinking is you think so narrowly that you only consider selling such finds to coin collectors, legit dealers and serious numismatists. You overlook the fact that most of those buying small value silver coins today do not identify their nitch in any of those VERY SMALL LIMITED groups. But then your narrow minded approach to disposing of discoveries such as this one is why you will never be consulted on what to do in such matters.

BTW the "holey", as you used it in "Holey smokes", means something that contains lots of holes, as your theory on this matter certainly supplies.

 

Silver in the ocean... well the coins probably all looked pretty rank. It's not a good metal for exposure to elements. If they were gold, then a completely different story.

Very cool though. I hope I find a lost hoard of money someday.

 

We all dream of such finds, and yes, silver doesn't do well in the ocean. But as evident by the Brother Jonathon shipwreck they do sell well once conserved even if they are pitted and scarred. I would rather get $600 for a half dollar or $900 for a silver dollar from that shipwreck than the melt value of the approx. 1/2 oz to 3/4 oz of silver. A no brainer.

 

$600 and $900?? Are you serious?

 

Yes, I did a cursory search on eBay for Brother Jonathon shipwreck coins certified by NGC and many auctions for halves and dollars were at those bid levels. Seems high but all it takes is a few buyers with a desire to own one and willing to bid them up ... and Brother Jonathon coins were on the ocean bottom nearly twice the time these Rupees were there.

 

Well you probably should have done more than a cursory search cause my search revealed that the Brother Jonathon shipwreck was about 1000 gold coins. Not 100 tons of silver coins. 1000 gold coins might not even be 50 lbs. You are comparing that to 100 tons of supply being dumped on the market. And again GOLD... not silver!!