# Selling silver dollars **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 5, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188 "2016-01-05T00:19:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188/41 "2016-02-12T03:11:12Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > **Charlie**. Your opinions are just that and they are wrong. > > Coins are melted when the supply exceeds the demand. Period. > > When silver is between $5/ounce and $20/ounce, no coins get melted because there is a big demand from people who think the price is low and will go higher. > > When silver went up to $48./ounce, 99% of all dimes, quarters and halves got melted. Supply exceeded demand. Period. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Why would they melt them? Silver coins are fine on their own, people buy them for the silver value. > > In fact you can buy them now and they sell for more than the silver in them: > [https://www.golddealer.com/product/90-silver-bag/https://bullion.nwtmint.com/silver\_peace\_dollars.php](https://www.golddealer.com/product/90-silver-bag/https://bullion.nwtmint.com/silver_peace_dollars.php) > > $1000 face contains 715 troy oz of silver, selling @ $11,289.85. The bag sells for $13,391.95 or $18.73 a Troy oz. Silver bars sell for $16.50 a oz for a 100oz bar. You’d lose almost $2000 melting down 1000 silver dollars. > > The first site even sez “If a 90% Silver Bag were melted it would contain about 715 ounces of pure silver \*but this is seldom done because US silver coins are worth a small premium. \*All US silver coins struck in 1964 or before are 90% pure silver so bags will move up or down in value following the daily price changes in the silver market. A handy way to approximate bag price changes figure a commercial 90% Silver Bag will move $7.00 for every one cent change in the daily silver market.” italics mine. Again–When the supply exceeds demand, silver coins will be melted. That happened when silver spiked to over $40/ounce. It happened in late 1979 and early(January) 1980-. And again in 2011. Silver coins were melted _en masse_ .I was there both times and participating. I doubt that you were. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188/42 "2016-02-12T05:53:04Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Again–When the supply exceeds demand, silver coins will be melted. That happened when silver spiked to over $40/ounce. It happened in late 1979 and early(January) 1980-. And again in 2011. Silver coins were melted _en masse_ .I was there both times and participating. I doubt that you were. I have no doubt some coins were melted. But the economics make it clear it doesnt make any sense to melt them, in fact it makes good sense not to. And, so let us say silver spiked to $100 oz. Why then would it make sense to melt them, since they have more value intact? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188/43 "2016-02-12T11:34:56Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > And, so let us say silver spiked to $100 oz. Why then would it make sense to melt them, since they have more value intact? If the demand for silver ingots exceeded the supply, then it would. This tends to happen when silver prices are high, I gather. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188/44 "2016-02-12T12:23:25Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I have no doubt some coins were melted. But the economics make it clear it doesnt make any sense to melt them, in fact it makes good sense not to. > > And, so let us say silver spiked to $100 oz. Why then would it make sense to melt them, since they have more value intact? If silver spiked to $100/ounce, there would be 50 sellers of silver coins in our store and perhaps one buyer. There needs to be an ultimate buyer for those coins and there isn’t when the market spikes that high. Well, the ultimate buyer is a refinery. The coins are melted down into .999 fine silver bars, and sold to the various commodity exchanges around the world(the COMEX in the US). Then people who think silver will keep going up can buy contracts on commodity exchanges. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188/45 "2016-02-12T15:27:27Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Again–When the supply exceeds demand, silver coins will be melted. That happened when silver spiked to over $40/ounce. It happened in late 1979 and early(January) 1980-. And again in 2011. Silver coins were melted _en masse_ .I was there both times and participating. I doubt that you were. Seconded by someone else who was there. > [@samclem](#): > > If silver spiked to $100/ounce, there would be 50 sellers of silver coins in our store and perhaps one buyer. There needs to be an ultimate buyer for those coins and there isn’t when the market spikes that high. Well, the ultimate buyer is a refinery. The coins are melted down into .999 fine silver bars, and sold to the various commodity exchanges around the world(the COMEX in the US). Then people who think silver will keep going up can buy contracts on commodity exchanges. And at least in my case, that one buyer wanted 100 ounce bars rather than rolls and bags of coins. So all the stuff that is a harder sell (Roosevelts, Washingtons, 64 Kennedys, most Franklins and Walkers) goes out to Silvertowne to be melted and I get a few large bars from them. Plus, having been through this before, I may not want to risk being caught sitting on a hoard of coins that aren’t selling (or are slower sells even when the demand is there) when the price falls out. My best bet is again making the call to Silvertowne. Give me a check or some form of silver I can move. And in case you (the dear reader) are thinking some place like Silvertowne is just going to sit on them, think again. They know the market is going to drop just as I do and because of the larger volume they have, their risk is even greater. So it hits the furnace and gets turned into what they can sell. That’s just the way it is. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188/46 "2016-02-12T17:44:58Z")
I just think it’s sad to see any coins melted down. Unless they’re culls, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188/47 "2016-02-12T18:22:47Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > **Charlie**. Your opinions are just that and they are wrong. > \ The essence of my point was that coins are not melted in small quantities. I said something like this, “Buyers will sometimes try to get a seller to lower their price by telling them it is expensive to melt down the few coins they are trying to sell”. This is indeed my opinion. But it is also a fact. I know it’s a fact because it has happened to me. My point is that coins are rarely melted down unless there are a large enough quantity to make it worthwhile. It just doesn’t make any sense to me for someone to take the time and trouble to melt six coins and extract the silver. I guessed that if someone is melting coins, it is not worth doing unless they have about 100 or more coins. That is just my guess. But the fact is that it rarely makes sense to melt coins unless there are a sufficient number so that the cost is of the melting and extracting is spread out over a larger number of coins. Sam is in the business and I am not. His opinions definitely seem to me to be more accurate than mine. No argument there. But I wasn’t talking about “when” the coins are melted in terms of supply and demand. I was just trying to warn sellers of a trick that some buyers will try to use to convince them to agree to lower the price. I know that happens because it has happened to me. I have no argument with Sam in terms of coins being melted wrt to supply and demand. I’m just saying that it doesn’t make financial sense to melt a handful of coins at a time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-silver-dollars/742188.md?page=2)