What is junk silver?

If you’re just starting to get into collecting silver or other precious metals, you may have seen the term “junk silver”, but what exactly is junk silver?

What is Junk Silver

Junk silver almost always refers to circulated 90% silver U.S. coins that were minted before 1965.

They are usually so worn they hold no other value as a collectible so instead they're worth only their silver content.

Junk silver is a type of silver coin that isn’t really worth anything in the value of numismatics, collectibles, or history, but it’s worth more than face value in its silver content.  If you collect enough junk silver, you can get a decent amount of money from selling them for their silver content.

That’s the basic definition of junk silver, but let’s get into what coins constitute junk silver and the differences between junk silver, bullion and numismatic coins.

Is junk silver different from bullion?

You may have junk silver in your coin jar or coin collection right now! Nowadays coins are made of a composite of metals, such as nickel and copper, but coins that were minted before the year 1965, such as the dime, and the quarter were actually made with 90% silver content!

Now, some of these older coins are worth a considerable amount due to rarity, condition of the coin, or an error during the minting process. But most of them don’t fall into this category. If you have an old Roosevelt dime that’s not in very good condition, but it’s pre-1965, that coin is worth its value in silver. Which is generally around 1.50 or so, depending on the current silver market.

Since the coin is not in great condition, it doesn’t have any numismatic value, this would be junk silver.

Junk silver differs from bullion in the sense that bullion is generally specifically bought as bullion in .999 pure, like the silver or gold American Eagle series from the U.S. Mint. These would be considered gold and silver bullion. 

A coin with numismatic value is usually a coin that shows little to no wear, meaning it’s in a good condition, and is rare, or a particular error. There are many different rare coins that are worth a lot to collectors, but we’re not going to go into those today.

What coins are made of silver?

When looking for junk silver, you usually want coins that have 90% silver content. Remember to look for coins that were minted before 1965. There are a few coins that have less than 90%, so they’re not worth quite as much as the 90% silver coins. The silver war nickels that were minted from 1942-1945 only contain about 35% silver.

The most common 90% silver coins you can still find today are:

• Roosevelt Dime 1946-1964
• Mercury Dime 1916-1945
• Washington Quarter 1932 and 1934-1964
• Kennedy Half Dollar 1964
• Franklin Half Dollar 1948-1963
• Standing Liberty Quarter 1916-1930

Is junk silver worth collecting?

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If you’re looking into starting to purchase silver, you might be wondering if it’s better to purchase bullion coins like the silver eagle series, or bags of junk silver. The short answer to that is, it doesn’t really matter, some collectors prefer silver or gold eagles, and some prefer bags of old quarters or dimes, it’s really a personal preference to what you want in your collection of coins. But it’s always good to have diversity in a collection of coins and precious metals.