Melt Quotes: War Nickels Vs. Mercury Dimes. Puzzling!

To participate in the forum you must log in or register.

Author	Replies: 7 / Views: 851
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6449 Posts	Posted 04/30/2024 8:47 pm I keep running across this when getting silver quotes. War Nickel melt values are quoted at $1.50; Mercury dimes are quoted at $1.91. How is that even possible? A 5.00g War Nickel at 35% silver isn't even close to a 2.5g Mercury dime at 90% silver. The dime contains more than 5x the silver as the War Nickel. Report this Post to the Staff

Jakes Coins Pillar of the Community United States 735 Posts	Posted 04/30/2024 9:00 pm Math wasn't my strongest subject but a simple equation of 5.00 grams x .35% = 1.75 grams of silver. A dime is 2.5 grams x .90% = 2.25 grams of silver. So difference is half a gram of silver between a War Nickel & merc dime. Silver per gram is $0.85 half is $0.425. Math seems to check out. Perhaps I am missing something. I've been collecting for a couple years... Favorite Coin's are Standing Liberty quarters, Working on my type set \| Coffee, Corvettes, Coins & the CCF what could be better? Edited by Jakes Coins 04/30/2024 9:00 pm Report this Post to the Staff
halfamind Pillar of the Community United States 1484 Posts	Posted 04/30/2024 9:01 pm The War Nickel has 1.75 g (35 percent of 5 g) of silver. The 90 percent silver dimes have 2.25 g. Report this Post to the Staff
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6449 Posts	Posted 04/30/2024 10:56 pm Yeah, I must have fouled up the ratios somewhere. Report this Post to the Staff
NumismaticsFTW Pillar of the Community United States 2280 Posts	Posted 04/30/2024 11:14 pm You realize when you know how to think, it empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think. -Neil deGrasse Tyson Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16805 Posts	Posted 04/30/2024 11:22 pm From the above equations: the quoted silver price in the dime is just under 85 cents per gram. The silver price in the War Nickel is just over 85 cents per gram. Essentially equal. If you can find someone actually buying War Nickels for full melt value price, I'd take them up on it. As discussed elsewhere, War Nickels usually get a steep discount from scrap metal merchants and people that actually do silver refining, due to the high refining cost incurred when attempting to remove the manganese from the silver. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis Report this Post to the Staff
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6449 Posts	Posted 05/01/2024 11:56 am I found the piece of scrap paper. It was a pretty basic mistake. I doubled the mass of the dime so that the comparison was 5g, making the ratios easier to work with. But I didn't divide the final result by 2 for the Mercury dime, producing a skewed result. Report this Post to the Staff
thq Pillar of the Community United States 3342 Posts	Posted 05/01/2024 2:42 pm Looking at Coin Gallery, they are currently paying 17x face for 90% silver coins and 10x face for 35% War Nickels in small quantities. $1.70 for a dime works out to $23.50 per ounce of pure silver. $0.50 for a nickel works out to $8.88 per ounce of pure silver. Still worth saving War Nickels when you find them. "Two minutes ago I would have sold my chances for a tired dime." Fred Astaire Edited by thq 05/01/2024 2:45 pm Report this Post to the Staff
	Replies: 7 / Views: 851

To participate in the forum you must log in or register.

All Forums Category: General Numismatic Forums Forum: Precious Metals and Bullion - Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum

The First Dollar, your premier source for bullion and rare coins. See our bullion list on the site and the coin inventory on ebay.

Silver Gold Bull US is the United States leading bullion dealer. We deliver gold coins, gold bars, silver coins, silver bars and precious metals to your door. Order today!

View Last 100 New Topics

View Last 100 Active Topics

Disclaimer: While a tremendous amount of effort goes into ensuring the accuracy of the information contained in this site, Coin Community assumes no liability for errors. Copyright 2005 - 2026 Coin Community Family- all rights reserved worldwide. Use of any images or content on this website without prior written permission of Coin Community or the original lender is strictly prohibited.
Contact Us | Advertise Here | Privacy Policy / Terms of Use

Coin Community Forum

It took 0.27 seconds to rattle this change.