What Is Junk Silver?

If you’re just starting to get into collecting  silver or other precious metals, you may have seen the term “junk silver”, but what exactly is junk silver?

What is Junk Silver

Junk silver almost always refers to circulated 90% silver U.S.  coins that were minted before 1965. They are usually so worn they hold no other value as a collectible so instead they're worth only their silver content.

Junk silver is a type of silver coin that isn’t really worth anything in the value of numismatics, collectibles, or history, but it’s worth more than face value in its silver content.  If you collect enough junk silver, you can get a decent amount of money from selling them for their silver content.

That’s the basic definition of junk silver, but let’s get into what coins constitute junk silver and the differences between junk silver, bullion and numismatic coins

Is junk silver different from bullion?

 You may have junk silver in your coin jar or coin collection right now! Nowadays coins are made of a composite of metals, such as nickel and copper, but coins that were minted before the year 1965, such as the dime, and the quarter were actually made with 90% silver content!

Now, some of these older coins are worth a considerable amount due to rarity, condition of the coin, or an error during the minting process. But most of them don’t fall into this category. If you have an old Roosevelt dime that’s not in very good condition, but it’s pre-1965, that coin is worth its value in silver. Which is generally around 1.50 or so, depending on the current silver market.

Junk silver differs from bullion in the sense that bullion is generally specifically bought as bullion in .999 pure, like the silver or gold American Eagle series from the U.S. Mint. These would be considered gold and silver bullion. 

A coin with numismatic value is usually a coin that shows little to no wear, meaning it’s in a good condition, and is rare, or a particular error. There are many different rare coins that are worth a lot to collectors, but we’re not going to go into those today. Source