• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    7 hours ago

    That’s exactly why they stopped minting silver coins in the 1960s though. Because they started being worth more in silver than their value. Still true about pennies, I think.

    • Karyoplasma
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      7 hours ago

      There were actual coins made out of silver that are not considered bullion coins like Morgan Silver Dollar or the Peace Silver Dollar. Those were made for everyday use and they contained around 0.75 troy ounces of pure silver.

      This leads me to believe that the 0.9 troy ounce coin is some sort of special minting because that would be a pretty heavy coin for such a low value (around 28g). But maybe times were just different back when the gold standard was still in effect, idk.

      I’ll have to admit that I base my thought process almost entirely on my recent discovery that I actually possess a valuable coin and the bit of background reading after that discovery.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        7 hours ago

        I’m pretty sure that the quarters weren’t that pure, I don’t know. I do know people were melting them down (or at least were suspected of melting them down, I don’t know if they actually were), so they changed the composition. My grandfather collected coins and I sort of vaguely remember all of this from him.

        I do have a ton of silver dimes and quarters in a drawer though. I should probably just sell them because I was keeping them around as a ‘just in case’ thing but the value of silver is not exactly shooting up and I really don’t care about coin collecting beyond the design of coins in various countries being interesting from an artistic sense.