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How many US coins were melted and recoined by US Mints?

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This subject came up in other threads, and I think it could produce an interesting and useful article for The Numismatist.

 

Project:

Examine the Annual Reports of the Director of the Mint from 1870 through 1960 and collect data on the quantities of coins redeemed and recoined for each denomination. The reports list denominations and metals separately, but do not mention design types or dates.

 

This does not require any specialized knowledge, but it will take patience and perseverance.

 

Any takers?

 

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As a suggestion I'd recommend looking at the two cent pieces melted between 1871 and 1881. Some 17,557,941 pieces were redeemed and recycled for bronze cent production. This quantity is about 39% of the total number of circulation strike pieces produced for the entire series.

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They probably accumulated redeemed and uncurrent coins and melted/recoined at irregular intervals, not just on a strictly year by year basis.

 

I can't take up the challenge though, I'm missing 8 of the reports.

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When I was going through old Mint Reports in the 1920's and 30's for that article I mentioned, I noticed that the chart of obsolete coins recoined was not in every year.

 

Wow...your well into your 80's by now.

 

Question: I heard for years on pre-1965 silver coins, that local banks sent in slick, bent or mutilated silver coins to the reserve banks and that those coins were bulk smelted into coin silver.

 

If this were true, then oodles and oodles of thin silver dimes bit the dust.

 

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I suspect that many interesting bits of information would appear once all the data are assembled and correlated. But - someone has to step up and do the leg work first.

 

BTW - 2-cent bronze pieces and 3-cent CuNi and Ag were being redeemed into the 1940s.

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RE: Worn silver.

From the 1880s forward, Treasury accepted worn silver coins at face value provided they could be identified. Fused masses of coins from fire or sea water damage were melted, assayed and paid by bullion value.

 

Gold coins, being made from the standard of value, were treated a little differently and carefully separated into legal and under weight pieces by the Mints. Merchants and banks could refuse any gold coin they felt was light weight or otherwise suspicious.

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The Newman Numismatic Portal has digitized most of the reports. They are in PDF format. My experience is that the tables do not OCR very well which makes them tough to automate.

 

PM me your email and I'll send you a couple of sample pages.

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When I was going through old Mint Reports in the 1920's and 30's for that article I mentioned, I noticed that the chart of obsolete coins recoined was not in every year.

 

Wow...your well into your 80's by now.

 

Question: I heard for years on pre-1965 silver coins, that local banks sent in slick, bent or mutilated silver coins to the reserve banks and that those coins were bulk smelted into coin silver.

 

If this were true, then oodles and oodles of thin silver dimes bit the dust.

 

Of course. Recoining old, worn-out coins has been standard practice for thousands of years.

 

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