Silver Questions About Pure And 90%

yes, there's a difference. Fine silver is .999 pure. 90% silver (US silver coins) has less silver content than bullion (fine) coins or bars. Sterling silver has less silver content that fine silver, but I can't remember the percentage.

So, if you are buying for the silver investment, these different items should be prices according to the amount of silver content.

Precious metals such as silver and gold are alloyed with base metals to make them stronger. Pure silver is 99.9% pure in coins such as American Silver Eagles. I believe Canada's silver maples are even 99.99% pure. These coins are not intended for circulation though - and would wear out quite quickly if they were circulated. Sterling silver is 92.5% pure and is used extensively in jewelry. It is a bit stronger than pure silver. 90% silver coins are stronger still. These coins were circulated, so had to be alloyed to withstand the rigors of being used on a daily basis.

When you look at gold, the fineness is measured in karats (not to be confused with carats - which is a measure of size for gemstones). Karats are a measure of purity with each karat equal to 1/24. So, 24 karat gold is pure. 14 karat gold is 14 parts gold and 10 parts another metal. Pure gold is quite soft - which is why you will see people test to see if a coin is really gold by biting it in old movies. If your teeth left an impression - it was pure gold.

Now, you really need to be careful when buying silver coins. Most are 90% silver - but some of the half dollars are only 40% silver (dated 1965-1970). Also, silver prices are per troy ounce which is heavier than an avoirdupois ounce. Most people are more familiar with the av. ounce as that is the one in common use. Only in precious metals does one switch to troy ounces. 1 av. ounce is equal to 0.912 troy ounces. To further confuse things, 1 troy pound is lighter than 1 av. pound because there are 12 troy ounces to a troy pound, and 16 av. ounces to a standard pound.

So - if someone offers to sell you 10 ounces of silver coins - make sure and do your conversions, otherwise you may get ripped off.

Nice posting, Waredu.

Andrew, just a tip if you are doing this for investing -- I have found that, by and large, 90% silver coins are generally going to give you more silver for your buck.

Actually if your teeth left an impression it was fake. One coins weren't pure gold. Two while 90% gold coins are soft enough that it is possible to leave very slight marks from biting it (I know I've tried it) they are hard enough you are more likely to end up with broken teeth. What they were really checking for were gold plated lead fakes. Lead is MUCH softer than gold and it is very easy to make tooth impressions in a gold plated lead fake. So they would do a quick fairly gentle bite and if it showed impressions it was a fake.

And while gold is measured in Karats for jewelry for coins it is most often still measured by fineness in parts per thousand just like silver.

Actually in the movies they were biting stones to see if they were gold,
usually when panhandling or getting paid wages in gold.
But that's just Hollywood

90% silver coins are generally sold by face value, not by weight. Yes, dollars weigh more, but they're handled separately. There's little enough difference between dimes, quarters and halves that they're generally just thrown together.