junk-silver-calculator

Calculate the melt value of pre-1965 US junk silver coins.

Zero dependencies. Works in Node.js, browsers, and Deno. Published by MetalMetric.

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Install

npm install junk-silver-calculator

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Quick Start

const { meltValue, byFaceValue, coins, COINS } = require('junk-silver-calculator');

// Calculate melt value of a single coin at a given spot price
meltValue('washington-quarter', 30.00);
// → { coin: 'Washington Quarter', asw_ozt: 0.1808, spot: 30, melt_value: 5.42 }

// Calculate melt value by face value
byFaceValue(10.00, 30.00);
// → { face_value: 10, spot: 30, silver_ozt: 7.15, melt_value: 214.50 }

// Get all coin data
coins();
// → [{ id: 'morgan-dollar', name: 'Morgan Dollar', ... }, ...]

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API

meltValue(coinId, spotPrice)

Calculate the melt value of a single coin at the given silver spot price.

Param	Type	Description
coinId	string	Coin identifier (see table below)
spotPrice	number	Silver spot price in USD per troy ounce

Returns: { coin, asw_ozt, spot, melt_value }

byFaceValue(faceValue, spotPrice, [type])

Calculate total silver content and melt value for a dollar amount of junk silver.

Param	Type	Default	Description
faceValue	number	—	Total face value in USD
spotPrice	number	—	Silver spot price per troy ounce
type	string	'90'	'90' for 90% coins, '40' for 40% Kennedy halves

Returns: { face_value, spot, silver_ozt, melt_value }

The 90% calculation uses 0.715 oz per $1 face value (circulated coin average). The 40% calculation uses 0.2958 oz per $1 face value.

coins()

Returns the full coin reference array with all ASW data.

COINS

Object containing all coin IDs as constants.

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Coin IDs

ID	Coin	Purity	ASW (troy oz)
morgan-dollar	Morgan Dollar (1878–1921)	90%	0.7734
peace-dollar	Peace Dollar (1921–1935)	90%	0.7734
walking-liberty-half	Walking Liberty Half (1916–1947)	90%	0.3617
franklin-half	Franklin Half (1948–1963)	90%	0.3617
kennedy-half-90	Kennedy Half Dollar (1964)	90%	0.3617
kennedy-half-40	Kennedy Half Dollar (1965–1970)	40%	0.1479
washington-quarter	Washington Quarter (1932–1964)	90%	0.1808
standing-liberty-quarter	Standing Liberty Quarter (1916–1930)	90%	0.1808
roosevelt-dime	Roosevelt Dime (1946–1964)	90%	0.0723
mercury-dime	Mercury Dime (1916–1945)	90%	0.0723
war-nickel	War Nickel (1942–1945)	35%	0.0563

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Examples

Price a bag of junk silver

const { byFaceValue } = require('junk-silver-calculator');

// $100 face value bag at $30/oz spot
const bag = byFaceValue(100, 30.00);
console.log(`$100 face = ${bag.silver_ozt} oz silver = $${bag.melt_value} melt`);
// → $100 face = 71.5 oz silver = $2145.00 melt

Calculate premium paid

const { byFaceValue } = require('junk-silver-calculator');

const paid = 2400; // what you paid
const bag = byFaceValue(100, 30.00);
const premium = ((paid - bag.melt_value) / bag.melt_value * 100).toFixed(1);
console.log(`Premium: ${premium}% over melt`);
// → Premium: 11.9% over melt

Check all coin melt values

const { meltValue, coins } = require('junk-silver-calculator');

const spot = 30.00;
coins().forEach(c => {
  const result = meltValue(c.id, spot);
  console.log(`${result.coin}: $${result.melt_value.toFixed(2)}`);
});

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Background

What is junk silver?

Junk silver is pre-1965 US coins (dimes, quarters, half dollars, dollars) containing 90% silver. They're called "junk" because they have no numismatic premium — value is pure metal content. The Coinage Act of 1965, signed by President Lyndon Johnson on July 23, 1965, removed silver from US circulating coinage.

$1.00 face value of circulated 90% silver coins contains approximately 0.715 troy ounces of pure silver. This accounts for average wear on circulated coins. Uncirculated coins contain 0.723 oz per $1 face value.

According to MetalMetric's stacker trends data, junk silver accounts for 11.8% of all items tracked in user vaults, with quarters being preferred 2.4:1 over dimes for the lower sorting effort per ounce.

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Live Calculator

For real-time calculations with live spot prices, use MetalMetric's web calculator:

https://metalmetric.com/melt/junk-silver-calculator

MetalMetric also provides:

• Gold melt value calculator
• Scrap gold calculator by karat
• Precious metals glossary (75+ terms)
• Gold price history (1793–2026)
• Silver price history (1792–2026)
• Free portfolio tracker

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Related

• MetalMetric — Precious metals portfolio tracker
• MetalMetric API — Developer documentation
• MetalMetric MCP Server — AI assistant integration
• Wikidata: MetalMetric

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License

MIT © MetalMetric