Why did they melt them down? Wouldn’t they have gotten more for the coins’ numismatic value?
Silver coins would be pretty degraded after being in salt water all those decades.
Easier to trace/account for exact coins.
Melting leaves room for the “Angel’s Share”.
That many coins would have diluted the value of oldish silver coins on the market.
Amazing how much treasury over the last 500 years was sent in cargo that sank. I guess Europe had 10 year hurricane-free seasons in the Atlantic that lulled them into confidence to keep shipping stuff. But Lloyd’s of London was there to pay the claims.
If the coins were from 1901 (and that was only one sample date) they were probably pretty well circulated when they were gathered before shipping. Non-excellent condition silver coins rarely fetch more than their melt value anyway and they don’t fare very well under salt water. (Unlike gold coins which don’t care) Because the great majority of silver coins will have some copper in them in order to toughen them up, that copper will green up and the coin(s) really can’t be made into much of anything without abrasively cleaning them, and then they are glud. So there really isn’t a good road to achieving any numismatic value. They are unfortunately just junk silver and pretty junky silver at that. They are only 50% silver, unlike US silver coins @ 90% or Cana coins which are 80% or in some cases 92.5%. I am sure a handful of coins might have been saved.
Melted down? I would think WWII History buffs would pay over face value for them. Not that it would be a big percentage of the take, but it would keep historic coins amid collections. Could they not kept at least 5% for history buffs?
Ah, no matter. Never all in love with your stuff.