Silver is near $20 an ounce/ Gold $1000 -- How high before you give in and sell your coins and goodies?

[Ohio Coinhunter]

Just curious for your feedback. How high would Silver and Gold have to go to get you to part with all your silver coins and gold finds? I know for me it is tough as silver coins are harder to come by with a lot of work and hunting time to accumulate them.

 

[sonny60]

No way I would sell my silver coins to be melted down. That is destroying history and we are losing it fast enough to progress (regress?).

 

[Ohio Coinhunter]

I worked in a coin shop years ago. I was told that melting silver coins is a myth. Coins are sold in $5 and $10 rolls and bags of $100, $500, $1000 etc. or any amount an investor wants. Coin bags/rolls are bought, held, traded and sold to investors and speculators. I can remember people buying and selling $1000 bags. Most bags are common date Washington quarters, Kennedy halves and Roosevelt dimes. Mercs and Barbers are sold at a higher premium. Same with Standing quarters, Franklins etc. The term used is JUNK SILVER as the grades are usually very poor indeed. Morgans and Peace dollars the same way. In some instances coins have been melted. Not too much. The still are Legal Tender. It is illegal to melt down any US coin for the metals. Including copper and Nickel. There is $10,000 fine + jail for melting pre 1982 cents for copper scrap recently enacted and on the books now.

I agree 100% about preserving the history. However if silver hits $75 an ounce as some believe it will (Gold will be @ $1500) then it will be tempting to sell the common junk and just hold on to the better ones.

Just my thoughts on it.

 

[Brian in Oregon]

From what i've read the new law only applies to pennies and nickels. I couldn't find anything about silver..........Brian

 

[Bart]

Just because it is against the law to do it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Look at the drug problem in this country....
Anyway, when the base metal value of a coin exceeds the collector value, they are at great risk of getting melted down.
Greedy people, who are after the profits, don't give a crap about laws or history, or collectors. Anybody with a high temperature crucible and a propane torch can melt down hundreds of U.S. coins a day in their garage, And after they are melted into a blob, there is no way to positively tell what they were. Gold & silver speculators and con men have been doing this for a long time. In fact this is the very reason that the weight of silver dimes, quarters, and halves have been twice reduced. So the coinage in our country would stay in circulation and not in the melting pot. Melting coins for their base metal value is nothing new.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Although some meltdown does happen, I'm sure it is not as much as you would think. Silver coins carries a marketable value slightly above the raw cost of silver bullion. You would lose money by melting down coins to sell as bullion.