sebastionay said:
Im also from UK with most of my silver in pre decimal coins, personally I think its really stupid to melt or refine your coins, numinastics carry a premium over spot, you may not find that is the case right now with coins that arent in great condition but thats only because spot price is moving up fast, once things calm down coins will carry hefty premiums again.
I don't think its a terrible idea to refine coins in very bad condition and with common dates. Although I agree some coins in good condition with rare dates do go for crazy premiums. I win a fair amount of auctions on fleabay by bidding up to of 80% of spot on bulk lots. I rarely win auctions on single coins or small lots at those kind of prices as the higher number of bidders push up the price.
sebastionay said:
If your really adamant about destroying things with the queens face on which btw is illegal, I would suggest pre 1980 pennies instead, their melt value(copper) is double their face value. And you will find that on ebay copper bullion sells for around 30X spot value.
Contrary to popular belief, defacing the Queen is
not illegal. It's one of those laws people think exist but no-one can reference it to any case or parliamentary act, because it doesn't exist. It is true that defacing the Queen can be
regarded as treason, but only if done as an
act of treason with
intent. Defacing the Queen in itself is
not illegal. But I guess this is all moot for me because I don't have any junk silver coins with the Queen's head.
Defacing currency that is currently in circulation
is illegal. This includes bending, scratching, marking etc. This has nothing to do with the Queen, but to do with protecting the monetary value of coins, so people couldn't shave/skim the coins for its metal and return them into circulation. In Victorian times the law was further enforced as people use to advertise their companies/products on coins.
Destroying current circulating coins
is illegal of course as it would mess up the treasury's currency ponzi scheme.