Pure Silver

MPeter

Question for anyone out there about the silver content of Washington Quarter(1932-1964) or Roosevelt Dime(1946-1964). I was reading that they contain .18084oz and .07234oz of pure silver. I think silver is around $13.49 an oz right now. So if I was to find one of these quarters on the ground today and my calculations are correct, would I be holding a quarter with about $2.44 worth of pure silver in it????

StrikeOutXXX

This link is pretty good. It has current price at the top, type it in the value and it will give you silver value of each type of coin. Your calculations are correct, it was $13.44 just now, giving you $2.43 for your silver quarter.

Silver Value Calculator

This same guy has other type of coin calculators too:
All his coin calculators

Bear

You would get less then the pure silver price

due to two considerations.

1. The coin is worn and has less then origonal silver

2. There is the cost of smelting such coinage and that
will reduce what you are paid.

I would think you could count on 8 -81/2 X face value for coin.

Coxe

Nobody's actually melting those down AFAIK. The wear is right but a discount for recovery of the alloyed silver is silly.

claychaser

A quick way to figure it is to take the current silver price and multiply by .7. That's because there is approximately 715 ounces in a $1000 face value "bag" of 90% silver coin. The use of .700, vs. .715 was the factor takes the wear factor into account.

MPeter

Thanks!!! Just a fun little thing to tell the nieces and nephew to look for in their pocket change.

thebeav

<< <i>Nobody's actually melting those down AFAIK. The wear is right but a discount for recovery of the alloyed silver is silly. >>



Totally wrong. The back-log at any major refiner is quite amazing.

Steve27

Here's another good site Coinflation

Higashiyama

The metal value of clad coins is quite interesting:

If we have 35 years of 5 % inflation, the metal value of clad coins will exceed face value!

At this point, will we consider redenominating the dollar (eg --- having a 10 for 1 or 100 for 1 exchange to a new dollar?)

flaminio

<< <i>If we have 35 years of 5 % inflation, the metal value of clad coins will exceed face value! >>

This has already come to pass for cents and nickels.

<< <i>At this point, will we consider redenominating the dollar (eg --- having a 10 for 1 or 100 for 1 exchange to a new dollar?) >>

Nope -- just get rid of the small change, like most every other country has done. It's only when you get to completely ludicrous inflation rates (think Turkey in the 1990s, or Germany in the 1920s) where you have to revalue the currency.

RichieURich

<< <i>You would get less then the pure silver price

due to two considerations.

1. The coin is worn and has less then origonal silver

2. There is the cost of smelting such coinage and that
will reduce what you are paid.

I would think you could count on 8 -81/2 X face value for coin. >>



I agree with Bear. A third factor reducing the price you will get is that you're not selling to the smelter, usually you'll be selling to a wholesaler who will sell to another wholesaler, eventually it will go to the smelter, but on the way, everyone gets a piece of the pie.

A fourth factor reducing the amount you will get is that basically no one will pay the spot price, because the price of silver might drop before they sell it to the next person in the chain. I bought some silver near spot one day, the next day it dropped $1.00 per ounce, followed by another $1.00 drop the next day. It took almost two months until the price got back to where I was at breakeven, and I sold the silver then.