coin guide

What U.S. Coins Are Silver?

U.S. dimes, quarters and half dollars dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver. Half dollars dated 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver, silver dollars dated through 1935 are 90%, and nickels are silver only in the wartime issues of 1942 to 1945, at 35%. If you're sorting a jar or an inherited collection and wondering what coins are silver, the denomination and the date settle nearly every piece, because the Coinage Act of 1965 wrote the cut-off into law.

The common pre-1965 coins are what the trade calls junk silver, where "junk" means only that a coin carries no collector premium. Their silver is counted in troy ounces. NIST gives the troy ounce as 31.103 grams, against 28.350 grams for the ounce on a kitchen scale.

U.S. Silver Coins by Denomination and Date

Weight and silver content below are the figures in NGC's table of U.S. silver coins, stated for a coin at full weight. Worn coins weigh slightly less. For the American Silver Eagle, the row follows the law that defines the coin.

Silver content is weight times fineness. Take silver quarters as the example. Each weighs 6.25 grams and is 90% silver, so it holds 6.25 times 0.900, or 5.625 grams of silver, and 5.625 divided by 31.103 is 0.1808 troy ounce. The dime, quarter and half dollar weights in the table date from the Coinage Act of 1873, which put the half dollar at 12.5 grams, the quarter at one-half of that and the dime at one-fifth. They held until the last 1964-dated coins.

When the Mint Stopped Making Silver Coins

Silver was part of U.S. circulating coinage until 1971, when it came out of the half dollar. The dime and quarter lost theirs in 1965. Neither year appears on the last 90% coins, and the reason is in the law.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Coinage Act on July 23, 1965. It replaced the silver dime and quarter with copper-nickel clad coins of 2.268 grams and 5.67 grams and cut the half dollar to 40% silver. It also fixed the dates. Any coin struck from the old 900 fine alloy after enactment had to be inscribed 1964, and no clad coin could be dated earlier than 1965.

So 1964 on a dime, quarter or half dollar isn't a rule of thumb. It's a legal label for the alloy, and coins carrying it were still being struck after the act passed. A law of September 3, 1964 had already told the Mint to keep using that date after the year ended, and the Coinage Act let it go on making 90% coins until clad supplies were adequate, with an outer limit of five years.

On the U.S. Mint's timeline, production of the first clad quarters began on August 23, 1965, and they were released on November 1. Clad coins give themselves away from the side, because their copper-nickel faces are bonded to a core of pure copper. Johnson told the public what to look for at the signing: "They will show a copper edge."

Half Dollars Kept Silver Through 1970

The half dollar kept silver for six years after the dime and quarter lost it, which makes it an easy coin to misjudge in an inherited jar. Kennedy half dollars dated 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver: the 1965 act specified a coin of 11.5 grams holding 4.6 grams of silver and 6.9 grams of copper, and 4.6 divided by 11.5 is 0.40. The Denver Mint began striking them on December 30, 1965.

A 40% half is built as a sandwich. PCGS defines the silver-clad half dollar as two outer layers of 80% silver bonded to a core that's mostly copper. Johnson said the new coin would be "nearly indistinguishable in appearance" from the old one, and that resemblance is why these coins get missed. A scale doesn't help much either: the 40% coin's 11.5 grams sits just 0.16 gram above the 11.34 grams of today's clad half dollar. Go by the date.

The only 90% Kennedy is the first one. PCGS calls the 1964 Kennedy half dollar a one-year type, struck at Philadelphia and Denver before the 40% coins replaced it. Among earlier silver half dollars, the Barber, Walking Liberty and Franklin series are all 90%.

Nickels Are Silver Only in the War Years

The pre-1965 rule doesn't apply to nickels. The only silver nickels are the wartime Jefferson issues, which PCGS lists at 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese and 5.00 grams. NGC puts the silver in each coin at 0.0563 troy ounce.

To keep the two alloys apart, the Mint marked war nickels on the back. The mint mark, the small letter that shows where a coin was made, moved from the right of Monticello to above the dome, and a P for Philadelphia appeared on a U.S. coin for the first time. NGC's sorting rule is that every nickel dated 1943, 1944 or 1945 should be the silver alloy, and a 1942 nickel is silver only if it has the large mint mark. A scale can't separate them, because both alloys weigh the same.

A 1964 nickel isn't silver. The Coinage Act left the five-cent piece alone, as Johnson said in one line: "There is no change in the penny and the nickel." Regular nickels are 75% copper and 25% nickel.

