# How Many Pre-1965 Coins Needed To Refine To 1ozt Silver?



## Anonymous (Dec 5, 2012)

Hello members,

I am in a need to find out approximately how many, or, dollar amount in Pre-1965 coins it will take after refining to equal 1 ozt of silver? It can be a mixture of dimes, quarters and half dollars or of each.

I also know that the wear on the coin can reduce the amount recovered, but I just need a ball park, if anyone refined silver coins before... US Coins that is.

Thanks


Kevin


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## etack (Dec 6, 2012)

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=14585&p=156200&hilit=1965#p156200

this is a good thread.

coinflation.com is great aswell.

Eric


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## Auful (Dec 6, 2012)

testerman said:


> Hello members,
> 
> I am in a need to find out approximately how many, or, dollar amount in Pre-1965 coins it will take after refining to equal 1 ozt of silver? It can be a mixture of dimes, quarters and half dollars or of each.
> 
> ...



I use this website: http://www.bullionspotprice.com/silver


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## jmdlcar (Dec 6, 2012)

Here I came up with.

Dime 2.5 total grams 2.25 silver grams 14 dimes = 31.5 grams silver
Quarter 6.25 total grams 5.625 silver grams 6 quarter = 33.75 grams silver
Half 12.5 total grams 11.25 silver grams 3 half = 33.75 grams silver

None works out at 31.103 grams

Jack


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## Anonymous (Dec 6, 2012)

Thank you gentlemen... I'll go check them out.

I meant to ask in my original thread that after refining the silver coins, what it'll take to get at least .999 silver to equal 1 ozt.

Kevin

As soon as I hit the Submit button for the above reply, it reverted back to me editing my post, yet had an answer for me below. Thanks Jack. That really helps me out so much. Even though it may not be exact to the 31.103 grams, it's close enough to work with. I really appreciate that. You guys are amazing.



> Here I came up with.
> 
> Dime 2.5 total grams 2.25 silver grams 14 dimes = 31.5 grams silver
> Quarter 6.25 total grams 5.625 silver grams 6 quarter = 33.75 grams silver
> ...


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## goldsilverpro (Dec 6, 2012)

Dimes, quarters, and halves contain .7234 tr.oz. per dollar face value. Therefore, 1 oz of silver would be contained in 1/.7234 = $1.382. The closest you could get would be $1.40 face, which would contain 1.013 tr.oz. Of course, most of these coins are worn and that would make a difference. A $1000 face bag should contain 723.4 oz of silver but, in the trade, they assume an average of 715 oz, due to wear. 

Since these coins are 90% silver, to get 31.1g of silver, you could weigh combinations of worn coins until you got 31.1/.9 = 34.56g. The easiest way to do this would probably be to use combinations of $1.40 face.

For some reason, silver dollars are different. The Morgan and Peace dollars contain .7735 oz. when not worn.


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## FrugalRefiner (Dec 6, 2012)

Attached is a document I put together a while back on US coin metal content.

Dave


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## Anonymous (Dec 6, 2012)

Thanks *GSP* and *FrugalRefiner*. This is some very interesting information that I know I'm going to bookmark and take notes to. I'm going to download that .doc file too.

Thanks again gentlemen.

Kevin

*[EDIT]*
The file *FrugalRefiner* posted a link to is a *.doc* and *NOT* a *.pdf* file. I changed it above in this post. Sorry for the confusion.


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## Auful (Dec 6, 2012)

FrugalRefiner said:


> Attached is a document I put together a while back on US coin metal content.
> 
> Dave



Very nice! Thank you for sharing.


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## FrugalRefiner (Dec 7, 2012)

Happy to contribute!

Dave


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## goldsilverpro (Dec 7, 2012)

Very good, Frugal. I saved it, too.


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## jack_burton (Dec 7, 2012)

I suppose it is worth mentioning, defacing US currency is a crime. I'm sure lots of people do it, even though it doesn't make sense to, after all you are taking something with a known value and changing it to a value only really known by you.

From the Bureau of Engraving and Printing:
Defacement of Currency

Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service.
http://www.moneyfactory.gov/historicallegislation.html


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## goldsilverpro (Dec 7, 2012)

Jack_Burton,

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080822005803AAINSRs
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/2006-12-14-melting-ban-usat_x.htm
http://about.ag/MeltingSilverCoins.htm
https://www.google.com/search?q=us+coins+legal+to+melt&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a

These laws have changed several times in the past. There's so much different information floating around about this, it's hard to know what is what. I could be wrong but, at the present time, I think the only coins illegal to melt are pennies and nickels. Those are the only presently minted coins that have a melt value close to the monetary value (the pre-82 pennies are now worth more as metal) and, when the base metal's values exceeds the monetary value, people are enticed to melt them. I think that's the reasoning. No one would be stupid enough to melt down dimes or quarters, since they would lose money. However, if the base metals really rise, melting those could be made illegal also. According to one of the links above, it became legal to melt pre-65, 90% Ag coins in 1967. I think that is true. They have long been out of circulation. It is illegal to alter any U.S. coin for the purpose of increasing its apparent value, as I understand it. If all coins were illegal to melt, why would they write a law in 2007 that just mentioned the melting of pennies and nickels?


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## jack_burton (Dec 7, 2012)

GSP- point taken.

But with the ambiguity still out there, I've stayed away from customers wanting me to do this.

The litmus test for me is: if I could walk into a store and use that coin, it has a face value in other words, I wouldn't feel comfortable refining it.

The other note on this... not sure how you'd ever get caught if you did it right. 8)


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## butcher (Dec 7, 2012)

That sounds kind of like what that guy said who is now sitting in prison, not sure how we got caught, I sure thought we done it right.


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## mikeinkaty (Dec 24, 2012)

Little late adding my 2 cents worth but old silver coins are selling for more than spot value on eBay. If you really want clean silver I would suggest selling the coins on eBay then taking the proceeds and buying 999 silver. You'll wind up with more silver than you started with!


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