What Is The Silver Content Of Quarters?
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011Curious about the silver content of quarters? Oddly enough it’s a very old story…
From ancient times, metals such as silver have been used as a medium of trade all over the world. The most expensive and valuable metals, mainly silver and gold, were forged into coins to determine and measure value numerically.
The most valued but expensive metals were traded in for more convenient but light ones. The lighter metals were used to represent the value they held of the more expensive ones. This further evolved into paper money until eventually, today’s paper money which merely represents the value of past hard coinage while not backed by any precious metal or specie.
Silver Content of Quarters in the U.S.
The coin refuses to die off. Instead, it survives every turn by changing from one precious metal to another. Take for instance the American quarter. Since its inception in 1792 with the enactment of the Coinage Act, it has changed metal on several occasions in order to adapt to the changing money markets it operates in. The Mint Act of 1890 made it possible to change coin designs every 25 years.
In 1916, the US Mints in Philadelphia and Denver were still making the Barber quarter but later that year, the Philadelphia Mint began producing the Standing Liberty quarter.
Both coin versions were similar in the quantity of silver contained (approximately 0.1808 ounces) but were designed by two different men.
Charles Barber made the Barber using new technology at the time to create better engraving designs while Herman McNeil produced the Standing Liberty coins.
The Barber later proved to be the more durable craftsmanship. Barber coins were made until 1916 and are approximated to have been about 1,788,000 produced. In comparison, Standing Liberty quarters amount to approximately 52,000 making them the more valuable of the 1916 coins.
The Standing Liberty quarters were produced until 1932 when they were replaced by the Washington silver quarters. The rarest Washington quarters were made in San Francisco and Denver in 1932 and their low production numbers makes these some of the most valuable quarters. They contain 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper.
The Change in the Silver Content of Quarters
In 1964, however, the shortage of silver “forced” the Congress to initiate some changes in the metal content of these coins. The silver coins were replaced with 75 percent copper coins clad in 25 percent nickel in 1965.
Over its years in circulation, the Washington quarter underwent some redesigns beginning with the mintmark relocation from the reverse to the obverse in 1968 but was returned to its original design in 1977.
In 1992, the silver content was briefly reinstated in the San Francisco Mint. This changed again in 1999 when legislation passed initiating the State Quarter Design in which five states were to be honored by having them included in the reverse of their individual quarters.
The current quarters in circulation are mainly a mix of copper and nickel in the ratio 8.33 percent nickel and 91.67 copper. They are relatively cheap to produce and are designed for durability with modern engraving methods making it all the easier and faster to produce on a large scale.
As you can see the bad news is that the silver content of quarters is now 0% however the good news is you are still able to find old silvers quarters to invest in.