Silver Dollars Through 1935 and the Eisenhower Issues

The silver dollar was introduced in 1794 and issued for circulation in intermittent years through 1935. The two designs you're most likely to find are the Morgan dollar (1878 to 1921) and the Peace dollar (1921 to 1935). Each of these silver dollars is 90% silver, weighs 26.73 grams and holds 0.7734 troy ounce of silver.

Dollar coinage then stopped, and the 1965 act barred silver dollar coinage for five years. When the dollar returned in 1971 with President Eisenhower on it, the Mint made copper-clad and silver-clad versions. Eisenhower dollars struck for circulation are copper-nickel clad. Only the collector issues dated 1971 to 1976 are silver: 40% silver, 24.59 grams, with 0.3161 troy ounce of silver in each.

Older Denominations and the First Silver Standard

An old collection can hold silver denominations the Mint no longer makes. The first U.S. five-cent coin was silver, not nickel, and that coin, the half dime, was made until 1873. PCGS lists the 1872 Liberty Seated half dime at 90% silver and 1.24 grams.

Three more belong on the list. PCGS dates the silver three-cent series 1851 to 1872 and lists the 1851 issue at 75% silver and 0.80 gram. Regular strikes of the twenty-cent piece, dated 1875 and 1876, are 90% silver at 5.00 grams. Then there's the Trade dollar, with regular strikes from 1873 to 1878. It's 90% silver and weighs 27.20 grams, 0.47 gram more than a Morgan or Peace dollar.

The 90% standard is younger than the Mint itself. The Coinage Act of 1792 set silver coins at 1,485 parts of pure silver in 1,664, which is 89.24%. The 900 fine standard, 900 parts silver and 100 parts copper, dates from the Act of January 18, 1837, so a coin dated before 1837 is a fraction under 90%. Coins struck to that standard are also sold as constitutional silver, another name for what people call junk silver.

Silver Coins Made After 1970

Silver left pocket change, not the Mint. The U.S. Mint says some collector versions of its circulating coins are made of silver, and the law behind its quarters honoring a national site in each state let it issue collector versions with a content of not less than 90% silver. That makes a date after 1964 a strong first test and not a final one. A coin that came out of a collector set can be silver whatever its date.

The other modern silver coin was never meant for change. Federal law sets American Silver Eagles at 31.103 grams of .999 fine silver, and the Mint's timeline dates the first strike to October 29, 1986. It's a bullion coin, bought for the one troy ounce of silver it contains.

Wrong-Planchet Errors That Break the Date Rule

Date sorting fails in both directions for a handful of mint errors. A planchet is the blank disc a coin is struck from, and when the alloy changes, a few old blanks meet new dies. NGC records a 1965 dime and a 1965 quarter struck on 90% silver planchets, and a small number of 1971-D and 1977-D Kennedy half dollars struck on silver-clad planchets.

NGC's first step for a suspect coin is to weigh it. Full-weight silver dimes weigh 2.5 grams against 2.268 grams for a clad dime, a gap of 0.232 gram, and a silver quarter outweighs a clad one by 0.58 gram. A scale that reads to 0.01 gram shows either one. If the weight points to silver, certification by a grading service such as PCGS or NGC removes the doubt. Weight is only one test for a single coin, and a coin with a worn-off date calls for others.

Silver Coins on Our Two-Way Market

Common-date silver coins trade on their metal, but look through the dates before you treat a pile as bullion. NGC attaches one caution to its silver content figures: a coin's collector value may be higher than its melt value. We run a two-way market, so the price to sell these coins is shown beside the price to buy, and you can sell on the same platform, including coins bought elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to tell if a 1 dollar coin is silver?

Start with the date, then weigh the coin. A Morgan or Peace dollar, the designs dated 1878 to 1935, is 90% silver and weighs 26.73 grams at full weight. An Eisenhower dollar is silver only if it's a 40% collector issue, which weighs 24.59 grams. An American Silver Eagle says so on the coin, because the law requires the inscription "1 Oz. Fine Silver."

What are the key differences between silver coins and silver rounds?

A coin is issued by a government and carries a face value. Under federal law, United States coins are legal tender for all debts, and that covers a 1964 silver dime as much as an American Silver Eagle. A round is a privately made piece of silver in the shape of a coin. It has no face value and isn't legal tender, so it's bought for its weight and purity alone.

Can you still find silver coins in circulation?

Yes, but rarely. In 1965 Johnson estimated that more than 12 billion silver dimes, quarters and half dollars were outstanding, and he said there would be "no profit in holding them out of circulation." People held them anyway. NGC notes that most silver coins have been plucked from circulation by collectors who know what the metal is worth, though one can still turn up in pocket change.