Is Your Coin Silver or Not?

How to Tell the Difference


Silver is all the rage these days, with prices shooting from about seventeen dollars an ounce at the start of the year, to nineteen dollars in July, twenty-two dollars in October, and now at the close of 2010 almost topping thirty dollars an ounce. Being as it is a wise investment at this time, and a bit of a hobby too, people are digging through their closets and rooting through their attics for silver odds and ends, jewelry pieces, and coins.

But how do you know if that dusty, old shoe box full of coins in the back of your closet has any silver in it? Or if that jar full of spare change on the mantle has some surprises in store for you? How do you tell if a coin is silver of not? Several tests exist to determine the silver content of a coin; simple, quick, and easy observations one can make of one's own collection, to see if any goodies lie therein.


Date

Probably the easiest, and also the most foolproof method for determining a coin's silver content is its date. Every coin minted in the U.S. has a date on the face of the coin, and dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins minted in 1964 and earlier have a ninety percent silver content. If you're rummaging through your collection and you happen to come across an old quarter, dime, half dollar, or dollar that dates before 1965 then you're in luck! That's ninety percent silver right there!

Also, the Kennedy half dollars minted in 1965 to 1970 were made with forty percent silver. Not quite as valuable, but definitely worth keeping an eye out for! Other collector coins have been made of silver (in 1976 for the bicentennial of the United States and then from 1992 to present time) but these are very rarely found in circulation.


Appearance

The appearance of a coin is the next best indicator of whether or not it's silver. Silver coins actually have a different look to them than the "clad" (regular copper/nickel) coins. These clad coins are actually a bit of a sandwich. Imagine two plates of nickel alloy being pressed onto a piece of copper, then stamped and finished up. Well, that's how modern dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins are made. And since the copper/nickel alloy is actually a harder metal than regular silver, silver coins that have been in circulation tend to have a softer, less defined, more worn look, and sometimes have distinctive dark or tarnished areas on its surface.

Grab a quarter out of your pocket. Take a look at the edge of the coin. Notice how it's kinda brown, while the two faces of the coin are the typical silvery color? On the edge of the coin the copper is actually showing through where the nickel didn't fully cover. This brown edge indicative of clad coins does not appear on 90% silver coins. The edges of these silver coins are evenly the same color as the rest of the coin. As an exception to this rule, forty percent silver coins can have a darker ring around the edge. The center layer of these is made up of mostly copper, sandwitched between two layers of silver. Best to double verify by checking the dates on these ones.


Weight

Next, the weight of a coin can actually tell you what kind of metal it's made of. Granted you'll need a very delicate measuring device, perhaps a gram scale or a jeweler's scale to determine this, and also granted a coin will lose some of its weight through circulation caused by abrasion, destruction, and rubbing, but this method is still quite effective.

Basically silver weighs more than the usual copper/nickel alloy. For example a run of the mill Washington quarter weighs 5.67 grams, and a silver Washington quarter will weigh in at 6.25 grams, a little more than half a gram difference.


Sound

Finally, the sound a coin makes when dropped onto a hard surface is also an indicator of its make-up. Silver coins when dropped onto something hard produce a very distinctive ringing tune, where clad coins make more of a thud. The sound is actually so unique that some experts who have worked with a lot of silver can actually tell if a coin is silver or not, simply by dropping it on the table.

Using these four above methods: date, appearance, weight, and sound you can accurately see if your coins are silver or not. No need to take them to a dealer or pawn shop to determine their make-up now. And for anyone with a lot of old coins and some free time, applying this data can be a fun way to spend a rainy day, and possibly profitable too! So good luck and happy searching!