Silver Prices Are Stupid And Very Bad For Coin Collectors

I guess gas prices will be next.

Where I live I pay $1.33 a liter @ 3.86 liters to a gallon...$5.13 a gallon.

Wolf: Now is the time to seriously consider collecting in other areas of numismatics. Consider, perhaps, British, European pre 1900, or ancient bronze coins. Top coins in each of these categories have numismatic value only.

There has to be something in these areas that would suit your price range. The variety and interest in each of these areas is huge.

I completed an Australian pre decimal type set decades ago, and got bored. I had to branch out. I collect in all of the above mentioned categories now, but recently, I have backed away from gold coins myself.

The interest and learning curve for me is still very steep.

I also collect spectacular World error coins, and for fun cheapie interest, square coins.

I understand your frustrations. I have not been thrilled as the silver prices shoot up as it has been adversely affecting the coins I've been collecting. Just the other day I went in and was flipping through some coin sheets, the 2x2's were marked at $8 but I was informed due to the coins silver content (.3xx) the price would actually be $15. I hate paying double...

It's true that Silver coins are being melted down in massive quantities everywhere. And no regards to dates, mint marks or condition since those doing the melting have no idea of coin prices, only Silver. This does make any coins left very difficult to find anywhere, for almost any price. Yet there is one good thing about all this and that is when and if anyone ever realizes what is left, the coins you now have will escalate fantastically if value.
And even worse yet will be when the Silver and Gold prices plumit down again as they did many times in the past. Then all those that did the melting will be sitting there with something that once was valuable and now just a lump or close to that.
All hobbies as they become excessively popular sometimes price themselves upward to the point of stupidity. And then too the counterfeiters jump in to really help ruin something. Also, the government over stuffing the system too does little for the future.
Remember the Beanie Babies? Stamp collecting? Sports Cards? Hot Wheel Cars? Only hopefully this hobby can restand all the things that ruined all those other hobbies.

I can't see my way paying double for a coin just because its melt value increased exponentially, particularly from just 4 or 5 months ago. It is ridiculous because a collector would never think to melt a collectible coin, yet its value is calculated solely on the metal it contains. It's a good time to work on base metal coinage as those are mostly not dependent on pm prices, or on better dates in the silver sets, since the spread between common and semi-key is virtually non-existent.

I agree with everything said. Coin prices have been driven too high by silver speculation and the prices are artificially expensive. It's greed, plain and simple. Destruction of a historical artifact for short term profit. Any coins melted down for their metal content are lost forever and that ruins it for generations to come.

The bubble will burst; it always does. The melted coins are gone forever. It's changed coin collecting. When you buy a coin for it's metal content and not it's numismatic value, that's not coin collecting.

I'm doing the same thing NOD is doing.....i was trying to build a set of nice SLQ's all BU-MS grades and I could not afford some of them before.....so now I'm fishing through some of my really bad worn, dateless, spotty silvers that were just collected because of silver and selling them to pay for the nice SLQ's to save them from being destroyed.......i know everyone is saying a "true" collector wouldn't sell coins because of precious metal content, but some of us can't afford the high grade coins now so I have to do something to get them and now the prices are in my reach for higher grades by selling my once known as "junk" silver coins for WAY more than I had previously purchased them for.........-food for thought-

I completely agree with ya Wolf... As mad as I am about it, this is pushing me to upgrade my Lincoln set, and go for improving my Jefferson set... The only silver or partially silver sets I have a chance at is Mercury dimes and my Kennedy set... So on I go to fund my endeavors, maybe silver will eventually go down, but I don't think it will be anytime soon...