Cost of Silver Coins

Breaking News About the Cost of Silver Coins: Because of the extremely volatile gold and silver markets and the demand for coins as of April, 2008, my wholesalers have limited me buying silver coins from them to a minimum of half a bag, with is about 28 lbs, and costs between $7,000 and $8,000 with silver ranging somewhere between $18 and $20 an ounce. Many people, however, don’t have that kind of money to put into silver, but they do have a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars to purchase silver.

I have come up with a simple formula that anyone can use to buy junk silver or 90% silver coins (US silver coins: dimes, quarters, and half dollars, minted from 1917 to 1964). This formula is not rocket science but simple math. Armed with this formula for the cost of silver coins, you can walk in and buy from any local coin shop and not get ripped off. You become an educated buyer.

To determine the cost of any 90% silver coin, including US silver dollars minted from 1878 to 1935, all you need to do is know the silver content of that coin and then multiply that times the price of silver per ounce any given day and you have the actual silver value of that coin. And, of course, everyone needs to make a living at whatever they do, so if we put on a 10% profit above the value of the silver in the coin, we can determine a fair market price for any given coin at any given time. So, here are the coins and their silver content.

Remember to look at the dates. The dimes, quarters and half dollars have to be between 1917 and 1964 and the silver dollars between 1878 and 1935. I will use a price of $20 an ounce silver for the examples. A dime contains 0.07 of an ounce of silver, a quarter 0.18 of an ounce of silver, a half dollar 0.37 of an ounce of silver, and a silver dollar 0.78 of an ounce of silver.

Reasonable cost of silver coins:

Dime - 0.07 oz. x $20 = $1.40 + 10% profit ($0.14) = $1.54

Quarter - 0.18 oz. x $20 = $3.60 + 10% profit ($0.36) = $3.96

Half Dollar - 0.37 oz. x $20 = $7.40 + 10% profit ($0.74) = $8.14

Silver Dollar - 0.78 oz. x $20 = $15.60 + 10% profit ($1.56) = $17.16

You may be able to buy small amounts of silver for less than a 10% mark-up, and if you can, that is obviously better for you. In this volatile market much also depends upon supply and demand. Even if the coin shop charges 15% or 20% above the actual value of the silver in a tight supply-demand situation, that is not unreasonable, but don’t pay more than 20%. I hope the formula helps; for sure, armed with it you will become a wiser buyer.

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