90%, 40% and Proof Silver

Could someone tell me some tricks to telling the difference between 90% silver, 40% silver and Silver proof coins Ive found in circulation. Does it have something to do with luster? Do the 40% silvers have a copper layer that you can see on the edge? I have several silver JFK's and I am trying to figure out which is which, I know that all of the ones minted before 1965 are 90% silver for the most part but I think I have several post 65 proofs as well. I just need a quick way of being able to see what I should keep and what I should go spend/exchange at a gas station.

 

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Sorry if that seemed vague, I guess my delema is that I have several JFK's with dates before and after 1965 that have the same luster and feel, so I want to know if I have a bunch of proofs or what, and how to tell what coin is what.

 

You'd have to make quite a long list and maybe someone can find one but basically,proof AND business 1964's are all 90% silver,65-67(no mintmark) and 68D-70D are 40% silver (there is no copper core or cladding,just a lesser alloy) and all others are clad,with some exceptions.Any Kennedy from a Silver proof set or Heritage set is 90% silver.
As for appearance,it's pretty easy to tell the ones with silver content just by appearance alone.Just looking at them in the half light of my monitor,here is how the 8 silver ones at the top of my album look.Totally different:smile
Works under regular light too.

 

Thanks this helps a lot, I wasnt sure how long the 40% silver series was minted and that different mintmarks are silver and clad on different years. Thanks a lot!

 

Now I have another question, what do you think is the best strategy for finding silver peices in rolls or whatever, just buy as many as you can afford and take your chances or do you have a particular strategy that helps?

 

Do you recomend going to the same bank each time or going to several to increase your chances of gettting some silver?

 

Im just thinking statistic wise I would think it would be a good idea to hit several banks in one day and increase your chance of getting one or two silvers at each bank... but I may be wrong.

 

Well for me there is a certain strategy. Being a chess player I always need a strategy! But there is always an exception to the rule. I continue to get surprised when I think I got it figured out. Here's the strategy and I'm sticking to it:
Go to small town banks that have never changed their name and have been there for years. Ask how many rolls of half dollars they have. Buy them all. Clean them out in one shot.
The reasoning is maybe rolls of oldies have been sitting down at the bottom of the vault for 20 years. If you just buy part of their stash the good ones are left still sitting at the bottom and will stay there.
In Connecticut we get a lot of mutilated casino coins. They are mostly the makeup of the newer rolls. You have to hit a bank that still has rolls from before they built the two casinos.

 

Search halves for silver.

 

Well I suppose I could do that but I am building a spaceship and searching rolls for modern plastics.

 

The larger bank branches located in urban downtowns are said to be worth a try too, but I’m usually too lazy to journey downtown with the parking and traffic hassles.
However A teller at my neighborhood Wells Fargo said I might have better luck finding Half dollars at the downtown brannch so I’m going to give it a shot and will post if I get lucky.

 

I find that the little bank I have my checking account with and the main branches of Wells Fargo and First National are the only place that have rolls of halves, the rest have loose halves in drawers, now Ive actually had better luck getting loose halves in drawers than in rolls for some reason today however I think that if you get halves from a rather coin savvy person then the silver ones have allready been spotted when they went in the drawer. Any more input would be greatly appreciated.

 

I've lived in big cities (sort of). I've lived in the suburbs. I now live in rural America. In my experience - somewhat limited, to be sure - I've found that rural banks aren't too bad. All those old folks keeping silver in their sock drawer for 50 years, I guess. But in my town here at least, I have to find them in roles. The cashiers won't put them aside for me when they come in alone because they want them. Argh! Although the Post Office will sometimes.

 

65-70 half dollars actually are clad... they were made from a core that is 20% silver, 80% copper, with clad layers that are 80% silver, 20% copper. Overall they are 40 % silver by weight, but unlike the 90% silver halves from 1964 and earlier they are not a solid alloy.

From 1971 to the present they have a core of pure copper with clad layers that are 75% copper, 25% nickel. Exceptions are 40% silver proofs and business strikes bicentennials minted 1975-1976 by San Francisco (they also minted clad proofs) and 90% silver proofs in silver proof sets and heritage proof sets.

As to how to tell, from 1964 to 1970 it's easy to tell just by the dates. All proofs of these were minted in San Francisco... to tell the difference between a clad proof and silver proof is easy just to look the edge; the clad proof will have a copper stripe in the middle while the silver will have a solid silver edge. 1965-1967 don't have true proofs... there were special mint sets put out, some of them near prooflike.

 

Well, the bottom line is what GD said, It's blind luck" but there are some things you can do to avoid unneccessarily handicapping yourself and decreasing your luck.

IMO, all silver in half dollar rolls is new. When silver skyrocketed in the early eighties the last remnants of silver were removed and with only very rare exceptions all the silver out there has been placed in circulation by collectors trying to peak the interest of someone down the line or by people who don't know any better and they just spend their own coins (or someone else's coins). This means there are basically 2 ways for you to locate silver. 1: Be the first one to request halves after someone has cashed in their hoard and get the coins right back or 2: order boxes from the FED that have been made up of coins that were returned to them from numerous banks (some banks dump returned coins into their counting machine and the tellers are not allowed to extract coins once they are in the machine and counted, which guarantees that the coins will make it back to the FED). The biggest finds will be rolls that are turned in by hoarders, but the odds of finding those hoards are very slim! The harder work (but more consistant method) is to search boxes. My success rate fluctuates from 0.5% to 1.5% for silver in a box and almost all boxes fall into that range, although occassionally I will find a great box or a pointless box.

I have a bank that will hold any halves that are brought in and will also order boxes for me, so it is the best of both worlds. I then sort the coins and return the rejects to my regular bank as a deposit (so that I'm not charged a counting fee). I've done a little research to be sure that the two banks are not only different companies, but they are also serviced by different armored car companies, since this is one more step apart so that I reduce my chances of sorting the same coins more than once.

Like GD said, it all boils down to blind luck, some rolls are good and some are totally a waste of time. Just have fun because if you were in it for the money you're better off getting a part-time job, there just aren't enough coins out there for it to be as lucrative as a job is.

 

Silver witches in control

The silver witches were in control today. I have been meaning to try a small town bank just north of me where my girlfriend goes. My tendency is to go to the male tellers because I think they may treat me better.
So I walk in and go to a younger gentleman teller and ask for rolls of half dollars. A female teller doing nothing in particular shouts, "Those are for customers only". I reply that my girlfriend is a customer there and I'll send her in to get rolls. The witch says "They are for buisiness and commercial accounts only".
She did allow me a token two rolls but no more. I seriously doubt if any business wants half dollars. Most businesses want to get rid of them. Anyway out of 2 rolls I got a 1968D.
Then I drove into the next state and went to a very old bank. Again I chose a young male teller. After asking him for half dollar rolls AGAIN a female teller says, "Do you have an account here?". "Those are for customers of ours". So I gave up for the day with one 40% coin. The silver witches were *****y today.

 

Victor, I have found the same thing. Most women could care less about silver halves. What I have done in the past is get other coins as well as halves. Maybe 20 dollars worth of cents. Then I tell them I collect coins for my children. They usually think that it is very nice that I do that for them. I have a new baby and I show the women the babies picture. then they ooh and ahh!! Honestly I do save coins for my children but I also love searching rolls of halves. I have even given old crusty indian head cents to the ladies and they think I am so nice. Now they let me get what I want and they even tell me when pre '64 coins are in there.

 

About the 20$ worth of cents, it seems like they are more eager to give you those first then to have to get into the vault which I have noticed they are lazy and don't like to get out of their seats.