How Do I Calculate the Value of My Junk Silver Coins?
If you have a junk silver coin collection and you’d like to determine your overall value before selling or insuring it, let’s find the value. A coin’s value comes from factors like the live spot price of silver, its condition, mintage, and rarity.
The first step we recommend is making sure your junk silver coins do not have numismatic value. There is no guarantee that they do, but if you have the time to check their value first, it could yield returns greater than face value or melt value.
This is recommended because of the nature of coin values, which are dependent on the coin’s condition, its rarity, and what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Coins with a high numismatic value may be worth substantially more than their melt value.
This may preclude selling your Morgan dollars or Peace dollars for melt value, as they are often worth more than the value of their silver alone.
Calculating Junk Silver Coin Value
After excluding coins that could sell for higher prices, like Morgan silver dollars or Peace silver dollars, it is time to organize coins by the silver content.
There have been three compositions of junk silver issued by the U.S. Mint: 90% silver coins, 40% silver coins, and 35% silver war nickels.
Identify Your Junk Silver Coins by Denomination and date
Dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver, which may be notated as .900 silver.
Kennedy half dollars minted from 1965-1970 and 1976 were 40% silver or .400 silver. Eisenhower dollars minted between 1971-1974 and 1976 were also composed of 40% silver.
Wartime nickels were issued between 1942-1945 when nickel was conserved for use in armored equipment for the U.S. Armed Forces. In those years, silver and manganese were substituted.
Having identified and separated these three compositions, let’s calculate their melt value and keep in mind that what we sell them for may be slightly less than the melt value.
Formulas for Finding the Melt Value of Silver Coins
To determine the melt value of a junk silver collection, we need to multiply the live silver spot price by the silver weight of a coin. While it would be ideal to have one formula to calculate the melt value of your junk silver coins, different compositions and weights require different formulas.
Melt Value of 90% Silver Half Dollars
Silver price x 0.3616 = Melt value of a single 90% silver half dollar.
To determine the value of your 90% silver half dollars, multiply the current silver spot price by 0.3616. These 90% silver half dollars have 0.3616 ounces of silver per half dollar and thee are about 2.75 of these per ounce of silver.
Melt Value of 90% Silver Quarters
Silver price x .1808 = Melt value of a single 90% silver quarter.
To find the silver value of a single 90% silver quarter, multiply today’s live silver spot price by 0.1808. These contain 0.1808 ounces of silver per quarter, and it takes about 5.5 silver quarters to amount to one ounce of silver.
Melt Value of 90% Silver Dimes
Silver price X 0.07238 = Melt value of a single 90% silver dime.
To calculate the value of 90% silver dimes, multiply today’s live silver spot price by .07238 for the melt value of a single dime. Silver dimes were made with 0.07238 ounces of silver, and there are about 14 silver dimes to an ounce.
Melt Value of 40% Silver Eisenhower Dollars
Silver price X 0.3161 = Melt value of a single 40% silver dollar.
To determine the value of a 40% silver Ike dollar, multiply the live silver spot price by 0.3161 for the melt value of a single dollar. Silver Eisenhower dollars contain 0.3161 ounces of silver and there are about 4 silver Ike dollars to an ounce.
Melt Value of 40% Silver Half Dollars
Silver spot price x 0.15 = Melt value of a single 40% silver half dollar.
To calculate the value of a 40% silver half dollar, multiply today’s silver spot price by 0.15 for the melt value of a single 40% silver half dollar. 40% silver dollars contain 0.15 ounces of silver per half dollar and there are about 7 of these to an ounce of silver.
Melt Value of 35% Silver Nickels
Silver spot price x .0.057 = Melt value of a single nickel.
Multiply the live silver spot price by 0.057 to find the melt value of a single wartime nickel. Wartime nickels were made with 0.057 ounces of silver per nickel and there are about 18 of these to an ounce.
What is the Best Way to Buy Junk Silver Coins?
If your primary interest is silver content more than anything else, consider damaged or cull coins by the bag, as these carry a marginally lower premium. If your capital allows for larger purchases, buying bags sold by face value may present stellar investment opportunities. It is always worth doing the math to determine what you are paying per unit.
