I accompanied my wife to another estate sale last weekend and found some silver. Not a vintage bar this time, but some Constitutional silver and some Mexican silver. My wife left me in the dust heading into the sale as I checked my phone to get a rough idea on melt value. At the time, I believe a Mercury dime was valued at $1.96 (the value is $2.05 as I'm writing this!), so I figured that every 10-cents of face value was $2.00. Right off the bat, I selected the bags above, which fit that rough value perfectly.
Same with the bag of quarters, 25-cents face value equals $5.00. The Mercury dimes were pricier and I didn't intend to buy them...but I did. Now, the good news. There were 8 quarters in the bag, not 7, and one of the bags of dimes above had 11 dimes, not 10. Scored! Helps make up for the Mercury dimes ;)
I didn't do as well with the Mexican Un Peso coins. I didn't know anything about them, but some had dates in the 1950's and 60's, so I paid $20 for a bag of twenty. These 8 were older and larger than the more recently dated versions. Looking up the silver content was disappointing, but "live and learn."
This final coin was purchase at an antique store while scouting around for wildflowers in Johnson City, Texas. I didn't know that at one time nickels contained silver. I knew there was a steel penny from the war years, but I had no idea that there was also a 35% nickel in 1942 - 1945.
According to Coinflation,
"World War II prompted the rationing of many commodities. Nickel was highly valued for use in armor plating, and Congress ordered the removal of this metal from the five-cent piece, effective October 8, 1942. From that date, and lasting through the end of 1945, five-cent pieces bore the regular design but were minted from an alloy of 35% silver, 56% copper, 9% manganese. It was anticipated that these emergency coins would be withdrawn from circulation after the war, so a prominent distinguishing feature was added. Coins from all three mints bore very large mintmarks above the dome of Monticello, and the letter 'P' was used as a mintmark for the first time on a U. S. coin."
The melt value of this coin is $1.59 today, given current melt values. I paid $4.00, but only because it was a unique find for me. Well, we're off to the movies now, but my wife is already looking for yard sales and estate sales and planning an early start tomorrow. Wish me luck!
