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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hobo, post: 615512, member: 11521&quot;]Let&#039;s assume your estimate of 300 billion coins total produced by the US Mint over its 217-year history (not 230 years) is accurate. With a current population of about 300 million in the US that is about 1,000 coins per citizen. That is far from an overflowing Brink&#039;s truck per person. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>For silver coinage practically all of it has been taken out of circulation. (Yes, it is possible to find a silver coin every now and then but most of those reenter cirulation by a child, thief or other unknowing person rather than having circulated continuously since being minted.) Many of the silver coins minted have been melted - a LOT of them by the Mint to recoin. How many Morgan and Seated Lib and Trade Dollars were melted under the Pittman Act? 230 million comes to mind. That&#039;s 230 million coins you can subtract from the total mintage right there that no longer exist. Add to that the untold numbers of other coins melted by the Mint in the 1850s (when the weight of silver coins - excepting dollars - was reduced) and in the 1870s when Large Cents, Half Cents, Flying Eagle Cents and Indian Head Cents were melted by the ton to be recoined into new Indian Head Cents. You need to deduct those millions and millions of coins from the total also. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>How many coins have been melted over the years by private citizens? Millions and millions. How many have been made into jewelry? (Think about belts and hats decorated with Buffalo Nickels, Mercury Dimes and Indian Head Cents that have had the obverse design cut out and made into bracelets, etc.) How many Cents have been smashed in machines that make elongated cents? How many Cents and other coins have been flattened by trains by kids over the years? And how many coins have simply been lost over the centuries? (I know the figure is a LOT based on my limited experience with a metal detector.) Whatever those add up to needs to be deducted from the total mintage figure.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Lastly, how many coins have been collected over the years? The answer is a LOT. There is another thread going now discussing saving bronze Memorial Cents - common, common, common coins but many people hoard them nonetheless. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I suggest that your figure of 1% of all coins ever minted by the US Mint having been lost, damaged or &quot;hoarded&quot; by collectors is WAY, WAY, WAY low.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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