Circulated Barber Coinage Weight Loss Report

illini420

I was playing with my 90% junk silver Barbers today and having loads of fun sorting them by dates and stacking them

I remembered reading many posts/threads from some who refuse to buy worn out AG Barbers as 90% because of all of the silver lost through wear over the years. And I remembered posts of others who claim that there isn't as much silver worn away as you'd think because only the high points of the coins are actually worn away. So I thought it would be fun to break out the scale and weigh some Barbers

$50.00 face value of brand new 90% silver Barber coinage should weigh 1250g, the denomination of the individual coins doesn't make a difference.

500 dimes at 2.50g each = 1250g
200 quarters at 6.25g each = 1250g
100 halves at 12.50g each = 1250g

Knowing that information, I weighed $50.00 face value of average circulated Barbers of each denomination. Most coins were in the typical junk Barber grades of AG-G, with many coins worn down pretty thin, especially the dimes. Here's the results:

$50.00 face value of Barber Half Dollars = 1163g or 93.04% of original weight when new

$50.00 face value of Barber Quarter Dollars = 1141g or 91.28% of original weight when new

$50.00 face value of Barber Dimes = 1133g or 90.64% of original weight when new

So, based on these results, it's clear that the smaller denominations lose more weight when they are heavily circulated. It is interesting that the actual weight lost of these coin is only in the 7-10% range. I guess for some of the silver investors that may be significant (especially at today's prices). You'd think it would be much more than that when you can take worn out Barber Dimes and fit around $8 face value in a tube made for $5 face.

Personally, if I'm buying 90% junk silver I'll still take worn out Barber coinage if I can get it at the same price as other 90%. I think the coolness of dealing with 100+ year old coins and looking for dates still needed for my "junk albums" more than makes up for the 7-10% of weight lost through circulation.

mkman123

Illini420, thank you for weighing the coins and letting us know what you found. I know that barbers sell for a little bit more on ebay and on the bst in general.

coinut1799

Illini 420;
That was a very interesting analysis you did. I sell 90% to a local dealer and for awhile worn Barbers and St. Lib quarters were discounted due to the loss of silver content. I think the discounting lasted about 3 months, but now he pays the same for them as for the more recent 90% coins. I wondered how much silver was actually missing from Barbers, and you have answered the question.

ricko

Very interesting.. especially since the selection was from a random collection... more significant than I would have thought 'on average'. Cheers, RickO

BBN

Yes, interesting. So where does the worn off silver go? As residue on hands purses and pockets? So eventually the element returns to the earth?

ajaan

I wonder what the result would be if you took $50 worth of ave circ WLHs? or early Washington quarters?

denga

An interesting and useful study from illini420. Thanks for posting.

PerryHall

<< <i>An interesting and useful study from illini420. Thanks for posting. >>



Agree. Great and useful information. I never knew low grade coins lost so much silver.

291fifth

Interesting analysis! I'm surprised the weight loss was that high.

It should make 90% silver buyers more selective about what they purchase. A weight loss of nearly 10% is very significant when silver is at $37.00 an ounce!

robkool

Thanks for the analogy Mike... I kinda knew all along, that avg. circulated 90% silver would tend to lose about 5 ~ 10% of it's own weight. Another reason why I factor it in when I'm selling.

airplanenut

An interesting add-on would be to take a sampling of piece, circulated to unc (or as high grade as you can get) and weigh them to see the trend in weight vs. grade.

streeter

About 10 days ago---I separated my worn 90% from newer Washingtons and Franklins. I compared rolls of worn SLQ's and Barber quarters to non worn Washingtons. It took about 4 more quarters to get to the same height as non worn Washingtons. The worn quarters went away. If and when silver softens---worn coinage won't be on par---just like it used to be when silver wasn't so hot. Most people buy face value in small amounts and weight isn't as important. But the discrepancy is there. It may not be 10%(4 quarters per roll)--but it is significant.

Kove

Very interesting analysis. Thank you illini420. I also prefer a thin, worn Barber quarter or SLQ over a BU 1964 Washington quarter. Sure there's more silver and luster in the 1964, but the coolness factor doesn't compare with a 100 year old coin.

