US Pre-1965 Junk Silver Dimes, Quarters, Halves 1946 to 1964

With the world economy seemingly on shaky ground, some people are turning to hard investments like real estate, commodities, cash, and precious metals (gold and silver), preferring them over paper-based promises of world governments. One popular hard investment is known as 'junk silver' which is made up of old US dimes, quarters, and half dollar dated 1964 and before. The price of silver goes up and down, so it takes a little work to understand how much 'junk silver' is worth at any given time. We go into some detail to answer that question accurately.

In 1965 the US abandoned silver in their circulating coinage. Until then, dimes, quarters, and half dollars were made of 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper. As such, pre-1965 US silver coins are bullion coins, and there is a market for bullion.

You can look up the current value of silver at web sites such as kitco.com. Say, for instance, the current price of silver is $25 US dollars per troy ounce. Look it up. It changes continuously.

There are two methods you can use to evaluate junk silver coins:

- the Weight Method
- the Rule-of-Thumb Method

Both methods yield the same result. Choose the one you like best.

THE WEIGHT METHOD

To know the value of a pre-1965 US silver coin, you need to know how much silver is in each coin. Here are the amounts of silver in 'junk silver' coins:

1946-1964 Roosevelt dimes: each dime contains 0.07234 troy ounces of silver
1932-1964 Washington quarters: 0.18084 troy ounces silver
1948-1963 Franklin halves: 0.36169 troy ounces silver
1964 Kennedy halves: same as Franklin halves

Remember that with precious metal, the word 'troy' is understood in weight measures, so 'troy ounce' and 'ounce' mean the same thing when talking about gold and silver. So a silver price on kitco.com is in troy ounces. But a troy ounce is not the same as a regular avoirdupois ounce. Also, to futher confuse things, there are 12 troy ounces in one troy pound, not 16. Be careful when you do your calculations.

To compute value of any 'junk silver' coin, multiply its silver weight by the current price of silver. This gives the approximate retail value of the coin. As an example, suppose you want to buy a 1958 Washington quarter. Assumming a silver price of $25 per troy ounce, the value is 0.18084 x 25 = $4.52. That's how much, roughly, you would have to pay to buy the coin. If you shop around you can usually do a little better.

On the other hand, if you have a 1958 Washington quarter and want to sell it, a coin dealer or a pawn shop might offer 75 percent of the silver price, or 0.75 x 4.52 = $3.39, to buy it from you. Don't forget, a bullion dealer needs a decent mark-up to stay in business. The actual mark-up percentage varies with the size of the transaction. For a single coin, the 75 percent factor is typical. For 1000 coins, that changes to 90% or better.

THE RULE-OF-THUMB METHOD

Dealers in junk silver like to use a rule-of-thumb factor to compute value. It goes like this. First, add up the face value of all the coins being bought or sold, then multiply the face value by a rule-of-thumb factor to determine silver value, like this:

[silver value in dollars] = [factor] * [face value in dollars]

For instance, for our assumed $25 per troy ounce silver price, the [factor] is 18. Say you have a roll of pre-1965 quarters. The roll contains 40 coins, or $10 face value, so the value of the roll is 18 x 10 = $180.

The [factor] goes up and down with the silver market. It is computed by:

[factor] = 0.72 * [silver value in US dollars per troy ounce from kitco.com]

With $25 silver, the factor is 0.72 x 25 = 18.

A FEW TWISTS

The coins we have discussed above are truly 'junk silver' for the most part. However:

- Roosevelt dimes dated 1949S
- Washington quarters dated before 1937
- Franklin halves dated 1955

are worth more than junk value, and 1932 Washington quarters with D or S mint marks are very rare and are worth much more than silver value, even in heavily worn condition.

Also, any pre-1965 coin in uncirculated condition, or nearly so, is worth more than junk, regardless of date. Collectors really like uncirculated coins, and will pay well over junk value to buy one.

Sometimes older coins are advertised as junk, but they are rarely sold that way. Do you see the old Barber dime at the lower-center of our picture? Also there is an old Mercury dime turned upside down right next to it. This may be to entice unwary souls to purchase the coins at junk prices, hoping to get non-junk coins in with the mix. Don't get your hopes up. Barber coins, Mercury dimes, Standing Liberty quarters, Walking Liberty halves, and all silver dollars are worth more than junk unless they are totally worn out or damaged.

Finally, if you would like more information about investing in gold and silver, please review our article on the subject, Rip-Free Gold and Silver: How to avoid rip-offs when investing in gold and silver.
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