# British Coins - Good Silver Content



## Anonymous (Apr 5, 2010)

Hi,
I've been reading around this forum for a couple of days having seen a link on a post at sciencemadness.org (a site I regularly visit).

The general idea of this site gave me a bit of inspiration and I did a some research into the old British coins sitting in a box in my cupboard. Here's what I found:

Pre 1920, crowns, half crowns, florins and shillings were made of sterling silver (92.5% pure)
From 1920 -1947, these coins were made of a copper / silver alloy, and were 50% silver by mass
Post 1947 they were made of a cupro-nickel alloy

I also looked at their values as coins (those made in the 1920-1947 period):
In very mint condition, they might get a few pounds. In a state of normal wear and tear, they're worth very little, if you managed to find a buyer at all

I did an extraction on three shillings and a florin on Sunday (dissolving in HNO3, boiling off the excess acid and swirling with copper wire to precipitate the Ag - went for wire rather than powder as it is almost as pure and can be removed after use, avoiding potential 'overdosing')

These coins are easy to pick up as they were valid currency right up to 1973. Car boot sales or eBay could get you a large bagful for a very modest sum. The pennies and such are almost worthless but as well as the previously mentioned coins, threepences, fourpences and sixpences will also be silver - though the history of the percentages is a bit different.
Silver is worth about 40p a gram I think, the reagents would cost maybe a few pennies per gram extracted. Coins can be fairly weighty, so this is definitely a source to be aware of.


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