In this video Adam Zimmerman explains what “junk silver” is and why it can be worth a surprising amount of money despite the name. He defines junk silver as U.S. quarters, dimes, and half dollars minted before 1964 that contain 90 % silver, noting that when silver prices exceed $50 per ounce each quarter can be worth $7 or more, though they have little numismatic premium. Zimmerman shows how to identify genuine silver coins by their silver‑gray side, contrasting them with copper‑brown post‑1964 issues. He warns that mixed‑in Canadian quarters, which are only 80 % silver, can reduce overall value. He also explains that some quarters may have nail‑polish or paint markings—historically used as “house quarters” for jukebox owners—but these markings do not affect the silver content. The video concludes with a brief reminder to subscribe.
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Junk silver, what is it? So today we're going to talk about junk silver. This here is what we call junk silver. This is a quarter. junk silver bag. So all the quarters prior to 1964 are 90% silver. So each one of these quarters, now that silver is over $50, is about $7 or more. So this is a lot of money here. So even though it's called junk silver, it's a lot of money, but there's not really a numismatic value to the money. Now there's a bunch of things to know. First of all, One way to know if it's silver, because you have to be silver in order to be valued, if you look at the side of all these quarters, you'll see that they're either silver or grayish on the side. The normal quarters are going to be copper and brown on the side. So when you see them silver, that's a good sign that they are 90% silver. And you could also have these junk bags of dimes, half dollars, It's all 90% silver, and that's what you want as long as it's prior to 1964. When it comes to junk silver, another thing you need to look out for is sometimes there'll be other things mixed in. Can you see anything different here? Something in this area is not the same. Over here is a Canadian quarter. This quarter is silver. However, the Canadian quarter is only 80% silver. Not a huge deal, but if there's a lot of these mixed in, you will lose money because it's 10% less, obviously. And you have to be careful to check for these guys when you're counting the quarters. Another interesting thing to know about the junk silver quarters— sometimes when you look at the quarters, you're going to see something like this mixed in. This is nothing really to worry about. This is just nail polish or paint that they put on some of the quarters. The quarters will remain the same value. What the paint was actually done for back in the day was if someone had a jukebox and they owned a diner or a bar, these were the quarters that would be the house quarters. So in other words, if someone owned the jukebox and they collected all the quarters at the time, they didn't want the owner to be charged, so they would give this quarter back, hence the house quarter. Please subscribe so you don't miss any future videos.
