Junk Silver in your pocket

Alert!

The recent economic downturn in the U.S. is indirectly effecting junk silver.

How?

With people struggling to pay bills and make ends meet, more and more are hitting the change jar, ashtray and piggy bank for cash.

Usually, this means grabbing a handful of quarters and either trading them in for dollar bills or using them for small purchases.

Regardless, those coin jars and piggy banks all to often contain junk silver - pre-1965 U.S. silver coins such as dimes, quarters and halves.

Shoppers are returning these long lost coins to circulation and making them available to you and me in our change!

How can you get some of these common date silver coins?

Shop with cash - when you shop with cash, you will naturally receive change back. Do not spend any of these coins until you have carefully screened them for junk silver coins.

Keep an eye out for coins in your family. Kids and the spouse may have a few coins and not ever know it!

Consider reviving the old practice of purchasing rolled quarters and dimes from the bank and checking for pre-1965 dates. Time consuming but well worth it.

A convenience store clerk in Michigan reported receiving two rolls of silver dimes from a cash strapped customer for gasoline. All of the dimes were pre-1965 Roosevelt and worth more than the $20.00 face value of the rolls! Wow!

A young waitress in Rhode Island reported receiving a handful of coins for a tip from a customer. Discouraged at first, she noticed a quarter in the tip looked "funny" in her words. After taking it to a local coin shop, she received a total of $27.00 for all the coins in the tip. There was that much silver in those coins!

Keep an eye out in your pocket change as you may stumble across a quarter or dime worth far more than its face value.