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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,649 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1195 Posts |
So real silver dollar coins were made all the way up to 1935. I believe they stopped making them for circulation after that year however they still circulated for many years (how long?) Looking at historic silver prices I see where silver was over $10/oz several times before 1950. Why didn't people flock to banks to get all these silver dollars when their melt far exceeded their face value? Did banks not have them in stock? I thought I read somewhere that he public didn't have much interest in Peace dollars at all. I know public interest raised when the mint sold Morgan's in the 80's but I can't understand why it took so long for them to catch on. They are awesome coins! Any insight? For this conversation I'm only interested in 90% coinage.. Not too interested in the 40% dollars. Thanks!  |
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New Member
United States
46 Posts |
Wow. interesting. I know the Peace dollars were a media nightmare! and the popularity of the large dollar were waning anyway. The Peace dollar was meant to commemorate the end of the "Great War" and the disarmament of the U.S. and several countries. Its original minted design however had a broken sword in the eagle's talons that was to symbolize disarmament and peace but in fact is a symbol of dishonor and surrender. the media took off with it and the Mint struggled and barely produced an altered design in time for the release of the coin. Because of the rush, the design was to high a relief and damaged the dies quicker than acceptable. changes were made without the proper involvement of boards and votes and it was an ever looming disaster that followed it to its final year. As for the price of silver and why people wouldn't gobble 'em up. I dont know. I WOULD! My guess is they were not available. Most Peace dollars minted went directly into the Treasury Vault. lets see what others say. Edited by jyelton12
05/03/2016 4:38 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5862 Posts |
The only charts I have seen that showed silver being worth over $10/oz several times before 1950 were those adjusted for inflation. When not adjusted for inflation, the silver value was below $1/oz from 1915 through 1961 as far as I can see.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1195 Posts |
Barryg now that you mention it I looked back and the chart was adjusted for inflation. I guess it's easy for us to look back and say we would hoard since we know what silver is worth nowadays. I still find it odd these weren't massively hoarded though given the nice designs. People today hoard ATB clad quarters and they are worth far less than melt!! |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5246 Posts |
@LibertyEagle20, there was hoarding (there have been historic silver dollar hoards) to some extent, but coin collecting in general and hoarding in particular was way less popular before the price of silver skyrocketed.
There was no reason to hoard when the day to day money was silver. Also, people were not so well off-they could not afford to hoard.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4418 Posts |
Back in the late fifties and early sixties, I made many trips to the bank up the street, buying silver dollars at face, hoping to find a rare date. I never found one, but the searching was fun. Sadly, I didn't make enough on my paper route to be able to sock many of those dollars away!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
From about 1930-39 we were in the Great Depression. People didn't have money. Now there were rich collectors even during the depression and if they were smart they may have cleaned up on buying coins. It was illegal to use or sell gold during FDR's time in office. Millions of gold coins were melted down. When I say people didn't have money I mean millions of citizens did not have an extra 5 dollar bill for Christmas.
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Rest in Peace
United States
2668 Posts |
We took a week long bus trip from Ohio to California. Along the way all of the mountain states used silver dollars as their favorite money. Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada; Utah not as much.
This was 1962.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
In addition to being unwieldy, a silver dollar had more silver in it than 10 dimes or 4 quarters. Melting silver dollars has never been illegal, so that is what happened. Silver dollars did circulate of course, but it was not uncommon to melt down a silver dollar and change it for 10 dimes and a nickel or what have you.
The Mint also sold an enormous load of silver dollars to the UK in 1928 to be melted. The rest either puttered around as Christmas gifts, or collected dust in mint bags in the vaults.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:I still find it odd these weren't massively hoarded though given the nice designs.People today hoard ATB clad quarters and they are worth far less than melt!! A dollar was worth a whole lot more back then than it is today. If you look at the purchasing power of a dollar in the 50's compared to today, every silver dollar hoarded would have been like you stashing away a couple 20 dollar bills today. How big is your stash of cash? (Physical cash not bank account) Conversely today's ATB Quarters are worth so much less than cash was back then it is easier to hoard it.For us putting aside an ATB Quarter would be like your ancestor in the 50's putting aside a Wheat cent. |
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Valued Member
United States
186 Posts |
I'm actually surprised that following the gold holding ban that the silver dollar didn't become more popular. Another reason may have been the widely issued Series 1935 $1 Silver Certificates, in addition to not being accepted in vending machines (an issue that later caught up to the half dollars, although many earlier jukeboxes did accept half dollar coins). It was easier to have a wad of 25 bills than a pocket of coins. Of course, the introduction of credit cards only further eroded the share of coins (and currency) to the point that today's small one dollar coins only see sporadic uses, despite many more vending machines accepting them.
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,649 |
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Posted 05/03/2016 4:25 pm