InYHWHWeTrust

Strong work, Illini! I've been wanting to do this for a while and never got around to getting one of them scale thingies. Will link over on the PM forum...

airplanenut

Ah, one other interesting comparison would be with other designs. Since the net amount of relief would be different, the same grade may indicate a different amount of silver remaining.

RYK

Very interesting and answers a question that I always wondered about.

keyman64

I could have done that study with Merc Dimes about a month ago but all of my "junk silver" is gone now. Thanks so much for doing the work and posting your analysis. You should do a little more testing and write an article for Coin World or Numismatic News. They would probably be happy with something like that. Nice job!

Meltdown

For that very reason, I try to buy & hold uncirculated 90% for my personal stash.
I figure it's full weight and down the road there will be some heavier numismatic interest in otherwise common 50's & 60's silver.

When I can, I try to purchase and hold original bank wrapped stuff.

oreville

Candidate for the Biggest Looser on the TV program?

scottgardener

Thanks for the numismatic MythBusting. (Confirmed!) A lot of us have wondered to what degree wear and tear occurred.

I stock up more on the 1915-1940 or so Renaissance era, particularly walking liberty halves. They are beautiful, though their high relief invites wear. I do spruce up the mix with befores and afters--Barbers and a few pre-1965 familiar faces.

illini420

Thanks for the comments. I don't have much other 90% lying around so I can't really do any other comparisons as suggested by a few. But I do welcome anyone else to weigh up $50 face of whatever they have whether it be BU '64 Kennedys, worn out Merc dimes or nearly flat Standing Liberty Quarters... they all should have started out as 1250g when new Post your results here and I'd be happy to add them to the first post.

Dave99B

This is a very interesting analysis! Thanks for sharing with the team.

I would have guessed a bit less of the silver would have remained, especially for the dimes, which get paper thin.

On a related note, about two weeks ago I sold $450.00 in face value 90% silver at my local coin shop. I had a ton of skinny SLQs, and Barber quarters and dimes in the mix that I had pulled from dealers junk boxes over the last 20 years. Like others, I’ve always been attracted to the older stuff, even when it comes to junk. I’d always pick through the shiny 1964 Washingtons and pull out the tired old paper-thin Barbers and SLQs, and an occasional Morgan dollar. I paid 4 or 5 times face for most of this material.

Anyway, with silver going nuts, I figured it was time to sell. I called around locally and the best quote I got was 22.9 x face for any 90% silver, which is what I sold it at. It didn’t matter to them what the coins looked like. They ran the entire lot through a coin counter, and just paid me based on face value. I was a bit nervous they would nick me because of the amount of wear. Not so!

Thanks again for the insight. Man, this board never fails to amaze me.

Dave

ambro51

I firmly believe that the ingestion of silver by people who carried coins in their pockets...silver coins wearing away atom by atom so to speak...entered their skin and system and actually provided an overall antibiotic effect on their 'constitution' which enabled many people of the past to be more resistant to the diseases of the day.


clad aint gonna do dat.

CoinHoarder

** OLD THREAD ALERT **

Here is the Barber "junk" silver I picked up today. The 1908 quarter weighs 5.8 gms, and the 1901 dime weighs 2.3 gms.

DisneyFan

@ambro51 said:
I firmly believe that the ingestion of silver by people who carried coins in their pockets...silver coins wearing away atom by atom so to speak...entered their skin and system and actually provided an overall antibiotic effect on their 'constitution' which enabled many people of the past to be more resistant to the diseases of the day.

clad aint gonna do dat.

I guess I better stop using my credit card!

lordmarcovan

Ah, a necro thread, but a good one. I missed it the first time around.

ricko

Good to see this one resurrected.... Good worn silver weight information. Cheers, RickO

Namvet69

@illini420 Nice, you're my kinda guy. I'm always on the prowl for worn Liberty head everything. I often find them in junk boxes at the flea. Have a good day. Peace Roy

ambro51

I’ve always felt the absorption of this molecular silver by generations of people who carried silver pocket change aided their disease resistance.

ambro51

@ambro51 said:
I’ve always felt the absorption of this molecular silver by generations of people who carried silver pocket change aided their disease resistance.