It didn't matter whether the silver dollars were uncirculated or not ... around 1960-62, silver was pegged at $1.29 per ounce and there was more than $1.29 worth of silver melt value in each silver dollar ... which is why silver dollars were disappering so fast. By 1980 ... silver approached melt value of $50 per ounce!!!

Additionally, because Nevada was such a huge silver producing state, state law required that silver dollars be used in slot machines to protect the State's interest. When the handwriting was on the wall, and there was little that could be done about the speculative silver dollars being hoarded and melted, the Nevada law was eventually changed to permit the use of $1 gaming tokens instead of using silver dollars.

The Franklin Mint got it's huge start by filling in the void by minting $1 gaming tokens in huge quantities.