All Silver Coins

take catalog of world coins
most silver is listed there

Thanks so far for the input. I guess maybe I should elaborated a little more but I was about to leave the house and wanted to put the question up before I left. To put some parameters on my question is I'm looking to invest in, particularly silver, coins for investment/novelty. I have started stopping by coin/pawn shops and looking to see what they have and really don't have a clue what coins contain silver besides late 1800 to I think 1977 US coins. I'm probably going to stick to those coins, but say a Canadian quarter or something along those lines is at a good price, I know to buy it. I was just wondering if there was a "cheat sheet" for coins containing silver in the past say 150 years. I'll do a little research and maybe I'll just create my own.

OK, here are a few of the things you're going to see most often.

US dimes, quarters, half dollars, & dollars dated up to 1964 are 90% silver (except some early dates you're not likely to see ; similarly there are Half Dimes & two different kinds of silver 3-cent pieces, not to be confused with 3-cent nickels...). US half dollars dated 1965 to 1969 are 40% silver. Panamanian coins are identical to US, as are Cuban in general.

Canadian five-cents (small, not nickel-sized), ten-cents, twenty-five-cents, fifty-cents, & dollars dated up to 1921 are sterling silver (92.5%). After that, until 1967, they are 80%. 1967 can be either 80% or 50%, & there's no easy way to tell them apart ; 1968 are either 50% silver or pure nickel, which is magnetic. After that the circulation coins are not silver. If you see Newfoundland coins, they are pretty much all sterling in the 5-10-25-50 denominations.

Great Britain coins of three pence (small, not the nickel-sized yellow ones), six pence, one shilling, two shillings (floring), two and a half shillings (half crown) & five shillings (crown) dated up to 1921 are sterling ; after that, up to 1945, they are 50% silver. There are other silver denominations, but you're not likely to see them. The same goes for New Zealand & most of the other countries on the pound system, except for the New Zealand crown of 1949 (50%), & the Bermuda crowns of 1959 (sterling) & 1964 (50%). Irish shillings, florins, & half-crowns are 75% silver up to 1943, & the very thick 10-shilling piece of 1966 is 83.3%. Australian coins of the denominations mentioned are sterling up to 1945, then 50% until decimalization. The one-year round 50-cent piece of 1966 is 80% silver. South Africa is 80% silver up until 1950, 50% thereafter until some time after the abandonment of the pound in favour of the rand.

Mexico is all over the map, with peso coins of as little as 10% silver in late dates, & some recent new-peso coins in bimetallic, with a brass ring & a silver center.

Japanese 100-yen pieces are 64% silver from 1957 to 1966.

Larger Dutch coins (1/2, 1, 2 1/2 gulden) are 94.5% silver from 1840 to 1917, 72% thereafter until 1967. The smaller pieces (5, 10, 25 cents) are mostly 64% silver until 1945.

I can't emphasize enough that there are lots more out there.

Wow publius that's pretty much exactly what I wanted to know. Thanks for taking the time to write that all out. It should definitely help me out when browsing coins around town.

What you are simply going to need to do is make you a spreadsheet with tabs by country. Of course the tricky part is some nations watered down the silver in more than one phase. Canada went from sterling (92.5%) to 90% in 1920 then to 50% in 1967 and then fiat in 1968. Great Britain went from sterling (92.5%)to 50% in 1920 and then fiat in 1946.

They certainly show up in circulated condition pretty often.

That would be leprechauns and their dremil buffering tools.