Pawn Stars destroy stolen coin collection.

[Melchior]

@Telemark

They’re not as liquid, there’s a cost to storing/grading/selling them, and the additional collectors value is minor compared to the melt value.

They are every bit as liquid, if not more so!

[Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew]

@Melchior

They are every bit as liquid, if not more so!

Nah, they’re definitely more liquid when they’re melted.

[Dewey_Finn]

@Melchior

Who says they have to be graded? Almost all gold coins are worth more than melt value, unless badly worn.

I doubt this is true for recently produced gold coins (Maple Leafs, Krugerrands, Pandas, etc) which are probably the majority of the gold coins in existence. Very few gold coins are old and rare enough to be valuable as collectors.

[samclem]

@Melchior

I don’t understand why they were melted. Almost all gold coins have some value greater than the bullion value, and even the bullion coins have the same value without melting. Why melt them?

@Melchior

The coins are worth more though, almost certainly, as coins.

@carnivorousplant

I believe it makes them untraceable.

@Telemark

They’re not as liquid, there’s a cost to storing/grading/selling them, and the additional collectors value is minor compared to the melt value.

@Melchior

Who says they have to be graded? Almost all gold coins are worth more than melt value, unless badly worn.

@Melchior

They are every bit as liquid, if not more so!

@Dewey_Finn

I doubt this is true for recently produced gold coins (Maple Leafs, Krugerrands, Pandas, etc) which are probably the majority of the gold coins in existence. Very few gold coins are old and rare enough to be valuable as collectors.

IMHO, IF the pawn shop melted the coins, they got less for them they could have by reselling them in their unmelted form. IMHO, they didn’t melt them, they only said they did to avoid losing their money spent/profit.

There are hundreds of thousands of U.S. gold coins minted before 1933 which still exist and are worth more than their melt value.