# Silver coins



## untouchable1 (Mar 8, 2012)

What are the coins that have high silver content and people are using to save for prepping? I finally filled my crown royal bag up with change so I'm rolling it and figured I'd be on the lookout for anything I could save.


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

Dimes, quarters and halves *before* 1965 are 90% silver. 1965 - 1970 Kennedy halves are 40% silver.

Edited to add: All of the large silver dollars that were minted before the Eisenhower (before 1971) are 90% silver. Most nickels struck 1942 - 1945 are 35% silver. The silver ones are identifiable by having the mint mark above the dome of Monticello on the reverse. There are other modern silver coins, but they are special issued, collector coins.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

http://coinflation.com/

This site has the metal values of all US coins.


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## Padre (Oct 7, 2011)

untouchable1 said:


> What are the coins that have high silver content and people are using to save for prepping? I finally filled my crown royal bag up with change so I'm rolling it and figured I'd be on the lookout for anything I could save.


If you find ANY silver coin in circulation, you should of course save it, as its face value is a tenth of its metal value.

The highest silver content is .999 which was first attained by Canadian Maples and is now available in US Silver Eagles. You can also get .999 silver bars from mints like Credit Suisse, though not from any government that I know of.

But if you are going out to buy silver you need to ask yourself two questions what are you buying it for and in what context do you envision you using it.

1) Are you buying it as an investment/inflation hedge in this economy OR as a form of currency in a EOTWAWKI situation?

Everyone, who has retirement savings should have a little silver or gold as a hedge against inflation, but if you are buying it primarily as a form of currency for a day when greenbacks aren't worth the paper they are printed on then its only the silver that maters.

If its an investment then you may consider a coin that has BOTH intrinsic silver value AS WELL AS numismatic value. I have been collecting coins since I was 12 and I enjoy pretty coins. As an investment, pretty, or rare, coins make a lot of sense since their value could double or triple above and beyond the simple metal value of the coin. Thus a .90 silver dollar from 1891 might be worth more than a .999 Silver Eagle from 2012, even though there is less silver in it. The benefit with coins that have numismatic value is that even if the price of the metal collapses the price of the coin could fare much better. This being said in a EOTWAWKI situation almost no one is going to be interested in numismatic value. In such a situation the content will be key. Numismatic coins will still have value, but their value will be in grams or ounces of silver. Thus don't spend $50 on a coin that has only $20 of silver content IF you are primarily preparing for SHTF.

2) The second question is also important--in what context do you see yourself using the coin. Do you envision holding the silver long term for after a crisis, as a means of wealth preservation, as order is being restored? Or do you envision trying to use it for barter, essentially as a type of currency, during a crisis situation.

Today a silver coin is worth its value + its historical value if any. In the future it might very well be worth just its silver value. Still the situation in which you think you will likely be selling your silver should impact what you buy.

If you are trying to preserve wealth during a crisis so that afterwards you will be able to recover some of the savings that today we keep in banks, stocks, bonds, 401ks etc, then you would want to use large pure units of silver and gold. One ounce or more .999 pure rounds or larger. *In this case I personally do not think government issued coins offer you any benefit over privately struck rounds or bars.* Since silver is silver and once a market for it is being restored their will be tests and safeguards available to verify the content of your silver. You pay 1-4 dollars per ounce MORE for legal tender silver and gain no real value from the stated face value, since of course you would never actually sell an eagle for a dollar.

Recognizable government issued silver/gold CURRENCY today is protected by counterfeit laws and regulations governing the standards for these coins, i.e. purity, weight, etc. Today, if you don't trust the party you are buying the silver from then you might want to by legal US tender silver, as anyone who sells fake, or altered US coinage would open themselves up to easily convict-able counterfeiting charges rather than much harder to prove fraud charges.

As a result of this fact, coinage offers the benefit DURING a SHTF situation of being recognizable, standardized, and theoretically more widely accepted. So if you envision trading your silver for needed goods during the SHTF but before a economy is established, then you most likely would want legal tender in SMALL denominations, since it is hard to MAKE CHANGE from a silver, never mind Gold, one ounce round. If you plan to try to barter I would buy mostly silver, not Gold, and keep it under one ounce coins keeping some pre-1964 quarters and dimes in your collection. Some gold is probably a good idea, but if you try to barter with gold you will probably end up paying a lot more for the same item, as most of the big ticket items for which Gold would be appropriate would not be for sale.

