Do I have Silver Coins?

At ModernCoinMart, get a lot of calls asking if a particular coin is silver or not.

U.S. Silver Coins were minted from 1964 and before. Coins during this period were made with 90% Silver content. These coins were Half Dollars, Quarters and Dimes.

Half Dollars from 1965-1969 were make with part silver. However this is ONLY true with the Half Dollar which had a 40% Silver content.  This is also when the US Mint started to introduce other metal content like nickel and copper into the lower denomination coinage.

This type of circulated coinage is sometimes referred to as “Junk Silver”, "U.S. 90%", or "U.S. 40%". Junk Silver is usually purchased by investors who wish to speculate, or by refiners of precious metals.

We hope this information has been helpful. Happy collecting!