What Are Dimes and Quarters Made Of? 1964 Changes It

Pick up any dime or quarter from your pocket and you are holding copper, not silver: a pure copper core wearing thin faces of a copper-nickel alloy, which is why a modern coin shows a copper stripe along its edge. But that has only been true since 1965, and the coins minted before the switch are a different object entirely.

What are dimes made of today?

Every circulating dime since 1965 is "clad": 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel, with the copper core sandwiched between nickel-alloy faces. It contains no silver at all, and its metal is worth far less than ten cents. The same recipe applies to the quarter and the half dollar minted for circulation today.

What are quarters made of, and when did they contain silver?

Quarters dated 1964 and earlier are 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, a composition that had held since the 1800s. The Coinage Act of 1965 removed silver from dimes and quarters because the metal in the coins was becoming worth more than their face value, exactly the property that makes the old ones worth hunting for now.

The five-second test needs no tools: read the date, then look at the edge. A 1964-or-earlier date on a dime, quarter or half dollar means 90 percent silver, every time, regardless of how dark or worn the coin looks. A copper stripe on the edge means clad; a solid silver-white edge means silver.

What is a silver dime or quarter worth?

A 90 percent silver dime contains 0.0723 troy ounces of silver and a quarter 0.1808, so their melt value moves with the silver market every day. The trade shorthand for a mixed pile is 0.715 troy ounces of silver per $1.00 of face value. Our silver coin melt calculator prices every coin type against the live silver feed, per coin and per dollar of face value, so a coffee can of old change becomes a real number before you leave the house.

Two warnings worth more than the rest of this post. First, do not clean the coins: collectors pay for original surfaces, and a scrubbed rarity falls to melt value. Second, do not spend the odd ones: certain dates and mint marks are worth far more than their silver, which is why every coin gets checked for collector value at our counters before any melt offer is made.

What about nickels and pennies?

Nickels have been 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel since 1866, with one exception: the wartime nickels of 1942 to 1945, which contain 35 percent silver and show a large mint mark above Monticello. Pennies switched from 95 percent copper to copper-plated zinc in 1982, and the famous 1943 steel penny is its own story.

Quick answers: rolls, misprints, and 1965 quarters

What is a penny made of, and what were American pennies made of before? Since 1982 the penny has been copper-plated zinc, 97.5 percent zinc under a thin copper skin. Before that, American pennies were 95 percent copper (bronze, then brass), all the way back to the nineteenth century, with the lone exception of the 1943 steel cent struck during the war. That is why pre-1982 cents feel heavier and why hoarders pull them from change.

How many pennies are in a penny roll, and how much does a dollar of pennies weigh? Fifty pennies to a roll. A dollar in pennies is 100 coins: about 250 grams (just over half a pound) if they are all modern zinc cents, and about 311 grams if they are all pre-1982 copper, which is one quick way to guess what a jar holds.

What year were nickels silver? Only 1942 through 1945, the 35 percent silver war nickels with the oversized mint mark above Monticello. Every other nickel, before and since, is copper-nickel with no silver at all.

How many quarters are in a roll? Forty: a standard roll of quarters is $10.00 of face value. Dimes roll fifty to a tube ($5.00), and a $10 roll of pre-1965 quarters carries about 7.15 troy ounces of real silver, which is why old rolls deserve a date check before spending.

How much is in a roll of quarters, dimes, or pennies? The bank-standard rolls: quarters 40 coins ($10.00), dimes 50 coins ($5.00), nickels 40 coins ($2.00), pennies 50 coins (50 cents). The face value never changes, but the metal can: a $10 roll of pre-1965 quarters holds about 7.15 troy ounces of real silver, so every inherited or long-stored roll deserves a date check before it goes back to the bank.

What year are silver quarters, dimes, and half dollars? 1964 and earlier, for all three: every quarter, dime and half dollar dated 1964 or before is 90 percent silver. Half dollars alone kept a reduced 40 percent silver content from 1965 through 1970. So check every coin dated at or before those years; nothing minted for circulation after 1970 contains silver.

How much is a JFK Kennedy half dollar worth? The 1964 Kennedy half is 90% silver and always worth well above face. 1965 through 1970 halves are 40% silver, the only US coins that kept silver after 1964. From 1971 on they are clad and worth face value outside of proofs and errors, so check the date before spending one.

Are misprint or misprinted dimes worth anything? Genuine mint errors can be: off-center strikes, doubled dies, clipped planchets and wrong-metal strikes all carry collector premiums, while post-mint damage that only looks like a misprint carries none. The difference takes an in-person look, which is free at our counters.

Are 1965 quarters valuable? Almost all 1965 quarters are the first clad coins and worth face value, but a tiny number were struck on leftover 90% silver blanks during the transition, and those errors are worth thousands. The five-second edge test settles it: a solid silver edge on a 1965 quarter is a coin worth bringing in immediately.

Found silver ones? Here is what to do

Sort by date, keep them uncleaned, and bring the whole batch to any of our 8 Central New Jersey stores: Aberdeen, Brick, East Brunswick, Farmingdale, Manalapan, Middlesex, Millstone and New Brunswick. Every coin is checked in front of you, collector pieces are priced above melt where they deserve it, and accepted offers are paid in cash the same day. No appointment, just a photo ID. The selling silver coins guide covers the whole process step by step.