What You Need to Know to Buy Junk Silver

July 31, 2015

Buying and selling silver and gold is always a problem, there are many people who will take advantage of you if they have the opportunity.  For this reason, I would be very careful where I purchased my precious metals.  My first rule would be never buying any of Ebay. Personally, I would recommend junk silver

Junk silver generally refers to pre-1965 circulated silver dimes, quarters, and half-dollars that are comprised of 90% silver and 10% copper.  Major coin dealers generally sell these in $1,000 bags.  The $1,000 reflects the face value of the coins (i.e., the legal tender value of the coins).  People refer to the face value because, regardless of the denomination of the coins, $1,000 bags all contain the same amount of silver which is generally 715 troy ounces (the gross weight of these bags are approximately 800 troy ounces or 54.85 pounds).  These bags are also available in $500 and $250 bags.

Many small coin dealers will sell you junk silver in small amounts.  Check in your neighborhood and you will find a dealer who will sell you silver coins for cash and ask no names.

The reasons that I would consider junk silver is as follows

  • Pre 1965 US coins are easy to recognize and hard to counterfeit.

  • They are available to purchase at spot or with a small premium.

  • Because of the denominations running from a dime to a dollar, you can make change.

  • They will have a known value.

  • The denominations are small enough that you can make small purchases.

The silver content of junk silver is as follows

1878-1921 Morgan Dollars and 1921-1935 Peace Dollars are 90% silver and contain .7735 troy oz of silver.

One dollar of silver dimes, quarters or half-dollars contain 72% of a troy ounce of silver.

A dime dated 1964 or before has 7.2% ounce pure silver.

A quarter dated 1964 or before has 18% ounce pure silver.

A half dollar dated 1964 or before has 36% ounce pure silver.

A $1 dollar coin dated 1935 or before has 77% ounce pure silver.

A war nickel dated 1942 to 1945 has 5.62% ounce pure silver.

A Kennedy half dollar dated 1965 to 1970 has 14.79% ounce pure silver.

Forty percent silver bags consist of only circulated Kennedy clad half-dollars minted between 1965 and 1970, are available.  Slightly lighter than 90% bags, these $1,000 face value bags contain approximately 295 troy ounces of pure silver.

In the next few days, I will post an article on how to avoid being taken advantage of by the various con artist that will try to rip you off

Howard

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