MEASURED · 5 OCTOBER 2026

How much is a silver dollar worth? The silver in every US coin, priced

An old US silver coin is worth at least the silver inside it. That number is fixed by the coin’s weight and the silver price, so it can be worked out exactly, and it is the floor under any price you are offered. Below: the silver in every US silver coin, what it was worth at the latest London price, and the day each coin’s silver stopped being worth less than the coin.

The short answer

Melt values at the London (LBMA) silver price of $60.87 per troy ounce on 29 September 2026, which was 49% below the record of $118.45 set on 29 January 2026. For today’s value, put today’s silver price into the calculator.

Silver coin melt value calculator

Enter how many of each coin you have. The result is the value of the silver in them, at the price in the box.

The silver in every US silver coin

Silver content from NGC’s US silver coin melt-value table; for the silver dollar it matches the US Mint’s 26.73 g at 90%, and for the 1965-1970 half dollar the 4.6 g of silver set by the Coinage Act of 1965. New-coin weights: a worn coin holds slightly less.

Which US coins contain silver

• Dimes, quarters and half dollars dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver. The Coinage Act of 1965, signed on 23 July 1965, took the silver out of dimes and quarters. Every year’s dime is priced in how much is a dime worth? and every year’s quarter, including the 1965 and bicentennial ones, in how much is a silver quarter worth?
• Kennedy half dollars dated 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver (0.1479 oz). From 1971 the circulating half dollar has none. Every year’s half, including the copper-nickel ones, is priced in Kennedy half dollar value, and the Walking Liberty, Franklin and older halves in how much is a half dollar worth?
• Morgan (1878-1921) and Peace (1921-1935) dollars are 90% silver, 0.7734 oz each. Until March 1964 a $1 silver certificate could be exchanged at the Treasury for a silver dollar; that note is priced in how much is a silver certificate worth?
• Eisenhower dollars: only the collector versions sold from 1971 to 1976 are 40% silver (0.3161 oz). The ones made for circulation are copper-nickel. Every dollar coin since 1971, and how to tell the silver Ike, is in how much is a dollar coin worth?.
• Nickels dated 1942 to 1945 with a large mint mark above Monticello’s dome are 35% silver (0.0563 oz, $3.43 on 29 September 2026). The US Mint moved the mint mark there to show the wartime metal. The copper and nickel in every other nickel are priced in how much is a nickel worth?
• Gold-coloured dollars (Sacagawea, Native American, Presidential) are manganese brass and contain no silver or gold.

When the silver became worth more than the coin

A coin’s silver is worth exactly its face value at one silver price: face value divided by its silver content. For 90% dimes, quarters and halves that is $1.38 an ounce; for a silver dollar $1.29; for the 40% half $3.38.

The World Bank’s monthly silver price sat at $1.3 from February 1963 to June 1967, just under the line for 90% coins. In July 1967 it averaged $1.6, and since then the monthly average has fallen back under the line in only 2 months, the last November 1971. On the daily London price that was the one dip back to the line: 55 days between 8 September 1971 and 3 January 1972. It has not been back since. A silver dollar’s silver touched $1 on 3 days in November 1971, the last on 5 November 1971, and the 40% half last sat at its line on 14 January 1974.

On 29 September 2026 the silver in a pre-1965 coin was worth 44 times its face value, and a silver dollar’s 47.1 times.

What a silver dollar’s silver was worth, 1968 to 2026

The $49.45 high of 18 January 1980 was not passed until 9 October 2025. How the silver price got there, year by year, is in silver price history.

How much the melt value moves

Over the last 252 London fixes, to 29 September 2026, the silver price moved 2.1% from one day to the next on a typical day, and 7.3% or more on 1 day in 20. That is about 2.2 times the typical move since 1968 (0.95%). Half the days of the last year (51.2%) moved 2% or more, against 21.9% since 1968. For $100 face of 90% coins, worth $4,403, a typical day moved the melt value by about $90 and 1 day in 20 by $321 or more.

What you will actually get

• Melt is the reference, not the offer. Ask two or three dealers what they pay per dollar of face value for common 90% coins and compare it with the figure above; the gap is what selling costs you.
• Check the date before you sell for melt. For Morgan and Peace dollars, the date, the mint mark and the condition can be worth more than the silver. Look the coin up in a grading service’s price guide, such as PCGS or NGC, first. We did not measure collector values.
• Count the tax. The IRS lists coins and bullion as collectibles: a gain on them held for more than a year is taxed at up to 28%.
• Plated is not silver. A silver-coloured modern quarter or dollar sold as “silver plated” holds only a thin coat. The silver content above applies to the coins as the Mint struck them.

The same melt arithmetic for bars is in how much is a silver bar worth?, for spoons and trays in how much is sterling silver worth?, and for US gold coins in how much is a gold coin worth? This page is a measurement, not a forecast or personal advice.

How we measured it

Silver price: the LBMA Silver Price in US dollars, every day from January 1968 to 29 September 2026, and the World Bank’s monthly average from 1960 for the years before that. On 5 October 2026 the LBMA price feed refused our scripted request, so the latest price here is 29 September 2026, not today. Coins: silver content from NGC’s melt-value table, checked against the US Mint and the Coinage Act of 1965 where they give it. Face-value line: face value divided by silver content; the daily London series decides the dips after 1968, because the World Bank rounds 1960s prices to 10 cents. A “day” is the change from one London fix to the next.

Common questions