Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-12-20
By Fredericc J. Haskin.

!
 $1.30 an ounce.
 This fact means very little to tn
 average American. Even when he i
 told that silver was worth but forty
 eight cents back in 1914, and that tn
 present price is nearly three time
 that figure, he is not perturbed. l But there is an unusual element il
 this case. The silver dollar which Ii
 used as currency in this country il
 worth more as metal than as none!
 when silver goes above $1.29. Whel
 an individual may take a hundred sil
 yer dollars and melt them and sel
 the resulting metal for more than :
 hundred dollars, there are sure to bt
 people here and there who will go int
 the dollar-melting business. AS mat
 ter of fact, there is no law to interfere
 with the melting of silver coin. Any
 body who has dollar and wants tt
 melt it may do so.
 So it appears that if silver goes much higher there will be the danger
 of large industry growing out of dollar-melting. If such an industry develops it is obvious that silver coir will rapidly disappear from circulation If the government attemps to replace it, the result will be but to increase the material from which the melters may make a profit. Sooner or later the end of the reserve silver supply of the United States would be reached and then, when the coin was melted there would be none to take its place. This is theoretically what would happen when silver goes above $l .3C an ounce, or $1.29 to be exact. Of course the price would need to be sev- eral cents over that amount to pay fer the melting and to yield profit that is worth the effort. The dollars must be new, also, for old dollars have lost some of their weight. So it is appai'- ent, that the metal must be up to $1.35 or better before there will be much melting. It has not quite reached that figure yet.
 The government would not worry much if the silver dollars should he melted. It has coined silver dollars for long time. It may never com them again. It is about converted t. the belief that only subsidiary coins. those of the fractions of dollar, should be of metal. Unless policy changes, the old iron man $ destined to take his place with those who have gone before.
 But the subsidiary coin we must have. Dimes and quarters and half dollars are indispensable. Were there danger of the silver melters getting busy on subsidiary coins there would be occasion for real worry.
 It happens, however that the coin makers, in the very beginning, took a which fits exactly into the situation. It would be inter- esting to know if that action was from foresight or by accident. Anyway they put less silver in proportion to their value into the subsidiary coins than they did into the silver dollars. Ten dimes, four quarters, or two halv- es, weight exactly the same amount when they come from the mint. Buv a dollar in any of these subsidiary colns weighs less than does a dollac coin. While silver must be worth more than s1.29 an ounce to affect the dollar coinage, it must be worth more than ,1 .3S to endanger subsidiary coinage.
 As matter of fact it will have to ,e around $1.45 or $1.50 to pay for he trouble, take care of abrasion ana pay anything like worthwhile profit ,n the melting business.
 So the government is not yet worry ng about having its dimes and quar- CTS melted. When the point Of dan ,er is reached, there are several lines if government action possible. Dur- ng the war there was an embargo on ilver. If this embargo were put pack, the demand would be cut off and he price might tumble. Then there S the possibility of prohibiting the netting of subsidiary coin. This would discourage the industry. The treasury has many millions Of dollars worth of silver and could readily re- ,lace losses. There is much sill 'er in treasury vaults in bullion. There are vaults in New York, Phila. lelphia, Denver, in which gold and ilver is stacked up like sacks in It is measured in tons' Tn ar loads, even in shiploads.
 To appreciate the present silver sit ation one must go back to that forty ight cents an ounce in 1914. lie nust follow the record back and find hat the price has played back and orth from fifty cents to seventy cents or thirty years. Never before since 800 has silver gone above dollar n ounce. Not since 1866 has It been
 T1nfi1 fhIS NUQr