Oh, and we had junkos at the feeder today. Snow is coming.

Kudos, fellow coin geek. :)

Silver dimes are great to find, yep - but the silver nickels, now, you find one of those, that's a day you're glad to be a coin geek.

Me? I'm the type who's more happy about the lots of garlic for dinner. Kudos, fellow garlic lover.

When did they stop being silver? I know nothing about coins except my favorite ones have ridges, and I wish we would get rid of pennies, and I would like to smash a quarter on the railroad tracks behind my house but the stupid bums would probably swipe it before I could find it.

pivo I think I'm loving garlic more every day. :D

Handy guide to silver in U.S. coins:

Any* dime, quarter, half dollar or dollar coin dated 1964 or earlier is 90% silver. So, even if these coins are not "collectible" (rare date, in very good condition, or both), they are valuable for their silver content alone.

(There were silver three-cent and twenty-cent pieces minted in the 19th century too, but you're not likely to get any of them in change.)

Kennedy half dollars dated from 1965 to 1970 are 40% silver. Still worth turning in for the silver content.

Finally, because we needed the nickel more to shoot people with during WWII, the "nickels" dated 1942** through 1945 were actually made out of 35% silver, mixed with copper and manganese to look more like nickel.

Finally, the "silver" pennies dated 1943 are not silver - that year, we made pennies out of steel, again because we needed the bronze for the war.

* - with a few minor exceptions that aren't important.
** - Okay, in 1942 they made both kinds. To be sure a 1942 five-center is silver or not, you have to check the back - the "silver" ones have a big mintmark (P, D or S) right above Monticello's dome.

Interesting! Thanks, yhbc.