My 9 year old son is very enthusiastic about finding valuable junk silver bullion coins. Several months ago while visiting a local coin shop, one of the sales associates shared a simple technique on how to buy silver bullion locally for a fraction of the spot price of silver.
The salesman pulled my son aside and looked right into eyes and explained “You may buy coins from me all day. But the fun is in the hunt. Go to your local bank and ask for rolls of silver coins and look for 40% & 90% silver”. Both of us know that Kennedy half dollars minted before 1965 are 90% silver and half dollars minted between 1965-1969 are 40% silver.
We visited several banks and came home with 21 individual Kennedy half dollars with varying amounts of silver. We had over $100 worth of silver bullion and paid $10.50 for it! If you are looking for the least expensive way to buy junk silver coins locally, then this method works wonders!
This is definitely not a method to get rich quickly. We do it more for the fun and thrill of it. It’s a nice method to generate some extra savings without having to work too hard to get it. I will look for junk silver coins when I’m running errands around town. If the banks are conveniently located near where I’m doing my errands I will exchange a few rolls for some fresh rolls of junk silver coins.
Junk Silver Coins Silver Content
Mercury silver dimes are 90% pure silver and contain 0.0723 troy ounces of silver. Roosevelt silver dimes minted between the years 1946-1964 contain 0.0723 troy ounces of silver and are 90% pure silver.
Washington Quarters minted in the years 1932–1964 contain 0.1808 troy ounces of silver and are worth approximately $5 as of January, 2012.
Walking Liberty half dollars (1916-1947) contains 0.3617 troy ounces of silver.
Franklin half dollars (1948-1963) contain 0.3617 troy ounces of pure silver.
1964 Kennedy half dollars contain 0.3617 troy ounces of silver. This is the only year that Kennedy half dollars contained 90% pure silver. From 1965-1970, Kennedy half dollars were reduced to 40% silver and contained only 0.1479 troy ounces of silver.
Silver Eisenhower Silver Dollar Value (1971-1974, 1975-1976 bicentennial)
If you hunting for 40% silver “Ike” $1 coins, you need to be looking for coins with the “S” San Francisco mint stamp. These coins contain 0.3162 troy ounces of silver.
There are thousands of the Eisenhower copper clad coins in circulation that worth only their melt weight in copper.
How To Increase Your Chances Of Finding Junk Silver Coins Locally
There is nothing scientific about our treasure hunting methods for finding silver bullion coins. We visit banks that are near retirement communities. We only ask for hand rolled Kennedy half dollars. We make friends with bank tellers. We usually get anywhere from 1-3 rolls of half dollars and find on average 1 90% or 40% coin per roll.
The easiest method for buying junk silver coins locally is to visit a local coin shop or jeweler. The local coin shops in my home town always have $100 face value bags of silver coins for sale. I like owning junk silver for both the face value and the silver content. They are the ugly ducklings of silver. Don’t get scared away from buying or collecting them because they are ugly because at the end of the day you can still buy merchandise with them.
