Silver dollar

I recently inherited some silver dollars. They were my
grandfather’s and were used as “tooth fairy” money wheni went to my
grandparents to spend the night. Their tooth fairy always paid more
for teeth than the tooth fairy at my parents’ house, so I’d “save
up” those loose teeth and yank them when I got to my grandparents’.
I would like to make a piece of jewelry out of the silver dollars.
I will probably draw my own wire. My question is, how much silver
is actually in silver dollars? These date from the 1960s. Thanks
in advance as always for the collective Orchidian wisdom. Christine

Coin silver is 90% pure silver as oppossed to sterling is 92.5%.

Christine, Coin silver is 900 fine, that is it’s 90% silver as
opposed to 92.5 % for sterling. You’ll find soldering a little
trickier that for sterling because of the lower melting point of
coin silver.

Jerry in Kodiak

Hey, Christine! If memory serves, U.S. coin of 1960’s was 800 parts
silver, balance copper and nickel. Any corrections are welcome.

Anyone?
Anyone?

Dan Woodard
Indian Jewelers Supply Co.
www.ijsinc.com
Gallup and Albuquerque, New Mexico

Yep Dan, that was my impression as well…not 900 but 800 parts
silver. I know ONE of the previous silver coins was 800…either
the US coins or the Mexican peso. That should get some input!

Cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple
elegance IS fine jewelry! @coralnut2

Dan - Up through 1964 US silver coinage was still 90% silver, plus
1965 Kennedy halves. Silver was de-monetized, and we went to
cupro-nickle coinage. There were NO silver dollars minted then. The
early 1970s saw the Eisenhower dollar, which even in presentation
pieces was a weird mix of clad metals which included silver.

Jim Small
Small Wonders Lapidary

Thanks, Jim. I quite forgot about the 1964 rule on U.S. coinage. I
stopped looking for silver in circulation many years ago. I guess my
800 parts per 1000 assertion came from Mexican coinage.

Dan in multicultural New Mexico