Pennysaved wrote:With the run up in silver price, do you think a lot of collectible coins are being melted down??
I am curious if a lot of AG to G Barbers are being melted down and will this ultimately lead to them becoming more collectible?
Yes, alot of Barbers, because they are underweight of the 715 convention, are being offered by coin dealers and others to be melted down. Ultimately, coins in any of the lower grades, but particularly the Barbers will become quite scarce complements of Gresham's Law. This WILL lead to an increase in their numismatic value in those grades, but this will lag in real time their increase in bullion value, and could require years to establish their new standard of rarity. Once silver rises to a permanent plateau and stabilizes (if it ever does) then numismatic premiums might once again be assigned to them. During a price run-up such as we are experiencing, most will only value them as bullion. If silver goes hyperbolic, that's all they'll ever be valued at... bullion melt. This applies to all grades of numie coins, but to a lesser extent for the MS grades. One thing to consider... if it ever gets really bad (TSHTF?) who is going to be left around that has the spare cash to be a coin collector?