Junk Silver Calculator by Face Value
Enter the face value of your coins in dollars, one line for each kind of silver, then today's silver price. You get the troy ounces and the melt value of the bag.
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Melt value
$
Enter a price and a quantity.
Sample price, not live.
- Silver content
- troy oz
- Melt value per $1 face of 90% coins
- $
Melt value = Σ (face value × silver per $1) × spot price. Rounded to the cent once, at the end.
What a dollar of face value holds
“Junk silver” is the trade name for common-date US silver coins that are worth their metal and little more. Bags of it are sold by face value, so the useful number is the silver in each dollar of face value. Here is how each line of the calculator is worked out.
- 90% dimes, quarters and halves: $1 face is 10 dimes, 4 quarters or 2 halves, which is 25 g of coin either way. At 90% silver that is 22.5 g, or 22.5 ÷ 31.1035 = 0.7234 troy oz.
- 90% Morgan and Peace dollars: one dollar weighs 26.73 g, so $1 face holds 26.73 × 0.9 ÷ 31.1035 = 0.7734 oz.
- 40% Kennedy halves, 1965–70: two halves hold 2 × 0.1479 = 0.2958 oz per $1.
- 35% war nickels: twenty nickels hold 20 × 0.0563 = 1.126 oz per $1.
The 90% figure is a single constant, 0.7234 oz per $1. Multiplying the per-coin weights gives 0.7230 oz for ten dimes, 0.7232 oz for four quarters and 0.7234 oz for two halves. They agree to within 0.001 oz; the difference is rounding in the published figures.
Worked bag examples
| Face value | Troy oz | At sample $50.00 | At your price |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 | 0.7234 | $36.17 | — |
| $10 | 7.2340 | $361.70 | — |
| $100 | 72.3400 | $3,617.00 | — |
Figures marked “sample” use a made-up price of the stated amount so you can check the arithmetic. They are not today’s price.
At the sample price of $50.00 per ounce, $1 of face value holds $36.17 of silver, $10 holds $361.70 and $100 holds $3,617.00. Turned around, one troy ounce of silver is about $1.38 of 90% face value (1 ÷ 0.7234).
| Face value | Troy oz | At sample $50.00 | At your price |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 | 0.7734 | $38.67 | — |
| $10 | 7.7340 | $386.70 | — |
| $100 | 77.3400 | $3,867.00 | — |
| Face value | Troy oz | At sample $50.00 | At your price |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 | 0.2958 | $14.79 | — |
| $10 | 2.9580 | $147.90 | — |
| $100 | 29.5800 | $1,479.00 | — |
| Face value | Troy oz | At sample $50.00 | At your price |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1 | 1.1260 | $56.30 | — |
| $10 | 11.2600 | $563.00 | — |
| $100 | 112.6000 | $5,630.00 | — |
Where silver stops: the date cutoff
For dimes and quarters the cutoff is 1964: those through 1964 are 90% silver and later ones are not. Half dollars are 90% silver through 1964, then Kennedy halves from 1965 to 1970 are 40%. Mixing these up is the most common error in a bag, so sort by date first. The guide to telling whether a coin is silver has the full table, and the half dollar page shows 90% and 40% side by side.
Melt value is the value of the metal at the spot price. It is a reference point, not an offer. A dealer usually pays less than melt, and some coins sell for more than melt because collectors want them. This site does not buy or sell coins or give advice on either.
If a dealer has quoted you a price for the bag, put that number into the dealer offer check to see it as a share of melt. To count by coin instead of by face value, use the main calculator. The formula is explained in how to calculate silver melt value.
Sources
- NGC, Coin Melt Values: composition, weight and silver content per coin.
- MetalCharts, Silver Coin Melt Values: cross-check of weights and silver content.