US Silver Coins
Want to know about US silver coins? Read on to get a historical overview of the minting of silver coins in the United States…
It was back in 1794 when the United States began minting dollar coins. Over the years the US made use of many different substances to produce dollar coins. The list includes gold, silver, copper, zinc, manganese and brass. Silver dollar coins however remained the most popular of the entire coin collection of the United States.
The silver dollar coins produced by the states had 90% silver content with the remaining 10% being copper. The use of copper added strength and durability to the silver coins. On an average a silver coin would weigh in at .7736 troy ounces.
Super silver coins
At one point in time the US increased the silver content in the coins. This was done in order to compete in foreign markets. This special coin came to be known as the Trade Dollar. Its use was however only regulated to the foreign market as it never came into domestic circulation. The last of the silver dollar coins were minted in the 1970s. They comprised of 40% silver with 60% nickel.
Silver coins-Too valuable to be used
When the US began its coinage years silver used to be an extremely scarce and thus precious metal. In fact it was at par with gold if not more valuable. The scarcity of the material kept the minting of silver coins to a bare minimum.
For the longest time silver remained too valuable and rare a material to be used for minting coins on a large scale. It was with the discovery of the Comstock Load in the year 1850 in the state of Nevada that silver coin minting picked up. The locals were able to discover silver in large quantities in the region and resulted in a sharp increase of silver coin production. Eventually though, the silver reserve was exhausted and another significant gap in silver coin production followed.
Silver dollar production picked up again after the huge melt in 1918. This silver pool was also drying up by the year 1926. By 1928 the minting of silver coins came to a complete halt. It resumed for a couple of years in 1934 after which it came to an end again.
Popular US Silver Coins
The famous Silver eagle dollar coin came into production in 1986. This coin was not only unique because of the symbolism that it displayed but also because it was 100% silver weighing in at a full troy ounce. However this special coin is not meant for the purpose of circulation. This is because its actual value is five times more than the face value of the coin.
In the years when silver was considered to be of high value wide scale hoarding occurred. But by the 60s the value of one US dollar became significantly higher than that of a pure silver coin and hence the US silver coin lost its value. Throughout history silver coin minting has taken place in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Carson City, San Francisco and Denver.