1961 Un Peso

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by Kimster, Dec 2, 2011.

  1. Kimster

    Kimster New Member

    I found a 1961 Un Peso (one dollar) Mexican coin while metal detecting. I tried to look it up to see if this coin contained any silver and what that silver content might be. I found that this coin is referred to as the "Mexican Silver Dollar" and appears to be worth around $5 or $10 today. I believe this coin was taken out of circulation in the '80s. Though the Un Peso coins that I found on line had a nice silver color to them, my coin, which was in the ground for an unknown amount of time (I found it in a soccer field and assume it was someone's good luck piece) has a deep brown tone with some of the silver showing through. Generally silver coins that are found in the ground that have a high silver content, such as the US silver coins, come out as bright and shinny as the day they were minted. So I'm assuming that the Un Peso coin contains very little silver. Can anyone tell me anything about this coin.
     
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  3. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    10% silver content, so low as to almost be uneconomical to process, unless you only are processing them. These are famous on Ebay for getting fools pay good money for "Mexican silver coins".
     
  4. bobbeth87

    bobbeth87 Coin Collector

    10% silver
    0.0514 Oz ASW
     
  5. kookoox10

    kookoox10 ANA #3168546

    Wow, that's a negligible amount of silver. Why put in any in the first place? Nice find on the other hand.
     
  6. medoraman

    medoraman Supporter! Supporter

    Inflation was eroding their currency, but the UN PESO always contained silver, so they tried to keep the tradition. Also, when first struck, they looked like nice silver, kind of like the Romans did when they debased their silver coins. It works for a while.

    The same question could be asked why they had 40% silver in US halves from 1965-1970. They used it to brag not ALL our coins were without silver now. :(
     
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