All About Silver Coins

The silver market offers a variety of products to investors. Until the mid-1960's, Pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver coins were used as money. They now serve both as a mode of investment and could be utilized as "survival" coins if our treasury system fails as some people are concerned it will.

Almost as popular as pre-'65 U.S. 90% silver coins, would be 1-oz. silver rounds. Just behind them in popularity would be100-oz investment bars. Other popular favorite silver bullion products include 1-oz American Silver Eagle coins and Ten-ounce silver bars. Privately-minted Silver Eagles are a less costly and more convenient way to own silver. These coins have their weight as well as their purity (999 fine) stamped on them. This makes them easier to sell or exchange if needed. They are referred to as "privately-minted" since they are produced by a private mint. The American Silver Eagles, alternately, are produced by the U.S. Mint and are considered "legal tender," officially known as $1 coins or silver dollar coins.

Privately-minted Silver Eagles are given their name because the front side of the coin shows an image of an eagle flying through the sun. The U.S. mint's legal coins as well as the privately-minted Silver Eagles both contain one oz of 999 fine silver. The U.S. Mint's Silver Eagles are much more valuable than the Silver Eagles that are privately minted. Generally, the Canadian Silver Maple Leafs are valued at less than the $1 American Silver Eagles but more than the Silver Eagles that are privately minted.

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U.S. silver dollars are considered the most frequently collected coins in the world. Also, thousands of people who don't think of themselves as coin collectors have purchased bags of silver dollars, and many millions more have small amounts of silver dollars tucked away in drawers or stored in Mason jars.

Sometimes called cartwheels, silver dollars have two different designs. The ones that were minted between 1878 and1904 and also in 1921 are known as Morgans, after George T. Morgan who was their designer. Peace dollars, made between 1921 and1935, were thusly named to celebrate the end of the first World War.

Much like dimes, quarters, as well as half-dollars, silver dollars were crafted from an alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper and each coin contained a net silver content of .77344 oz. Therefore, 1,000 coins would contain 773.44 ounces of silver once minted. In contrast, $1,000 face value of pre-1965 U.S. silver dimes, quarters, and half-dollars only contained 723.4 oz of silver.This represents a fifty ounce difference.

Since they are so rare, pre-21 Morgans get higher prices than do the '21 Morgans or even the Peace coins. Even though quantities of the '21 Morgans and Peace dollars are easily available, the '21 Morgans get slightly higher prices than do Peace Dollars of a comparable quality. Due to the popularity of the Morgan design, the premium that '21 Morgans carry over the Peace dollars will likely go up even further.

Silver coin prices and silver coin values are an interesting phenomenon. Silver dollars get big premiums over and above the value of the silver they contain. The pre-'21 Morgans get larger premiums than do the '21 Morgans or the Peace dollars. Obviously, the better quality coins get the biggest silver dollar coin value overall.

Silver bars, otherwise known as ingots, are a very popular way to invest in silver. They are equal in size, which makes them very easy to handle as well as easy to store. Also, silver bars are small, which can let investors keep a large quantity of wealth in a pretty small area of storage. Bars that have recognizable hallmarks are also very readily acceptable for resale, which makes them quite easy to convert into cash.

The silver bars that most dealers offer are 999 fine- meaning 99.9% pure. The most common sizes are the 100-oz and the 10-oz bars. Still, occasionally 50 ounce, 25 ounce, and 5 ounce bars, that  were produced in the early 1970s, will surface sometimes.

100 ounce silver bars are often referred to as investment bars, mainly because individuals who purchase them generally do so for investment reasons and often sell once prices rise. These individuals usually ignore the "survival" aspect of owning silver. Those investors who desire increased flexibility with their silver investments generally buy 10-oz bars. A 100 ounce  bar of silver will weigh 6.86 lbs on a common bathroom scale

Though Engelhard and Johnson-Matthey bars are two of the world’s biggest silver refiners, they haven't made silver bars on a mass production level since the mid 1980's. This means that Engelhard and J-M bars are only available when other investors sell them. 100-oz Sunshine Minting and Wall Street Mint bars are commonly available, however. On occasion, Sheffield (English) and Handy & Harman bars will surface in the marketplace.