How Many Gold Coins Are Melted?

At least millions were melted, if not billions. Very unfortunate.

@numis, some of the sources I watch/read report lower prices from U.S. LCSs and dealers on foreign gold. If you have sold, has this been your experience?

Definitely foreign gold costs less from US LCS and bullion dealers.

I have been hearing of an increase in Mexican gold premia in the US, but do not know for certain. It was once a consistent source of gold near melt.

The sovereign in your original post here seemed fake. No loss in melting.

Things are going to the foundry here too and the people there say they don't even bother checking. Assume what they receive has already been picked.

Gold price has caught up with collector interest in anything not rare. But dealers are only melting to make money for more buys. They are still holding large inventories in the expectation that price will keep rising. That is what I see here.

When price tumbles some two hundred euros, that is when many tons will go fast to the foundries. It will be a good time for picking up good coins. But very short.

Dealers may be right holding to inventories this time. With the fast loss in status of the two old economic spaces with the trade currencies gold may never again fall that much in euros or dollars.

I know dealers are melting all the foreign fractional gold they're getting in and not reselling it, especially British Sovereigns and 20 Franc coins.

Just a quick update on this thread, which still interests me...
Two weeks ago, I stopped by a local shop that deals in gold coins (mostly buying). The shop had about 50 Elizabeth sovereigns, some Austrian ducats, swiss francs, and a Mexican 50 peso. It was all melted last week. They don't have a single coin.

Made me wonder if Elizabeth sovereigns will ever become less common...I have three only just because they were a good entry level gold coin, but I'd happily trade them out into a large coin.

See it here also. With prices unstable dealers must lock gains or avoid losses. They will sell for spot value, better than the foundries pay. But you must be fast. All not rare stuff is going to the foundry quickly when price is risky.

Elizabeth sovereigns are common. You could buy by the hundreds a few years ago at any european bank. Mint new. Fewer banks deal with them but they are available. This most common coins, bullion coins, are traded not molten. The older or less recognizable coins are the ones made into bars. The sovereigns are traded as bullion.I do not believe the foundry buying those Elizabeth sovereigns will melt them.They will sell them against as bullion someplace else.

Francs, pesos, ducats, dollars. Not as well known here, those end molten. Tiny bars and tiny coins are popular now. Sovereigns are starting to be less popular because expensive as a unit. Bigger coins forget it, buyers want bars. It is the way of the world now. Perhaps people are unaware of how many fake bars are being made?

Perhaps I am wring and some foundries are melting. But I have heard that the sovereigns are being spared in the foundry here.
No small bars there? Here I see them appearing for sale in shops that used to sell only coins.