Festival of Frugality 223: The Silver Edition

We always talk about squeezing our nickels and dimes to get every last bit we can from it. We pinch pennies so hard we build up the muscles in our hands and people look on in amazement. But rarely do we pinch our money so hard that silver comes out.

I've always wanted to pan for gold but since I neither have an idea how to do that or had an interest in shaking a pan full of muddy water to find it. I have instead, found that the next best thing is to collect silver and this has been nice to my lazy ass  in that I have to only dig through the coins in my pocket to search for silver.


Before I go any further if you would like to host the festival of frugality or find out more go to festival of frugality.com and take a look around.

The 1964 silver (90%) Kennedy Half Dollar (1965-1970 = 40%)replaced the Franklin half dollar within three months of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The 1971-1976 silver (40%) Eisenhower Dollar, because its cumbersome and excessively large size, this lead to their short time in circulation and replacement by the smaller, but even less popular, Susan B. Anthony dollar in 1979.

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Privately minted silver coins are commonly called "silver rounds" or "generic silver rounds". They are called "rounds" instead of "coins" because the US Mint reserves the use of the word "coin" for Government Issued circulating currency, such as all common coins and the American Silver and Gold Eagles.

The privately minted "rounds" usually have a set weight of 1 troy ounce of silver (31.103 grams of 99.9% silver), with the dimensions of 1/10 inch thick and 39 mm across. These carry all sorts of designs, from assayer/mine backed bullion to engravable gifts, automobiles, firearms, armed forces commemorative, holidays, etc.

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The current rarities for the Washington Quarter silver series are: 1932 D/ 1932 S/ 1935 D/ 1936 D/ 1937 S/ 1938 S/ 1939 S/ 1940 D/ 1950 D/S Over mintmark (coin is a '50-D, with underlying S mintmark)/ 1950 S/D Over mintmark (coin is a '50-S, with underlying D mintmark)/ 1955 D

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The Silver Series of Washington Quarters spans from 1932 to 1964; during many years in the series it will appear that certain mints did not mint Washington Quarters for that year. No known examples of quarters were made in 1933, San Francisco abstained in 1934 and 1949, and stopped after 1955, until it resumed in 1968 by way of making proofs. Denver did not make quarters in 1938, and Philadelphia never stopped, except in 1933

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Although most commonly referred to as the Mercury dime, the coin does not depict the Roman messenger god. But instead, is a depiction of the mythological goddess Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap, a classic symbol of liberty and freedom, with its wings intended to symbolize freedom of thought.

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With the passage of the Coinage Act of 1965, the composition of the dime changed from 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper to a clad "sandwich" of copper between two layers of an alloy of 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel. This composition was selected because it gave similar mass and electrical properties (important in vending machines)—and most importantly, because it contained no precious metal.

Soon after the change of composition, silver dimes (as well as silver quarters and half dollars) began to disappear from circulation, as people receiving them in change hoarded them.

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From mid-1942 to 1945, so-called "Wartime" composition nickels were created. These coins are 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. The only other U.S. coins to use manganese are the Sacajawea and presidential dollars. These coins are usually a bit darker than regular nickels, said to be due to their manganese content.

The wartime nickel features the largest mint mark ever to grace a United States coin, located above Monticello's dome on the reverse. This mark was a large D, S, or P if appropriate for those mints

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Is there a silver penny out there to make me a millionaire?

Unfortunately - No.

The 1943 silver colored penny is a wartime issue made of steel, and coated with zinc. During World War II, copper was so badly needed for the war effort (to make shell casings) that the U.S. penny was made out of steel that year, which is why most 1943 pennies are silver colored. They are worth about 12 to 15 cents each in circulated condition