The reason Dracula, of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, hated silver was because it was considered a “pure” metal, as opposed to steel which was an alloy, or gold which was too soft to kill in its purest form. It is also why Dracula had no reflection, because mirrors of the time were backed by silver.
D&D Rules allow silver weapons to harm certain monsters, and players expect to exploit a loophole to create silver weapons by melting down silver coins and coating their regular weapons with it. In strict terms, this wouldn’t harm the Dracula from the book, because it is not the chemical properties of silver/Ag, but the “purity” of the creation made from it. Silvering a mundane weapon does not create a pure weapon.
Players want to melt silver coins because it is cheaper to do so than to buy a new weapon. The way to make such cost commensurate would be to use a silver standard.
