Sorting the Coin Jar
Got a jar of old change, grandpa's coffee can or a bag from an estate sale? Here's how to pull the silver out in one sitting. Grab a table, good light, a strong magnet and a magnifier.
Step 1: Sort by country and coin
Split Canada from the US, then make piles of nickels, dimes, quarters and halves. Everything else gets easier from here.
Step 2: Read the dates
Most of the work is just reading dates. These are silver:
| Coin | Canada | US |
|---|---|---|
| 5¢ | up to 1921 | 1942–1945 with a big mint mark over Monticello |
| 10¢ | up to 1967, some 1968 | 1964 and earlier |
| 25¢ | up to 1967, some 1968 | 1964 and earlier |
| 50¢ | up to 1967 | 1964 and earlier (90%), 1965–1970 (40%) |
| $1 | up to 1967 | Morgan and Peace dollars |
Step 3: Test the tricky ones
Canadian 1968 dimes and quarters: they came in 50% silver or nickel. Nickel is magnetic and silver isn't, so a strong magnet sorts them in seconds. Sticks? Nickel. Nothing? Silver.
US coins: the magnet won't help, so flip them on their side. A solid silver edge is 90% silver. A faint, whitish stripe is a 40% Kennedy half. A bright copper stripe is clad.
More detail in Is My Canadian Coin Silver? and Is It US Silver?.
Step 4: Hunt for key dates
Before anything goes in the junk pile, check it against the key dates in What Is Junk Silver?. It only takes one 1948 dime to make your whole afternoon.
Step 5: Don't clean them. Seriously.
Polish, dips and scrubbing damage a coin's surface for good. Grading services like PCGS and NGC flag cleaned coins instead of giving them a regular grade, and collectors pay less for them.
That dark colour is just toning. Tarnish is silver sulfide, which forms when silver reacts with sulfur in the air. It's natural, and plenty of collectors love a coin with good toning.
Step 6: Store them right
- Hold coins by the edges, not the faces.
- Keep each type together in tubes, flips or albums.
- Store them somewhere dry.
- Write the date range on each tube so you never have to sort the same coins twice.
Skip the sorting
Want the silver without the jar? Every bundle is already sorted. Canadian: dimes · quarters · halves · fish scales. US: dimes · quarters · halves.
Keep learning
- What Is Junk Silver?: what counts, and how to count it.
- Why People Love Silver: 5,000 years of silver in one page.
Or browse all our coin bundles.