Ok the title was clickbait because you might have wondered what crazy was posting stamps on a coin forum. These are too nice to post as bullion as they were clearly made for collectors and they are not coins or medallions so I guess this is where I should post. I've asked this question elsewhere and I always get great opinions on this forum. A local dealer showed me these sterling .925 silver stamps that had just come in as bullion. He had paid under spot rate and intended to melt them saying he didn’t think his customers would be interested in them. I said I was one customer that was interested and bought them a little over silver spot rate. I thought they were exquisite. Here they are. As usual better in hand than my photography. I have absolutely no interest in collecting stamps as I consider them vulnerable certainly to someone like me and easy to damage stain or lose. Famously I lost an autograph of the Duke of Wellington of Waterloo fame. It’s not actually lost, it will be in the pages of a book I read 12 years ago but the problem is I don’t know which one and its not in any of the obvious ones. Hopefully it will turn up or my descendants may find it. Little bits of paper and me don’t mix well. Back to these “stamps” they are proof state and hallmarked, there are a couple of fingerprints I will try and remove with acetone. What went through my mind when I was shown them was the Nelson and William Hunt debacle when they manipulated the silver market in 1979 and it rose from $6 to $50 before collapsing losing 50% in one day called “Silver Thursday”. Around this time, I started working in the nonferrous foundry business, and a metal smelter I knew was melting beautiful 17th and 18th Century silver artefacts such as Candelabra, Salvers, Goblets, Cutlery sets etc with people cashing in on achieving higher prices for scrap than they could sell as “unfashionable antiques”. Even crucifixes went into the melt, and nothing was sacred. I saw some of this and was disgusted and mortified but did not have the disposable income to buy anything. By coincidence, last night I viewed a YouTube video with some clown breaking open a pre-1965 tube of silver dimes and explaining that the face value was only $5 but he could melt them, and they would be worth $150.00. I could tell by the way he was handling them and talking about them that there was absolutely no intent to consider any numismatic value. Some of the coins were early and each could have been a history lesson to someone. Maybe they don’t have great numismatic value now, but I think it’s a shame to destroy them and maybe there should be a law to stop it? What went through my mind when the dealer told me he was scrapping them was the Nelson and William Hunt debacle when they manipulated the silver market in 1979 and it rose from $6 to $50 before collapsing losing 50% in one day called “silver Thursday”. Around this time I started working in the nonferrous foundry business, and I metal smelter I knew was melting beautiful 17th and 18th Century silver artefacts such as Candelabra, Salvers, Goblets, Cutlery sets etc with people cashing in on achieving higher prices for scrap than they could sell as “unfashionable antiques”. Even crucifixes went into the melt, and nothing was sacred. I saw some of this and was disgusted and mortified but did not have the disposable income to buy anything. By coincidence, last night I viewed a YouTube video with some clown breaking open a pre-1965 tube of silver dimes and explaining that the face value was only $5 but he could melt them, and they would be worth $150.00. I could tell by the way he was handling them and talking about them that there was absolutely no intent to consider any numismatic value. Some of the coins were early and each could have been a history lesson to someone. Maybe they don’t have great numismatic value now, but I think it’s a shame to destroy them and maybe there should be a law to stop it? I did a little research and learnt that it is permissible to melt pre-1965 silver in the USA but illegal to melt nickels and dimes because the nickel and copper content sometimes is worth more than the coin and this could have an adverse effect on the Treasury. In the UK it is illegal to melt any coin of the realm of any date or time. Offenders face big fines and can be jailed for up to two years. Individuals can ask HM Treasury for a license in theory, but they are only granted to the Royal Mint for recycling purposes. The crux of the matter is that the coins I saw being broken from the rolls could still be used as bullion so there is no need to melt them, and to allow it, is destroying history. I can appreciate that bars are easier to stack than coins but once the coins are gone, they are gone. This could drift into politics, and I don't want to go there in respect of freedoms but is it a good thing to melt coins that are legible as we are losing some history? In my opinion, it is not a good idea, nor was it a good idea to destroy beautiful works of art in 1980 to make a fast buck. If we consider Marc Antony Fleet denarii these were still circulating 100 years after being minted because of their silver content and it doesn’t appear that there was wholesale recycling of them from the condition and number extant. What do you think?
I believe that high precious metal prices are more harmful to numismatics than helpful. Thanks for sharing!