Think about it gold is $1700 an ounce, what sorts of things do you think you will find available for $1700? This being said, I think you should also realize that in the midst of a SHTF situation few people will be willing to trade anything, that they don't have large surpluses of, for silver as silver is no good to eat, drink, use as medicine, or shoot.


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

Good analysis


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## md1911 (Feb 9, 2012)

Padre said:


> If you find ANY silver coin in circulation, you should of course save it, as its face value is a tenth of its metal value.
> 
> The highest silver content is .999 which was first attained by Canadian Maples and is now available in US Silver Eagles. You can also get .999 silver bars from mints like Credit Suisse, though not from any government that I know of.
> 
> ...


Silver can be used as a pain reliver. Coloidail silver.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

I agree with 100% or Padres analysis.

"*In this case I personally do not think government issued coins offer you any benefit over privately struck rounds or bars.* Since silver is silver and once a market for it is being restored their will be tests and safeguards available to verify the content of your silver. You pay 1-4 dollars per ounce MORE for legal tender silver and gain no real value from the stated face value"

This is the key point, along with this
"As a result of this fact, coinage offers the benefit DURING a SHTF situation of being recognizable, standardized, and theoretically more widely accepted. "

Since you are paying 1-4 more dollars, correspondingly you would get 1-4 dollars less (at the very least, probably more) for the uncertainty and/or cost of testing the purity. In or after a true collapse/SHTF this test may be unavailable or prohibitively expensive, so at least theoretically it could be actually worthless, or taken at a substantially reduced 'value'.
Value is in quotes because during said collapse the published value could be anything (presumably some astronomical number) BUT as with anything, it only matters what the seller (in barter terms) is willing to accept as payment, not what someone else (the buyer) thinks its worth.
Theres lots of discussion on this topic.
Hypothetically, if I have lots of food, but no need for a lump of metal (no matter what its posted/accepted value, then your silver is worthless.

I am not being negative, I think pm's should be apart of any portfolio and preps. Just making a point, there a lot of people who think this way. A lot of it would depend on your situation and location. You are more likely to get 'true' value closer to civilization than from a self sustaining farmer off in the hinterlands.


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

Trying to find silver coins is very frustrating to me. If you look them up, let's say a 1922 Peace dollar, some are selling for $5,000 and some for $33 ( or whatever the current market price of silver is). I realize that uncirculated is better than circulated, but after that what makes one worth $5k and another worth the value of the silver content.


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## md1911 (Feb 9, 2012)

lazydaisy67 said:


> Trying to find silver coins is very frustrating to me. If you look them up, let's say a 1922 Peace dollar, some are selling for $5,000 and some for $33 ( or whatever the current market price of silver is). I realize that uncirculated is better than circulated, but after that what makes one worth $5k and another worth the value of the silver content.


The condition of the coin is one factor. Then their is how many were minted in a certain yeear and at wich mint. Finaly some years and typs of coins have been melted by the mints to reclaim the metal. All of these factors are what sets the value of a old coin.


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

You know, I think my brain needs a new data chip. I can't possibly store this much info on the one I've got.


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## untouchable1 (Mar 8, 2012)

Im with you lazydaisy lol, but its all great info thank you for replying. I didnt find anything in the changed except 1 quarter that I couldnt tell if it was 1962 or 65.


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## Padre (Oct 7, 2011)

md1911 said:


> Silver can be used as a pain reliver. Coloidail silver.


True DAT! So... can you tell me how to make it???
:dunno:

:congrat:

For most people silver has no medicinal value, as is. Particularly if you don't know how to make Coloidail silver, or as most people, don't evne know what it is or what it can be used for...

I know what it is and what it can be used for, but honestly don't know how to make it, and guessing that this was true for most people I omitted that use for it. In general silver is only USEFUL in coin, jewelery, and electronics, it is pretty though.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

Immolatus said:


> I agree with 100% or Padres analysis.
> 
> "*In this case I personally do not think government issued coins offer you any benefit over privately struck rounds or bars.* Since silver is silver and once a market for it is being restored their will be tests and safeguards available to verify the content of your silver. You pay 1-4 dollars per ounce MORE for legal tender silver and gain no real value from the stated face value"
> 
> ...


I doubt that I would sell food during a collapse. You don't know how long it will last or if you have enough food. I would recognize silver as being valuable even if I don't want any of it. I would think that farmers or gardeners would be willing to sell their excess food. Silver would be an excellent medium of exchange but only if the seller is willing to accept it.


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