Silver Clad Coins
So perhaps you have heard of silver clad coins but are wondering what exactly they are and how they are different than other types of silver coins out there.
For the sake of our discussion here we’ll assume that you are interested in American silver clad coins which is a good assumption to make since I don’t know a lot about other types of silver coins besides the odd 1 ounce Austrian Philharmonic bullion coin.
Bullion coins are quite a different animal from the silver clad coins we’re looking at here.
American Silver Clad Coins
The United States has a nice little history of producing and using silver coinage.
You can still find silver quarters, dimes and half dollars quite easily -at coin shops and online- but they are all the pre-1965 90% silver coins that were made prior to the Johnson administrations decision to end the production of silver coinage.
The were still a few silver-ish coins that made it past that fateful decision. The silver clad coins you are likely to find are the:
- 40% Silver Kennedy Half Dollar (1965-1970)
- 40% Silver Eisenhower Dollar (1971-1976)
Don’t Get Confused by Silver Clad Coins!
It’s easy to get confused and recall both of these as half dollar coins so remember that the Kennedy coin was a HALF DOLLAR and was made both in 90% (1964) and 40% (1965-1970) silver variations.
The Eisenhower coin is a DOLLAR coin and the 40% silver version was made available only as a collectible coin although you may find some with wear from circulation if they were introduced into circulation by accident.
In any case both of these 40% silver coins could be considered silver clad coins since less than half of the metal content is from silver.
The other 60% of the coin’s metal content is copper.
These coins were the final grasp at value in an era where coins slipped from mainly silver items into all zinc and or copper discs.
If you are interested in buying older coins for their silver value you will be better off buying the 90% silver variants since you will get a greater concentration of silver for the space they take up.
You can read more about finding places to buy silver quarters right here.