Silver coins are out there. Some you will find that cost next to nothing or at bargain prices, others you have to be careful not to pay too much for. I will cover good sources for silver coins below, but always be mindful of what the spot price of silver is--ie the current value of one troy ounce of silver. The websites coinflation.com and Kitco.com are excellent resources for tracking the prices of silver and bullion values of coins. Most countries stopped including silver in their circulating coins around the 1960s, however Mexico is the only country today that still mints silver alloy coins in some of their larger denomination coins.
1) Check your change! It probably won't happen often, but you can still find a silver coin in change you receive when buying something with cash. US coins that sometimes still circulate out there and that have silver in them are the following:
a. Pre-1965 dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollar coins. That is to say, any of these denominations from 1964 and further back in time. Each coin is 90% silver. A simple way to look, especially if your eyes are bad, is to check the edge of each coin where the reeding is. If you see a brown, copper-colored band around the edge, it's clad coinage that has no silver in it.
b. Half dollars from 1965 to 1970. Kennedy half dollars from 1965 to 1969 are 40% silver. The 1970 coin is silver as well but was made only for collector mint and proof sets, so you probably won't find these circulating.
c. Jefferson nickels from 1942 to 1945. These war-time nickels have 35% silver content. You can easily identify them because the mint mark is directly above the building Monticello on the reverse. Usually you would find a smaller mint mark on Jefferson nickels on the obverse or on the side of the building on the reverse.
2) Search bank rolls for US silver coins. Sometimes certain banks do not offer coins in rolls, or perhaps only quarter rolls. You have to do some footwork and see where you can get the coin rolls you want. Of course, you probably want to be a member of the bank you visit or you might run into fees or discourteous bank tellers. It's harder these days to find silver coins from roll searching, but there are plenty of stories out there that tell you otherwise. Sometimes ignorant family members of a coin collector turn in change they find, and their silver coins go through a coin counting machine or straight to the bank.
3) Find foreign silver coins. When you go to flea markets, especially ones for antiques and collectibles, you will often see foreign coins in dishes or bags for sale. From some experience and having a little knowledge, you can quickly spot foreign silver coins. Although you'll run into a lot of base metal coins that are silver in color, silver coins usually stand out. They have a brighter, almost white color. The element silver reflects light better that other metals used in coins. Coins are usually tarnished and worn down, but comparitively the sheen of silver stands out. The more coins you handle, the more you will become aware of this quality.
More importantly, you have to study individual countries and what denominations and periods of time these coins had silver in them. For example, Canadian coins are 80% silver before 1968, and further back in the 20th century and into the 19th century they were sterling. It's definitely hard to spot silver coins that are less than 50 or 60% silver, so study a Krause catalogue of world coins or visit a coin shop to become more familiar with them. By the way, a coin alloy of metal that is less than 50% silver is known as billon. For instance, Mexico's Peso coin from 1957 to 1967 is 10% silver. Further back, the Peso was 30%, 50%, 72%, and then 80% silver.
4) Coin shops and other dealers. You can find plenty of good deals at your local coin shop, or on ebay or some other online source. With online buying, remember to factor in shipping costs if there are any. And at shops, you sometimes have taxes to deal with. I have found that coin shows can beat coin shop prices. There's a lot of competition at shows and because there's a high volume of customers, some dealers will offer silver coins and bullion at phenomenal prices. Plus, you won't typically run into paying taxes here. As stated before, know what the silver spot price is. If you are interested in buying US pre-1965 silver coins, check the website coinflation.com to see what the bullion value is for the coins you're looking for.
If you lack access to the Internet, but you have price guides and an idea of what one ounce of silver is going for, know how to calculate bullion values of coins. In the price guides, they should give the ASW--actual silver weight--of the coin in ounces. Multiply this weight by the spot price and you will have the bullion value of a coin. For example, a silver US quarter's ASW is .1808 oz. Let's say silver is around 22 dollars for an ounce. 22 multiplied by .1808 gives you about $3.98 for a quarter. Go with the dealer that sells closer to that value for each quarter. But remember there's always a small markup for silver coins and bullion. Sometimes buying from other collectors, rather than dealers, reduces that markup.
One last thing. Look for bags of foreign coins for sale online and sometimes at flea markets that seem like they haven't been searched through adequately. If you see dollar and two dollar coins from Canada or Austrailia, for example, there also might be silver goodies in there. Large denomination coins that currently circulate in other countries can be sold to dealers and other collectors, and silver coins are even easier to sell.
That about covers a lot of what's out there. Hope you made it through all that info! Good luck out there!
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