Why junk silver

These days, people purchase junk silver for both investment and survival purposes. Here are some of the benefits of owning junk silver:. Click here for all FAQs. For other products and services: www. Coins About Rare U. Coins Available U. Coins Sample U. Coin Portfolio Our U. Junk Silver Facts. Junk Silver is the real thing The dimes, quarters and half-dollars made by the U. This largely depends on the date, mintmark, and condition of the coin. In most cases, well-worn common-date silver dimes are worth prices quite near their spot intrinsic values.

However, you might find this chart below with silver dime value approximations useful:. Junk Silver Dime Prices. The date, mintmark, and individual condition of a coin are all factors in determining what it is worth. However, most well-circulated, common-date silver quarters made since the mids are worth their intrinsic metal value. So, one way to answer this question is to provide a graph of what a typical silver quarter is worth in terms of its silver content.

You'll find these calculations below, based on different silver price points:. Junk Silver Quarter Prices. As with any coin, the date, mintmark, and condition are all important factors in determining the value of any individual half dollar, including silver half dollars. Most well-circulated common-date silver half dollars made since are worth their intrinsic silver value.

Most circulated common-date silver half dollars made since the s are worth only their intrinsic value. The guide below will help give you an idea what your halves may be worth contingent on the current price of silver per ounce. Junk Silver Half Dollar Prices. In the most basic sense, you can usually determine whether a dime, quarter, half dollar, or dollar coin is clad or silver based on its date.

Dimes and quarters produced before are made from silver. All those made afterward, except for some collector-only issues, are clad. All circulating half dollars issued from to date are made from copper-nickel clad. Circulating issues made afterward were produced in clad. There are a couple caveats here. For one, there are those aforementioned silver-based, collector-only issues. Then there are a handful of errors involving coins that were intended to be struck in clad format but accidentally struck on silver planchets.

Any coins you suspect may be off-metal errors or transitional errors should be weighed to determine their composition and submitted to a trusted numismatic professional, such as a major third-party coin grading service, for further testing, authentication, and official attribution.

The United States government stopped making silver coins for circulation because it got too expensive. When this happened, many in the public found it more profitable to hoard these silver coins for their valuable precious metal content rather than to spend the coins for face value. This helped lead to a major coin shortage in and It persuaded government officials to choose a cheaper metal for minting dimes, quarters, and half dollars.

Dollar coins were not officially being produced at this time. After experimentation, United States Treasury and United States Mint officials decided on a copper-nickel clad composition. Basically, the coins used a pure copper "sandwich" between two copper-nickel outer layers. This was the best choice for minting coinage without compromising the acceptability of these coins in commerce, vending machines, and elsewhere. The United States phased out the use of silver in circulating coins over the course of the s and early s.

The first changes came in , when silver was completely removed from new dimes and quarters. By the late s, the United States government began planning the full debasement of the half dollar. Beginning in , no circulating United States coinage was struck with any amount of silver. The last circulating silver dimes are dated , and the United States Mint began striking copper-nickel clad dimes in These more recent silver dimes were sold only in proof sets and other special mint products.

In other words, they were not formally released into circulation. There is 0. So, it takes about 5. As of this writing, it is legal to melt old silver coins in the United States. There are presently no silver coins being made for circulation in the United States.

Therefore melting silver coins would have virtually no effect on the availability of coins in daily commerce. While most people know how much silver is in a pre dime, quarter, or half dollar and can trust the coin to be authentic, there really is no way for someone else to really know the purity or authenticity of your melted silver without assaying it.

Besides accumulate or sell it? Well, many people melt their junk silver so it can be sold as scrap or used to make other silver products. In many cases when people sell their junk silver coins, what ends up happening to them later is that they are melted by a refinery to produce silver ingots silver bars or other bullion items.

Also, the expectation that debts be paid on demand in silver is no longer mandated by United States law. Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez is a journalist, editor, and blogger who has won multiple awards from the Numismatic Literary Guild.

He has also authored numerous books, including works profiling the history of the United States Mint and United States coinage. What Is a Silver Nickel Worth? More Than You'd Expect! Don't be the last to know about the latest deals and new product arrivals.

Join us today for FREE! Sign in or register. Buy Gold. Australian Gold Coins. Buy Now. Buy Silver. Silver Bars 10 Oz Silver Bars. Silver Dollars. Rare coin dealers began using the label back in the early s due to the coins not holding the hefty premiums of numismatic coins.

However, their silver content makes them much more intrinsically valuable than junk. Many American silver coins that were circulated before the year are now known as junk silver. Keep in mind, the content of the silver in a coin is what primarily determines its overall value. So in or before, all silver coins were minted with 10 percent copper and 90 percent silver.

That means the face value of every silver dollar contains an estimated. The high intrinsic value of these coins relative to their face value caused them to quickly leave the marketplace when the cupro-nickel coins arrived. Many investors choose to purchase junk silver coins as bullion investments, while others get them for collecting purposes. Either way, junk silver helps to replace fears that investors have about the American dollar becoming worthless.

Another reason why investors and collectors buy junk silver for their portfolio is due to the history of the coin. Many of these coins are becoming harder to find as the years continue to move forward.

Junk silver offers history, beauty, and a face value of the silver content to an investor or collector. Even though junk silver coins could be a perfect solution for your portfolio, sold at a premium price for ounces per silver bar, junk silver coins hold better upside down price value than Technically, due to their limited supply, this holds true when the market circulates 90 percent United States junk silver coins.

Then again,. To back the assertion that bags of US junk silver coins holds a better upside down potential than. Over the past four decades, when precious metal performed well, junk silver coins frequently arrive at premiums of 20 percent to 30 percent greater than spot prices. In the course of the Y2K scare, junk silver coins held a 50 percent premium above bullion products.

In the s, after silver prices spiked to 50 ounces, industrial silver consumers applied high-quality organizational moves that reduced the industrial demand for silver.