Finding 40% Ikes

They actually minted millions of them and then melted them ( gov't efficiency at its finest). I'd bet my life they were to normal specs. I'm sure a few got out, like 1933 $20 SG's.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

The thing to check would be the bust coins of the 1790's. See how those correlate. I know a Bust dollar and a Morgan $ are different weights as are the minor coins. I think Bust coins are heavier, but I'm not 100% certain.

Any anomoly surely started then and just carried over throgh the centuries.

 

Flowing Hair $ - 29.96 gms. - .8924 oz. pure silver

Liberty Seated $ - 26.73 gms. - .77344 oz. pure silver

Trade $ - 27.22 gms. - .7874 oz. pure silver

Morgan/Peace $ - 26.73 gms. - .77344 oz. pure silver

 

I'll assume Flowing hair and Bust to be comparable, A very large difference between a standard old Morgan here,much bigger than I imagined !

now lets compare it against like four 1796 quarters for weight ! You'se guys can research that.

certainly early US gold and silver got melted and exported as metal prices fluctuated....much like 90% silver melted around 1980...and I guess is still getting melted ?

There are a lot of ugly FDR dimes, Wash quarters, and Franky halves, war nickels (etc) that can be melted....they kind of need to be mint state to save.

 

15% more silver approx.

That is a LOT !

 

As a side thought....

If you wanted to hold some silver ....

Blue envelope IKE's at near melt are a pretty sweet way to do it, I also like WL halves at Fine or better near melt value.

 

The 40% silver dollars, normally, were not put into circulation, but were sold to cllectors only. Finding them in circulation would be most unusual.

Nevertheless, in 1972, I requested 10 dollars from a bank hoping to get a type 2. I received 3 silver 1971 S's in the batch. The strange thing about them was that the condition of them was far superior to anything I ever saw in a blue envelope.

 

I've got 18 of the Blue Ikes in the OGP that cost me $2 each. I bought them when silver was about $6/oz.

Chris

 

OK for starters the old bust dolars WERE heavier but the 29.96 gram figure given above is wrong, it's 26.96 grams. The fineness was lower though so the actual silver content of the bust dollars was .7734 oz the same as the later Morgan an Peace dollars. The heavier wight was just the result of more copper.

Now the reason why the silver dollar is heavier than two halves, or four quarters, or ten dimes dates back to the Act of Feb 1853. The massive gold discoveries in California after 1949 resulte in the value of silver rising with respect to gold. By 1853 the silver in one dollars worth of silver coins was worth $1.04 in gold. This meant that the silver coins could be profitably melted down for their metal content. So the Act of Feb 1853 reuced the wight of th half dime, dime, quarter, and half dollar so they would remain in circulation. But since the siver dollar was the defined standard dollar, and the country still did not want to give up the bimetalic standard, it was felt that the weight of the silver dollar should not be "cheapened" by reducing its silver content. Combined with the weight reduction, the legal tender status of the minor coinage was also reduced to no more then $5 in any transaction. The silver dollar though did not have its legal tender reduced. The net result of this was the success of maintaining the minor coinage in circulation and the silver dollar being rmoved from circulation since it was worth more than its face value. (The silver dollar actually circulated during the 1840 to 1850 period.)

The silver dollar was left out of the Coinage Act of 1873, (Which raised the weights of the minor silver slightly) but when it returned in 1878 it was brought back at the old standard weight because it was still not a subsidiary coin and did not have a limited legal tender. It was possible for it to circulate now though because the silver discoveries of the Comstock Lode has caused the value of silver to plummet. These proprotional weights for the silver dollar and the minor silver coinage have been unchanged now since 1873. When the silver was removed the clad Ike dollarno longer retained the old proportional weight and a copper nickel clad Ike does weight twice that of the copper nickel clad half, but the 40% silver Ike does still maintain the higher percentage weight over the 40% silver half.

 

From a mechanical standpoint, the weights are different because it was only the dime, quarter, and half dollar that had their weights changed in 1853 and 1873. (The half dime was also changed in 1853.) In contrast, the weight of the silver dollar never changed. The weight of the pre-1853 half dollar was half the weight of the silver dollar, and all other coins were appropriately proportional.

From a historical standpoint, I have no idea why silver dollars were not affected when the weights of the other silver coins were changed in 1853. My best guess would be that mintages were too insignificant to matter, possibly combined with a desire to have the coins used in trade overseas. They weren't affected in 1873, of course, because the silver dollar denomination was suspended at the same time the specifications were changed.

 

Leave it to you Herb!

Mr. Dedicated Roll Searcher/Numismatist Extraordinaire! :kewl:

You come up with a price for them korters yet??

 

Hello - I'm new to this forum but am a longtime roll searcher and have been lurking here for a while.

I usually ask for large dollars when I'm scrounging around at the banks looking for interesting coins. I have had some luck with the best being ten silver Ikes from a teller. She had about $40 in Ikes and even mentioned that some of these look silver. I said "that's nice!". It was and there they were - she handed me them all thanking me for getting them out of her draw.

Maine_Jim

 

Welcome to the neighborhood, Jim!

Chris

 

The most popular word on CoinTalk!

"YET"

Also "One Day"

I haven't gotten my 1909 VDB S yet, but one day i will!