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Originally posted by daviscfad

i am no old timer but i have heard that when president Johnson made the announcement about them being made out of something different people started hoarding. My grandfather ran a store in the 60's and when people would spend silver after they started making clad he would put the silver aside into a jar. plus a lot of 40% halves were hoarded in mass quantities. Have you ever wondered if JFK had not been assassinated would ben franklin still be on the half?

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Originally posted by Country

Being a member of the HS class of 1965, I can remember a few things about how and when silver coins became a commodity. I believe it was the US Go'vt that spurred the interest in the silver coins when the Treasury cleaned out 1000's of silver dollar bags they had in storage since the Civil War. I believe this was in 1964. These bags were sold to the public at little more than face value and were sold in lottery fashion - You didn't know what dates you would get; some bags were Liberty Seated Dollars, others were common dates. This was the original horde of BU silver dollars; where most of the BU dollars you see nowadays come from. I remember some dealers in Coin World selling bags of silver dollars for $1250 each. Anyway, there was much hoopla and fanfare in the press so that ordinary citizens got the feeling that silver coins might have value and should be saved, especially since everyone knew that a different kind of coinage was coming out in 1965.

In 1965 when the clads came out, many people started saving the older silver coins out of the change they received; people did the same thing in the 50's as the Buffalo nickel was removed from circulation. This caused a shortage of coins in circulation, and since the mint had not ramped up their clad minting facilities fully, LBJ froze the date of all silver coins at 1964, even though many were minted in 1965 to accomodate the coin shortage. I believe some refiners started melting coins in 1965, when the coins had some silver value more than face and it became profitable to do so. Since there was a shortage of coins, due to the public, and some refiners, both pulling coins out of circulation, a melting ban was put in place.

For the 95% copper penny to become a commodity, the general public must have a sense that this copper coinage has real value. While I believe the US Treasury initiated this concept with the public when they released their silver dollars, I think the public currently believes that a penny is only worth one cent. If the penny's composition was completely changed, perhaps to aluminum or some other metallic composition, or withdrawn from circulation because it is no longer needed, then the public would get the sense that the penny had some value. Soon thereafter, it would become commoditized.

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From 1965 on, people saved the silver coins. At first, there were the silver accumulators, like the Realcent guys who now save all the coppers they see. By the late 1960's, everyone was saving them in jars. By 1970, most of the silver coinage was gone from circulation. Everyone and his uncle had silver coins in a jar or drawer someplace.

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Originally posted by CoinHunter53562

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From 1965 on, people saved the silver coins. At first, there were the silver accumulators, like the Realcent guys who now save all the coppers they see. By the late 1960's, everyone was saving them in jars. By 1970, most of the silver coinage was gone from circulation. Everyone and his uncle had silver coins in a jar or drawer someplace.

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I wasnt alive back then but it sounds like Gresham's Law kicked in pretty quickly after the conversion. I wish I could go back in time and been around for that.

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