Cheapest 90% Junk Silver
You want real silver without paying a premium for a pretty design. 90% Junk Silver is the answer: pre-1965 U.S. dimes, quarters, halves, and dollars that circulated in your grandparents' pockets. Each coin is 90% silver and 10% copper, with weights set by the U.S. Mint long before bullion was a market category. You buy these by the bag, by the roll, or by face value, and the math is the same either way.
90% Junk Silver silver bullion is part of our tracked catalog, but no dealer in our network currently has fresh in-stock listings within our 24-hour freshness window. New listings appear within an hour of the next dealer scrape. Meanwhile, browse all cheapest silver →
What is the cheapest 90% Junk Silver right now?
The lowest-premium 90% Junk Silver listing across our tracked dealers appears at the top of the grid above. Premiums are recalculated against live spot every hour.
What exactly counts as 90% junk silver?
90% junk silver. Any U.S. dime, quarter, or half dollar struck in 1964 or earlier, plus pre-1936 silver dollars, all of which the U.S. Mint produced from an alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper. The 1965 cutoff isn't a guideline, it's the law: the Coinage Act of 1965 replaced silver in dimes and quarters with a copper-nickel clad, and halves dropped to 40% silver from 1965 to 1970 before going clad themselves.
The "junk" qualifier separates these from collectible-grade examples of the same coins. A heavily circulated 1942 Mercury dime trades for melt. An uncirculated 1942 Mercury dime in a graded slab trades for a numismatic premium that can be many multiples of melt. Junk silver dealers sort out anything with collector value before bagging the rest.
Designs you'll see in a typical mixed bag include Mercury dimes (1916-1945), Roosevelt dimes (1946-1964), Washington quarters (1932-1964), Walking Liberty halves (1916-1947), Franklin halves (1948-1963), and Kennedy halves (1964 only for the 90% version). The mix varies by what the dealer happens to have on hand.
How do you calculate the silver content?
The shortcut is 0.715 troy ounces of pure silver per $1.00 of face value, and that single number does almost all the work. Ten dimes, four quarters, or two halves are each $1.00 face and each contain roughly 0.715 oz of silver. A $100 face bag holds about 71.5 oz of silver. A $1,000 face bag holds about 715 oz.
The reason it's an approximation is that circulating coins lose a tiny amount of metal to wear, and the original Mint specs allowed small tolerances. The bullion industry settled on 0.715 as the practical figure for a typical worn bag. Brand-new uncirculated coins would be slightly heavier, around 0.7234 oz per dollar face, but you almost never see those in a junk lot.
Silver dollars are the exception worth flagging. A pre-1936 Morgan or Peace dollar contains about 0.7734 oz of silver per coin, so $1.00 face in silver dollars holds more silver than $1.00 face in dimes. Dealers price silver dollars separately for that reason, and because the designs carry their own collector demand even in worn condition.
Live spot for the calculation: $70.18. Multiply by 0.715 to get the silver-only value of a $1 face roll, and add the dealer's premium on top.
Why are premiums on junk silver usually lower than rounds or bars?
The coins already exist. No mint has to strike them, no refiner has to cast them, and no distributor has to package them in fresh assay cards. Dealers source junk silver from the secondary market, mostly from walk-in customers selling old family holdings, and the cost of acquisition is whatever they paid that seller plus handling.
That secondary supply chain keeps premiums tight in normal markets. In a calm market you'll often see junk silver priced at a lower premium per ounce than a comparable weight of generic rounds, sometimes meaningfully lower. The exact gap depends on dealer inventory and how much retail demand is pulling on the limited supply at any given moment.
The flip side is that junk silver premiums spike during retail buying frenzies. When new buyers flood in, the secondary supply doesn't scale up, and premiums on junk can briefly run higher than premiums on freshly minted rounds. If you see junk silver quoted at a wide premium, check what generic rounds are doing before you assume you're getting the cheap option.
Should you buy junk silver instead of rounds or bars?
It depends on what you actually want from the position. Junk silver wins on three things: low premium in normal markets, instant divisibility down to a single dime, and universal recognition at any coin shop in the country. If those matter, the case is straightforward.
Rounds and bars win on storage density and uniformity. A 10 oz bar takes up far less space than $14 face of junk silver for the same silver weight, and ten identical 1 oz rounds are easier to count and verify than a mixed bag of worn coins. If you're stacking serious weight, the storage difference adds up.
A reasonable split for a new stacker is some junk for the divisibility and recognition, and some rounds or bars once the position grows past the point where a bag of dimes is practical. You don't have to pick one.
How do dealers ship and verify junk silver?
Most dealers ship junk silver in canvas or plastic bags, sometimes broken into sub-bags by denomination, and weight verification happens on a calibrated scale before they seal the package. A $100 face bag should weigh close to the expected silver weight plus the copper, and reputable dealers will have weighed and spot-checked before shipment.
When the bag arrives, the standard buyer check is to weigh it yourself and spot-check a few coins for date and design. Any pre-1965 dime, quarter, or half (or any 1964 Kennedy half) is 90% silver. A 1965-or-later coin is not, with one exception: 1965-1970 Kennedy halves are 40% silver, sometimes called "40% junk" and priced separately.
Returns and disputes are rare with established dealers because the verification is so simple. If the weight matches and the dates are right, you have what you paid for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does "90% junk silver" actually mean?
It means U.S. dimes, quarters, halves, and pre-1936 silver dollars struck before 1965, when the U.S. Mint used a 90% silver, 10% copper alloy. "Junk" just signals the coins are worn or common enough to trade at melt value rather than a numismatic premium.
How much silver is in $1.00 of face value?
Roughly 0.715 troy ounces of pure silver in $1.00 face of dimes, quarters, or halves. Silver dollars hold more, about 0.7734 oz per coin, and they're usually priced separately because of design demand.
Why is junk silver often cheaper per ounce than rounds or bars?
The coins already exist on the secondary market, so dealers don't pay a fresh minting or refining cost. In calm markets that keeps premiums tight, though premiums can spike during retail buying frenzies when supply doesn't scale.
Should you buy junk silver if you only want stacking weight?
Junk silver works for weight, but it's bulkier than bars or rounds for the same ounces. If storage density matters more than divisibility, bars are more efficient. If you want small, recognizable units you can sell anywhere, junk silver is hard to beat.
How do you tell real 90% silver coins from clad replacements?
Check the date. Any U.S. dime, quarter, or half dated 1964 or earlier is 90% silver, and the 1964 Kennedy half is the last year for that alloy. From 1965 on, dimes and quarters went to copper-nickel clad, and 1965-1970 Kennedy halves dropped to 40% silver.