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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Collector1966, post: 1089155, member: 17919&quot;]You are missing the point. The 1866 piece has historical value, silver value, and collector value. But if I tried to sell that same 1866 piece in most foreign countries, I would almost assuredly get less for it than if I sold it to an American collector. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>If I had that East German coin, I would sell it. It holds no significance or attraction for me. For that matter, I have several aluminum East German coins that I will gladly sell. Are you interested?</p><p>&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Bringing up the 1804 dollar is a silly argument, and I think you know it. The 1804 dollar transcends the bounds of simple precious metal content and enters the realm of supply and demand. Barring some huge cataclysmic event, there will always be well-heeled American collectors who will crawl over each other for the chance to bid on such a coin. As there will always be well-heeled collectors who will jump at the chance to bid on a 1913 Liberty nickel, or an 1838-0 Bust half, because they are rare American coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>In contrast, I have a 1739-K French ecu coin, of which only a handful are known. It is certainly dozens of times scarcer than a 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent or a 1916-D Mercury dime. And yet, if I offered that to most American dealers, they would probably make some sort of ridiculous offer, like &quot;melt minus 10%&quot;, because they have no demand for such a coin despite its scarcity. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>See my explanation above. The 1804 dollar is in no danger of becoming less valuable than 4 1965 quarters, and you know that.</p><p><br /></p><p>And, finally, to summarize my argument about silver versus base metal:</p><p><br /></p><p>1964 silver quarter, EF-- worth close to $5*</p><p>1965 clad quarter, EF-- worth 25 cents</p><p><br /></p><p>1961 France silver 5 francs-- worth $8 or more for the silver.</p><p>1971 France copper-nickel 5 francs-- worth next to nothing, especially in circulated grades (originally worth about $1 US)</p><p><br /></p><p>1966 France silver 10 francs-- worth more than $20 for the silver alone</p><p>Bimetallic France 10 francs-- worth next to nothing, especially in circulated grades (originally worth about $2 US).</p><p><br /></p><p>1959 Netherlands silver 1 gulden-- worth close to $4 for the silver alone.</p><p>1971 Netherlands nickel 1 gulden-- I saw a dealer offering $3/pound for demonetized nickel-composition Dutch 10cent- 2.5 gulden pieces. Since one 1 gulden piece weighs about 6 grams, you would need about 75 of them to make a pound.</p><p><br /></p><p>1916 silver Great Britain florin-- worth about $10 for the silver alone, more if in higher grades.</p><p>1966 copper-nickel Great Britain florin-- worth 20 cents in a dealer&#039;s junk box</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>*One more thing-- I have my doubts about your story about vending machines not accepting silver quarters. One of the reasons why the clad composition was adopted was that it most closely resembled the metallic properties of the silver coins, so the vending machine industry would not have to retool its machines to accept the new coins. Why on earth would the vending machine industry retool machines so that they would not accept silver coins? And back to my previous question, why on earth would you, or anyone else, even want to drop a silver quarter in a vending machine to partially cover the cost of a soda, when you know that you can probably get 18 times its face value from a dealer?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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