A Little Scary

[FreedomUIC]

Just read a posting on this forum about melting of pennies and nickles are forbidden by the government. What would happen
to all those that are hoarding Dimes, Quarters and halfs that are either 90% or 40% silver?

Do you really think the government would put a ban on melting the coin to get the PM they are made of?

Interested in what everybody has to say on this topic.

 

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[cracker]

What I don't get is why is it legal to melt a silver coin but not a copper cent or nickel?
Is it because they are afraid that a mass scale meltdown would compromise the supply of the coinage in circulation thereby causing a shortage which inturn would cause the US Mint to have to produce more coins which cost more than face value to produce?
On second thought maybe that's why it's okay to melt silver...because it's not used (generally) for spending purposes anymore, so anything melted would not have to be replenished for circulation.

How's that sound?

 

[Silver Surfer]

It is only legal to melt coins that are no longer minted.. Since the Govt quit minting coins with actual PM in them, it became legal. Pennies are still being minted. Also, people a decade ago started hoarding pennies, and then when they were worth 10X face value for the copper, the Govt was afraid that people would make a profit on the coins they were currently minting, so they put the kabosh on that real quick.

Hope that answers your question.

 

[jim4silver]

Just read a posting on this forum about melting of pennies and nickles are forbidden by the government. What would happen
to all those that are hoarding Dimes, Quarters and halfs that are either 90% or 40% silver?

Do you really think the government would put a ban on melting the coin to get the PM they are made of?

Interested in what everybody has to say on this topic.

While I do not think it is going to happen, the gov could ban the melting of silver US coins if it wanted. Perhaps the only reason I can imagine this would happen is if the dollar crashed and silver went thru the roof and the gov decided to call in all old US silver coins. This would in theory allow the gov to collect some silver without enacting an all out ban or confiscation on private bullion. I don't see any reason for the gov to ban the melting of the silver coins unless they were also "calling it in" at the same time, since as another poster mentioned silver coins are not considered circulating currency, even though a little bit does make its way into circulation.

Even though the chance of the above happening is remote, I would rather have private brand minted .999 than 90%, such as Engelhard or JM or Sunshine, etc. One to ten ounce bars and one ounce rounds are good to have I believe. Yes someday there could be counterfeits out there if silver goes up enough, so you have to know what you are buying.

As far as your question about nickels and pennies, the gov's reasoning for the ban is that it costs them too much to replace the currency that would be depleted if people shipped it off for melt because the commodity price was over face. I think I read something like that someplace but I am paraphrasing.

Jim