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How big would silver dimes, quarters, halfs and dollars be at todays's prices?

I was wondering how big, or small image, a dime, quarter, half and dollar be to hold ten cents worth, 25 cents worth, 50 cents worth and $1 worth of silver in ounces and diameter? Pretty small I bet.
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image... "Fascinating, but not logical"

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Comments

  • If I did my math correctly, a dime would have to weigh 0.17 grams to have 10 cents worth of silver in it (assuming it's .999 fine). A 3CS is ±0.8 grams.
    image
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  • Then again, they could keep the sizes the same, and just throw silver in to the alloy, I guess.
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  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,927 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Great question.

    A quarter would be much less than 1 gram and would disappear every day that
    silver went up. We'd be recoining to a different standard day in and day out.

    It's simply impossible. We could use a little dime sized $5 coin but if silver goes
    higher we'd need a supply of paper to replace it.
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
  • LindeDadLindeDad Posts: 18,766 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If I toke your math right that dime would be about one mm.
    image
  • notlogicalnotlogical Posts: 2,235
    As my alter ego would say, "Fascinating".

    Thanks for the great replies. And people say they wouldn't like carrying around coins instead of bills because they'd be so heavy. image

    What Mr. Spock would say about numismatics...
    image... "Fascinating, but not logical"

    "Live long and prosper"

    My "How I Started" columns
  • TomBTomB Posts: 22,254 ✭✭✭✭✭
    During most of the time that silver circulating coinage was produced by the US Mint, it was produced to hold less than its face value in metal.
    Thomas Bush Numismatics & Numismatic Photography

    In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson

    image
  • CoinHuskerCoinHusker Posts: 5,033 ✭✭✭


    << <i>If I toke your math right that dime would be about one mm.
    image >>




    Wow, That's one small dime! image

    With those same calculations how small would the quarter, half and dollar be?
    Collecting coins, medals and currency featuring "The Sower"
  • mgoodm3mgoodm3 Posts: 17,497 ✭✭✭
    Like grains of sand in an hourglass... so are the coins in our pocket.
    coinimaging.com/my photography articles Check out the new macro lens testing section
  • TwoSides2aCoinTwoSides2aCoin Posts: 44,689 ✭✭✭✭✭
    How thin do you want them ? Nobody mentioned thickness that I've read. An oreo cookie without the filling is still the same size.
  • clarkbar04clarkbar04 Posts: 5,008 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Imagine a 1 dollar gold coin!
    MS66 taste on an MS63 budget.
  • RedTigerRedTiger Posts: 5,608
    At $17 per ounce, 25 cents worth would be a 90% silver coin the size of the U.K. 1p silver maundy penny, or 11 millimeters and wafer thin. For comparison, the U. S. dime is 17.91 millimeters. Here is an image from maundymoney.info link

    image

    The 4p coin is 18 mm about the same as the current U. S. dime. The 4p weighs 1.9 grams or about 90 cents worth at .900 fine silver. So a dollar coin would be approximately the size of the current dime, if 90% silver, with silver at $17 per ounce. The half dollar would be about the size of the 2p coin in the image.
  • RWBRWB Posts: 8,082
    According to the non-website “GoldBugs4Ever.nutt” technology will soon permit the use of gold in coinage by automatically sizing the coin based on the day’s market price of gold. As the London fix of gold (and presumably CBOE silver) changes the size of your gold or silver coins will change in direct proportion. Thus enabling full value gold coins without bothering to set a worldwide monetary standard.

    For example, at $20.67 per ounce, a gold $20 coin would be slightly smaller than a standard US double eagle. At $41.34 the coin would automatically shrink to half its former size, and so on. You could put your coins on the nightstand next to your bed and wake up with a bigger pile of money – provided the gold price went down.

    Every coin can therefore be full value all the time, but the value will change from moment to moment. Carlo Ponzi, where are you when we need your genius??!!!

    Oh--almost forgot --- did I mention the fee? Added value!! Just like your deregulated electricity.
  • ambro51ambro51 Posts: 14,002 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I read once that a lot of california fractional gold has been dug up in old mining camp dumps. seems they were so tiny they were lost within the seams and pockets of the miners.
  • pontiacinfpontiacinf Posts: 8,915 ✭✭
    sam, if you have seen and held a gold dollar from the 1850's it would probibly be smaller than that image
    image

    Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill

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