The Po' Boy's (and Girl's) Guide to Stacking With Junk Silver

What is Junk Silver?

Junk silver is NOT Junk, boys and girls. It's a US, UK, Canadian, and Australian term for coins with little collectable value beyond the silver the coin contains. Sometimes, junk silver is downright UGLY, but if you can purchase it below or even at spot these days, you will find it beautiful.

See, isn't this lovely?

Picture source: Wikipedia Commons

These are some things to learn if you're new to silver stacking:

Spot price: This is the price of a troy ounce of .999 fine silver .

Junk silver: Typically, these were circulating coins with a silver content of 35 to 90 percent.

U.S. Junk Silver Examples

So, what are you looking for?

As an American, I'm most familiar with U.S. silver coins. Here's a few brief tips:

U.S. Silver coin fact: Combinations of pre-65 silver dimes, quarters, and halves that add up to a face value of $1 contained 0.7234 troy ounces of silver when they were new. If they're very worn, they may contain a little less at this point. In any case, a combination of silver dimes, quarters, and halves that has a face value of $1.40 contains about ONE TROY OUNCE of SILVER.

Silver dollars are the exception: Silver Morgan and Peace dollars contained .7736 troy ounce of silver when new. So $1 in these silver dollars are worth a bit more than an equal face value of dimes, halves, and quarters.

Here's one other thing to know: Basically, the definition of junk silver includes coins without much (or any) numismatic value beyond silver content. However, in your search for junk silver, you may actually find some rare coins that ALSO have a collectible value. They might not look that great to you, but you should learn about rare examples of U.S. silver coins because you make find something like a 1916-D Mercury dime that doesn't look all shiny but is actually worth quite a bit.

Takeaway: So basically, you can stack junk silver MOSTLY to find silver, but if you learn about these coins, you may also stumble upon a unicorn that's worth more than an uninformed collector might thing it is.

Why Poor Boys and Girls (and Men and Women) Buy Junk Silver

Well, we Po' folks do it because it's often an easy way to buy silver at spot or even below spot. If you know today's silver spot price and that $1.40 in face value of most U.S. silver coins is equal to a troy ounce of fine silver, this is a pretty easy mission. You can hunt for junk silver buy knowing what you're willing to pay. If you know a bit more about some coins that may have the potential to be worth even more, this is gravy.

What's Good About Silver?

I DO NOT give investment advice, but I did make a case that silver is undervalued right now: https://steemit.com/steemsilvergold/@theinsideout/the-case-for-undervalued-gold-when-compared-to-silver

While I am not qualified to give investment advice, I doubt anybody will regret picking up silver at spot today.

Conclusion

I'll probably write later about some ways I've looked for junk silver. Please feel free to offer me your opinions, comments, and anything that adds more VALUE to this post. Hopefully, you understand now why junk silver is not junk at all.