In the early 1970’s (40 years ago), the government announced that they were going to get rid of silver dimes and replace them with a multiple-ply alloy because silver was too expensive.
When the announcement was made, I started throwning my silver dimes into a glass jar and over time I had saved 300-400 dimes. Eventually the silver dimes were “off the market”. The idea was that silver along with gold is a precious metal and over time it might appreciate in value. I put the dimes in our safe deposit box.
In the mid-1980’s there was a rare event in the silver market. The Hunt brothers (billionaire oil tycoons) tried to corner the silver market by buying up all the silver they could get their hands on. As I recall, silver went from $5 per ounce to over $50 per ounce. A friend of mind sold his silver coins when prices were at their high. I told him silver would probably go higher. He said he wasn’t a “speculator” and he had increased his investment by 10 times. I decided that my market skills were better so I held on to my dimes. In a matter of weeks, the Hunt brothers were indicted on fraud charges and silver was back to $5 per ounce. I never sold my dimes. I remember thinking, aww sh–!
Another 25 years have passed since the Hunt brothers attempted to hoard silver. The world is in economic crisis and there is a flight to precious metals again. Silver is presently quoted at $35 per ounce.
Several years ago, I had Grand-daughter Keely take a handfull of my silver dimes and search the internet for potential value. Of course she was looking at each and every dime trying to find a really old date or a dime that appeared totally different from the rest. There are rare old dimes (really rare) worth thousands of dollars. Keely found nothing rare and her conclusion was the dimes weren’t worth much more than their face value.
Fast forward to this week. There is a company in town temporarily renting a suite at a local hotel advertising (3-page newspaper ads) to buy old coins, silver, gold, and jewelry. I am sure they are loving, fair merchants wanting to make sure I get full value for anything I have. Yeah, right! But, and that is a big but, I am going to take my jar full of silver dimes to the “fair merchants” to get a quote. Now I need to determine what a “fair” offer would be.
Stay tuned. I will battle the “fair merchants”.
Love,
Dad