I got some back from a Vegas slot machine. They are slightly bigger than an Eisenhower dollar coin. They have a picture of Liberty on the front, and the normal wording of “United States of America”, “One Dollar”, and “In God We Trust”.
But instead of the motto “E Pluribus Unum” they have the words “One ounce fine silver”
So which is it? Are they worth one dollar or about $8/ ounce?
And if the latter, why aren’t they immediately melted down to make jewelry?
You got an extra payoff in that jackpot. Check the mint date on the coin. If it is IIRC 1964 or before, you have an actual silver dollar, and it is worth quite a bit more that US$1.
Most silver coins have disappeared from circulation, but some make it out every once and a while when someone accidentally spends one from a collection. As legal tender, they are only worth one dollar.
No. He got a one ounce bullion coin. The Silver Eagle
An uncirculated Silver Eagle is worth considerably more than $1, by the way. You can buy them from a dealer for between $8-$10 for the 2004 issue. Melt value on the coin is whatever the market is for that day, presently about $5.00+. The proof version from the mint goes for about $24, IIRC. Over time, the value on some of the proof years has increased substantially.
Chefguy, is there anywhere on the net I can find out which years have the higher values? I have a proof 1999 Silver Eagle someone gave me as a gift. It’d be interesting to know the value.
Coin pricing guide. I know nothing about collecting coins or the people who have put this guide out there.
The 1999 proof eagle is one of those that was issued in a relatively small number and has gone up in value accordingly. The 2004 Krause catalog shows its value as $70.
That is so odd. It’s a real coin never offered to the public for its face value.
To me that sounds like a government-sponsored scam.
I suppose the Krugerrand started it all with a value defined by weight and not currency, and that I can understand.
What seems wrong is putting an known false value on the face of a new coin.
Sure, they can make more money that way, and who can stop them- they are our represntatives, after all.
But, what if they decided that they could make even more money by reissuing old coins, complete with old dates, probably using the actual old molds?
Then they could sell newly-minted old Indian Head pennies to dealers for mucho dollars.
I know that would be wrong, but right now I forget why.
You misunderstand the idea. The poinbt of these coins is for weight. Bullion purposes. Since we are on a fiat currency, the purpose of the coins is to hold the value in their material, not in their face value. If we were on a gold standard (or silver, as we shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold,) then the amount of silver in your coin would be worth approximately one dollar.
A coin has three different values. The most obvious is the face value set by the government that issued it. Coins also have a value based on the metal they contain; however unless that metal is silver or gold this value is usually too low to be an issue (although there was a point in the 1970’s when the value of the copper in a penny was approaching a price higher than one cent). And there is the collector value, which is whatever the market will bear. Generally speaking a coin will end up wherever its value is the highest.
So a silver dollar is still legal tender and can be used to buy a newspaper. But generally speaking you never see anyone using silver coins as actual currency.
It might be theoretically possible (there’s probably laws against it in practice, but they presumedly could be revoked). But it would accomplish nothing. If the government decided to flood the market with replicas of rare coins, their value would plummet becuase they would lose their scarcity.
Ilsa_Lund - You misunderstood my concern. A coin based on weight alone would be quite legitimate. What seems cynical is putting a dollar value as well as the weight, as though we were still honoring the silver standard, which we do not.
Little Nemo - While the price of a reissued coin would be less than before, it is impossible to be less than the cost of manufacture. The government mint already issues non-monetary medalians to collectors at many times the production costs.
There is some cynicism here, since coins are generally much more collectible than medallions. Since the object is to raise revenue, putting a dollar value on the bullion creates a better market. Many countries do this, including Canada (Maple Leaf), China (Panda) and Mexico (Libertad). The US issues silver, gold and platinum Eagles at different denominations, but few would be ignorant enough to spend one for a burger (the platinum Eagle sells for over $1000).
I was using your own example of “old Indian Head pennies” - these are coins not medallions. Let’s assume a 1880 Indian Head penny (and I don’t even know if there is such a coin) has a current market value of fifty dollars and there are about ten thousand of them in existence. Let’s say the treasurer notices this and says “hey, let’s roll a hundred thousand new ones off the press and sell them for five million dollars.” But once the pennies are made, the treasury will find that nobody is offering them fifty dollars apiece. In fact, they probably won’t get a dollar apiece for them because most dealers will assume the reproductions will probably destroy any future market for the coin. What’ll probably happen is that the Indian Heads will end up being issued to the general public and will end up with a market value of approximately one cent.