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 Replies: 11 / Views: 2,682 |
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New Member
United States
9 Posts |
So I dont know much about silver coins, as I have just started collecting, but I had a thought about calculating silver coins content.
As far as I understund, the silver is the outter layer of the coin, and the center core is the copper 10% of the coin. So if a quarter weighs 6.25g when it's new., that would mean .625g are copper and 5.625g are silver.
Would it make sense, when calculating the silver content of a worn down quarter, to calculate it as follows:
Worn down quarter weighs 6g
Minus .625g for the copper (because it's the center core so it wouldn't lose any content)
Equals 5.375g of silver.
What I'm getting at is when calculating the new silver content, is it safe to assume the .625g of copper stays the same (mostly) because it's the center of the coin so it wouldn't wear away. Unless of course the coin was in a major accident.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2520 Posts |
no copper core in a 90% silver quarter. Don't know where you got your misinformation. Silver content would be weight of quarter X .90.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2520 Posts |
Now, 40% coins are a different story. Still no copper core, but different percentage silver in the inner layer than the outer layers making it more difficult to calculate silver in a worn coin.
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5172 Posts |
Quote:
no copper core in a 90% silver quarter  I think there is somewhat of an imbalance between outer and inner layers, but I'm not sure whether it's still true for modern coins, or just for (some types of) ancients. (Also I'm not sure which direction it's in.) There might or might not also be an imbalance in how quickly the constituent metals wear away. But either way, with 90% silver, it's going to be a rounding error unless we assume that it mostly affects copper, which is, IIRC, not true. And even then it would be darn close to a rounding error. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3733 Posts |
the easiest way to figure silver in worn coins, is to weigh them, assuming 90% silver. pre-1965 usa quarters, dimes ,halfs. take the weight and times it by 90% that will give you the true silver value. And in all older usa coins, pre 1965 the silver and copper are equally mixed together..
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
 Why even worry about how much Silver is in a worn out coin. |
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Moderator
 United States
15381 Posts |
to the CCF Your logic is correct about the copper core not wearing ... albeit applied to a coin that does not exist. There are no 'silver' quarters with copper cores ... although the 1965-1970 Kennedy half dollars might be of interest to you. Take a look at my other hobby ... http://www.jk-dk.art |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2520 Posts |
Quote:There are no 'silver' quarters with copper cores ... although the 1965-1970 Kennedy half dollars might be of interest to you The 40% silver bicentennial quarter is of the same composition as the 1965-1970 Kennedy half dollars (as is the 40% bicentennial Half & Ike) None of which have a solid copper core, but do have a higher copper to silver ratio at the core than the outer layers. So, theoretically, a well worn coin of this composition will contain less than 40% silver. |
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12477 Posts |
I am willing to say that well worn U.S. silver coins will more than likely be of the 90% type. In that case, weigh the coin and multiply that by 0.9 and you get the total pure silver weight which can be converted to ASW. With 40% silver coins, the wear cannot easily be accounted for by weight (it can be done, though). It's not very critical to be able to do that, though. Silver buyers don't want 40% silver clad. If you want the highest ASW for your buck, hoard War Nickels.  In Memory of Crazyb0 12-26-1951 to 7-27-2020
In Memory of Tootallious 3-31-1964 to 4-15-2020
In Memory of T-BOP 10-12-1949 to 1-19-2024
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Moderator
United States
54280 Posts |
Quote:
to figure silver in worn coins, is to weigh them, assuming 90% silver. pre-1965 usa quarters, dimes ,halfs. take the weight and times it by 90% that will give you the true silver value. This will not give you the "silver value", it will give you the actual silver weight (ASW). To get the silver value, you have to multiply the weight by the price of silver. An uncirculated average weight pre-1965 silver quarter is 6.25 grams. 1 gram is .0321507466 of a troy ounce. The quarter is only .90 silver. An ounce of silver at one point today was $16.57. per tr. oz. So, 6.25 grams x .90 silver x .0321507466 grams/tr.oz. x $16.57 per troy oz. = $3.00, or 12 times face value. If your worn quarter weighs only 5.8 grams, the silver value would be only $2.78, a 12¢ difference. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
I think there is somewhat of an imbalance between outer and inner layers, but I'm not sure whether it's still true for modern coins, or just for (some types of) ancients. (Also I'm not sure which direction it's in.) If the melt isn't thoroughly mixed and poured quickly and cooled quickly you can get ingot where the outer surface is above fineness and the center below, but you are talking about the outer surface being .901 fine and the center .898 fine. Not really worth worrying about. |
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Moderator
United States
54280 Posts |
90% silver coins don't have "layers".
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Replies: 11 / Views: 2,682 |
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Posted 05/13/2018 6:59 pm
