Calculator
Junk silver calculator
Pre-1965 US dimes, quarters, halves and dollars are 90% silver. What they are worth has nothing to do with what is stamped on them.
The silver price shown was recorded when this page was published. Figures calculated from it appear once the live price loads, so nothing here is worked out from a number the market may have left behind.
Your coins
Add up what the coins say: ten dimes, four quarters or two halves are each one dollar of face value. Those three denominations share the same silver-per-dollar standard. Morgan and Peace dollars do not and are excluded.
Coins that spent decades in pockets have lost silver to wear. The trade prices circulated 90% at 0.715 troy ounces per dollar of face against 0.7234 as struck, and will pay you on the lower figure.
Silver content
7.150 ozt
$10 face, circulated
Melt value
—
At live silver spot
Common lots
| Lot | Silver, circulated | Melt value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 dollar faceFour quarters | 0.71 ozt | — |
| 5 dollars faceA half roll of quarters | 3.57 ozt | — |
| 10 dollars faceA common small lot | 7.15 ozt | — |
| 50 dollars faceA half bag | 35.75 ozt | — |
| 100 dollars faceThe standard trading unit | 71.50 ozt | — |
Check before you melt
Some of these coins are worth considerably more than their silver. Key dates, early Morgan and Peace dollars, and anything in genuinely uncirculated condition can carry a collector premium many times melt, and selling them by weight destroys that value permanently.
The coin melt pages cover fifteen US series individually, including which ones carry that risk.
How this is calculated
Face value × 0.715 troy ounces per dollar × live silver spot. For 1892–1964 dimes, quarters and half dollars, each dollar of face was struck at 25 grams, and 25 g × 0.900 ÷ 31.1035 is 0.7234 — the circulated figure is the same arithmetic with the trade's standard allowance for wear.
Morgan and Peace dollars, war nickels and 40% Kennedy halves have different silver weights and are not covered by the figure above. Each has its own page under coin melt values.
Common questions
- What counts as junk silver?
- For this face-value calculator, junk silver means ordinary US dimes, quarters and half dollars dated 1892 through 1964, which are 90% silver and share the same silver-per-dollar standard. Morgan and Peace dollars are also 90% silver, but they are heavier per dollar and must be valued separately.
- How much silver is in a dollar of face value?
- For 1892–1964 dimes, quarters and half dollars, each dollar of face value was struck at 25 grams, which is 0.7234 troy ounces of silver. The trade commonly prices circulated lots at 0.715 troy ounces per dollar to allow for wear. Silver dollars are not included because their struck weight is different.
- Should I ever not sell junk silver by weight?
- Yes. Key dates, early Morgan and Peace dollars and genuinely uncirculated coins can be worth many times their melt value, and selling them by weight destroys that permanently. Sort for dates and condition before you weigh anything.
- Is anything I enter stored or sent anywhere?
- No. The calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you type is saved, sent to us or written to a cookie, so closing the tab clears it and reopening the page will not remember what you entered.