This forum has already made me richer, or my first Coinstar find

I've been a member of this forum for about 2 weeks. Yesterday I decided to check the local Coinstar machine's reject bin. I didn't expect to find anything other than maybe some garbage when I pulled a coin out of the bin. At first I thought it was a dime, possibly a silver Roosevelt dime. I looked at it when I got out of the store and was surprised to see that it was a 1917 French 50 centimes piece. Silver coin, although I'm not sure the percentage. Beautiful coin with an interesting backstory, but probably not worth much. That doesn't matter to me as my collection is not for sale and is priceless. Thanks to the members of this forum who suggested the Coinstar reject bin. It only took me a couple of weeks for it to pay off to be a member of this forum.

 

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Nice find indeed! And yes, as far as the value is concerned ... don't quit your job yet, not even for an hour or two. But it sure is cool to come across such a piece in a reject bin. That coin is Ag 835 by the way.

Christian

 

What does AG 835 mean? I'm not new to coin collecting (I've been collecting wheat pennies all my life) but I don't know the terminology and jargon associated with the hobby.

 

Ag means silver. When it comes to what metals a coin is made from, you will - in descriptions - sometimes see those Latin abbreviations that are also used in the periodic table of elements: Au is gold, Cu is copper, etc.

And 835 is the silver content - so 83.5 percent of your 50 centimes coin is silver. (The rest is usually copper.) Other "typical" silver contents are 925, 900, 625, and so on.

Christian

 

Makes sense. Thanks!

So this makes my 1967 half dollars Ag 400?

 

Basically right. But I think that among US collectors it is more common to refer to those JFK halfs as "40 percent silver", or (since most collectors know what the silver content was in what year) simply "silver clad". Those abbreviations come in handy if you have coins from other countries, such as this one ...

Christian

 

I always get a kick out of finding silver in the machine - dimes are the usual, but I have found standing liberty quarters even. Most finds are condemned Canadians though, but occasionally I get fortunate and find something like a 1945 George VI 10 cents, a .800 coin.

 

Nice find.

 

Thanks. I thought it was a nice find as well, especially from a Coinstar machine.

 

2.5 gram of .835 silver, about $1.50 in silver value. Nice find!

Here is link to site I found specs at:

http://www.ngccoin.com/poplookup/WorldCoinPrices.aspx?category=35591&worldcoinid=102835