Why do the Czechs melt so many coins???

[Alan Glasser]

I have quite a few Czech Republic coins in my music set (mostly composers) and as I recall, many of the Czech commemoratives have a percentage of the Uncs and Proofs melted after release. Though that doesn't make them particularly rare, it does make them scarcer and I am wondering if it is demand, or lack thereof, that prompts the mint to destroy their product. Could it be with the collector in mind who doesn't want his commemorative treasures to flood the market? For example Czech Republic KM-58...a bummer to find and I wound up with one off of TELETRADE in a PCGS slab...took quite a while to find that piece...slabbed or raw....Anyway, 1480 uncs were melted and 13 proofs hit the melting pot.

Another piece I had a heck of a time locatuing was KM-136 from Czechoslovakia 1983. Of the total 60,000 unc and proof mintages, 4,740 were melted (don't know how many were proofs or uncs.). KM-92 100 Korun Fucik was also a challenge but I got a proof. Of the 80,000 minted, 24,840 proofs and uncs' were melted. These were dated 1978 (well actually, there is no date on the coin) but not melted until 1999.

The melting practice, as far as I can tell, stopped in 2005...(or not) but I am curious as to the justification for the low mintages and frequent meltings. Demand?  Any thoughts?

Oh...why can't I  type more than half a page without the window hopping up and down and you can't see what you're typing??
Alan

[andyg]

Oh...why can't I  type more than half a page without the window hopping up and down and you can't see what you're typing??
Alan

umm, buy a new chair that doesn't bounce up and down so much?

[chrisild]

These were dated 1978 (well actually, there is no date on the coin) but not melted until 1999.

The melting practice, as far as I can tell, stopped in 2005...(or not) but I am curious as to the justification for the low mintages and frequent meltings. Demand?  Any thoughts?

There are two possible reason I can think of. First, they saved silver and other material this way. The GDR for example did that routinely - about 15 million pieces of the 1972 Buchenwald coin were minted; later more than 11 million were melted down. The Johann S. Bach coin (1975) had a mintage of about 72,000 - but about a third was melted. Also, when coins that are about to become obsolete are turned in, they may be melted. If I wanted to exchange my DM coins into euro cash, what do you think happens with the old pieces?

Side note: In many cases the issue date of a coin is obvious. Let's say some country issues a coin dedicated to the 200th anniversary of some composer's birth, and the piece has an inscription like COMPOSER NAME 1811-2011. If there is no other date on the coin, then the piece is from 2011 of course. I know, some catalogs tend to call such pieces "undated" but I find that a bit silly.

Christian

[andyg]

I think with the Czechoslovak coins perhaps the authorising political body had gone out of fashion?

[Figleaf]

It is unusual for mints to report on the numbers melted, but most will eventually melt unsold stock. The type of coins you collect have a limited popularity. They are around, but not in great numbers. You would probably see them traded a bit more in their home country and if in that country, English is not a first or second language, it is likely that there is a local alternative to eBay (the Dutch alternative is "marktplaats").

As for the dancing window, try another mouse mat (one colour, preferably dark seems to work best) and clean your mouse. It may help. If not, at least you have a clean mouse.

Peter

[chrisild]

The "dancing window" I have seen too, with some earlier version of Windows XP and IE. Drove me nuts but went away with some update as far as I remember. Ah well, on the Mac (using Safari) I cannot use the Preview; when I click that button, I get a preview area that can display about a line and a half. So my workaround is to not use that "feature" and edit posts later when necessary. As long as your problem persists, you could try and write your message in some external editor, then copy it and it here ...

Christian

[Prosit]

Happens to me all the time.

XP home version service pack 3

It also happens at work where the computer is less than a year old.

Maybe it is caused by not having the window maximized....

Dale

The "dancing window" I have seen too, ......Christian

[natko]

You would probably see them traded a bit more in their home country and if in that country, English is not a first or second language, it is likely that there is a local alternative to eBay (the Dutch alternative is "marktplaats")

exactly, there is a very good site http://aukro.cz/ and I bought so many Czech and Austro-Hungarian coins there. Selection is great. Unfortunately, most buyers do not ship abroad, ask a transfer to national bank account or similar. Hopefully will change to SEPA eventually at least.

BTW, melting probably occurs after the fall of the old regime, here the old Yugoslavian proof coins were sold below or at silver prices back in '91-94 instead of melting. And silver was so cheap. Unfortunately, I bought only two smaller sets...money wasn't so easy back in the wartime...

[Alan Glasser]

Good morning, Natco...and everyone,.

Interesting theory about why the Czechs melt so many coins. I hadn't considered regime change as a possible reason. I just figured they didn't sell to collectors, so back in the pot they went. I should would like to have been in line just prior to the coins' demise...with an "I buy silver" sign. Would have saved me a fortune over what I have to pay for some of them. And a few of them, such as KM-85, KM-58 among others, were a bummer to find in Unc or Proof.

alan