Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Collecting Silver Dollar Coins

Collecting silver dollar coins has been called the hobby of kings and if you are into collecting the rare coins worth many thousands that would of course be true.

Thankfully you do not have to be a king to collect some fine silver dollar coins. There are some very nice coins available modestly priced and with a regular purchase every so often it is possible to build up an very impressive collection of quality silver dollar coins.

The US government has been minting silver coins for many years now and these are silver eagles, mostly. You can buy silver eagles from many dealers around the country.

Usually the composition of the US silver dollar is 90% silver and 10% copper (to add strength and durability). The actual silver weigh is .7736 troy ounces.

There is now a trend towards including more silver and producing silver coins with 99.99 percent silver. These would be proof coins and Brilliant Uncirculated (BU) and as they are not ‘in circulation’ do not need to be so hard or durable.

The last circulating silver coins minted were in the 1970s and were only 40 percent silver the rest being nickel.

Many people collect silver dollar coins in sets by year. They will collect each issue that comes out and eventually will have a set of silver coins. This tends to improve the value as a set is worth more per coin proportionately than individual coins.

It pays to browse and do due diligence, make a good study of the coins available and the prices and values for them. There are many hundreds to chose from and thousands have been minted over the years. From the 1804 coins worth many many hundreds of thousands to the latest issues worth a few dollars.

With silver increasing in value almost on a daily basis, it seems that collecting silver dollar coins is a worth while hobby and one that can make us all kings in our own way.

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