Pre-1964 US Quarters Have 90% Silver Worth $7 Each

Something interesting I saw about quarters, well, the 1932-1964 ones anyway. The quarters, consisting of 90% silver and 10% copper, if melted down, the metal cost alone is worth just over $7. So if you can find quarters with those dates, I would recommend holding onto those as well as the 1982 and earlier pennies.

 

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I still remember what happened here in the former USSR when the Soviet Union collapsed. The value of Ruble went down so much that people were melting the nickel coins to get money. The real value of the metal was much more than the currency value of the coin. Anyway, things have changed. But just wanted to say the valuations vary wildly with time.

 

Valuations vary, but what's bad in these situations, is that the value of the currency, at least the widely-accepted value of the currency, goes up, while the mints are taking out the valuable metals in the coins and replacing them with cheaper, near worthless metals. Sure the accepted value is high, but to be honest, the true value of the coin is worthless. I think having coins actually worth something would help buoy currencies in time of recession and depression.

 

I've seen a few videos of guys who hunt for half dollars, Peter. One guy went and dropped $200 on rolls of half dollars and came out with almost two full rolls of pre-1964s! Then, he took the duds back and got his toilet paper back. I thought this was pretty cool. He only "lost" about $20 and he easily multiplied his value with the silver content.

Also, I agree that the melting process wouldn't really be cost-effective at this point.

 

I've seen personal metal smelters online for as low as $200, you could probably find some cheaper too. It's not legal, but it wouldn't be too hard to do. Take the guy you mention Sean, for example. $20 worth of quarters at $7 a pop, is $560. Buy the furnace for $200, and the $20 in quarters, if he extracted all of the metal, he'd still profit $340 if he sold it at current market value. I'm sure if he made that profit off such a small amount, it wouldn't be hard to continue funding his project and just turning the money into more money. Could do the same with the old pennies too, although I'm not sure that would be as feasible, unless you had hundreds of those.

 

Nice break down! The only thing that sucks is that it's illegal lol. Maybe it could be down for a while in secrecy with intentions to quickly switch to a legitimate business model when feasible. Wait a minute... this is a bad discussion for a bullion website hahaha.

 

Hah, yeah I was just saying it was possible, and economically worth it, until you get caught. I definitely do NOT recommend trying it. Although it would still help you in the scrap metal world, as you get better prices for pure metal than you do for dirty, rusted metals. I still think the personal smelter would pay for itself over time, even being used legally. Hey, you could even charge people to melt down their stuff as well.

 

Very true. I know a guy who is actually trying to get some melted down. The he has no plans to sell anything, he is for some reason unsatisfied until his metals are pure. 90% silver is not silver to him. I have no clue why he thinks this way. I see him ruining his return on investment in the future because he's even willing to melt down sterling silver rounds that he paid for based on silver content. Why do that? No reason at all...

 

Melting down of national currency for metal usage is equal to high treason, isn't it? 90% silver is very very impure silver. Normal silver bars are 99.99% pure. You can try electrolysis of silver to make it around 99%, if you actually know the technique. Well... make sure you don't get caught by the cops.

 

It is VERY illegal to melt down currency. In the US I know for a fact, and I'm sure it's the same way elsewhere.

On the impurity part, if you did it on your own, that could be solved mostly if you had a way of controlling the temperatures. Since different metals melt at different temperatures, all you'd have to do is know what metals you're dealing with, and adjust accordingly to separate the metals. Even if you didn't know what metals you were dealing with you could still do this, but it would take much more time and energy.

 

I think it has more to do with the conversion of 90% silver to 99% or even 99.99% silver. If you don't melt the coins, how can you further purify the silver? And 90% silver is quite worthless (unlike 90% gold). Anyway make sure that you don't go to jail for treason if you decide to melt down currency coins.

 

90% silver is not worthless. Go on ebay and search for pre-1964 quarters and dimes. The dimes sell for about $3 and the quarters for about $7. They sell for roughly the silver value. I'm mentioning ebay as an example because you can see that there are active buyers at that price.

 

If we had a currency collapse, wouldn't the pre-1964 coins become more valuable simply because they could still be used for trade? They wouldn't be worth 5, 10 or 25 cents anymore, but they would be worth their weight in silver thereby allowing you the continued ability to make purchases. If a dime is worth $3 now, what would it's equivalent value be after a collapse? Maybe it will buy a loaf of bread, that is IF there are any loaves to buy.

 

Yes gothica, if we had a currency collapse, they would be worth more than face value, and more along their actual worth in metal content. We don't need a currency collapse for even this to happen as I have seen many people pay $5-$7 for these quarters on ebay, even though their current recognized value is only $0.25.

 

I think, rather than selling them for $5 apiece, you can store them for a little longer. The value of such coins will increase day by day (more and more people will melt them for the metal, so that only a few coins will remain intact). I wouldn't be surprised if these coins will get auctioned at $1,000 upwards in a few decades time.

Think about the future!

 

Why would you hold on to pre-1982 pennies? Because of the copper content in them?

Also, do most banks have a good amount of half dollars and silver dollars on them, or is this something you kind of just walk in and ask about? I'm quite curious about that myself.

 

Sky9: Yes, the copper content in the pennies. Althought they are not worth much now, if the economy continues on it's path, the value will continue to rise. Also, most banks SHOULD. Not sure if all of them do but I've seen before you just walk in and ask for that specific type of coin and they will oblige. Depending on the rarity of the coin type will also vary in certain areas. I've seen the gold Sacajawea coins more common out West than here in the East.

 

Aren't the gold Sacajawea coins only worth face value though? I'll have to go into some local branches and ask around, but I was mainly curious about things such as Morgan Dollars, and if I were to buy them from a bank and they had some, would they have to sell me them for the face value? Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, I'm just not fully educated in this area yet.

Thanks