Junk Silver Explained

The short answer. Junk silver means everyday US silver coins that are worth their metal and little more. The usual rule: $1 face value of 90% silver coins holds about 0.7234 troy ounces of silver. At today's price that is $39.07, and the number updates with the silver price.

Which coins count

Coins	Silver	Silver per $1 face
Dimes, quarters, half dollars, 1964 and earlier (including the 1964 Kennedy half)	90%	0.7234 oz
Kennedy half dollars, 1965 to 1970	40%	0.2958 oz
Silver dollars (Morgan, Peace), per dollar	90%	0.7734 oz
Jefferson war nickels, 1942 to 1945	35%	1.1252 oz

The war nickel has a high silver count per dollar of face value because a nickel is heavy for its face value. Not sure which kind a coin is? Read how to tell if a coin is silver.

How to price a bag

1. Add up the face value of the 90% coins. Ten quarters is $2.50.
2. Multiply by 0.7234 to get troy ounces of silver. $2.50 gives 1.8085 oz.
3. Multiply by the silver price. The melt calculator does all three steps and shows the current price.

That is the melt value. It is the value of the metal, not an offer.

What a dealer pays

Dealers buy junk silver below melt, because they need a margin and the coins have to be sorted and sold on. A fair guess is somewhere between 70% and 95% of melt, depending on the dealer, the size of the lot and the market that week. We do not track dealer prices, so treat that range as an estimate. Ask two dealers for a quote before you sell.

Before you sell, check for dates that are worth more

Most junk silver is just metal, but some dates sell for much more than melt. Key dates in dimes, quarters and half dollars can be worth many times the silver in them. Look up each date and mint mark on the coin pages before you sell by weight.