REAL SILVER DOLLARS:

Old Silver Coins

OSC DEFINITION & EXPLANATION

Many people have a stash of old silver coins that they are saving for a rainy day, an economic upheaval or as an investment when silver prices go up.  Some people buy them in $1000 (face value) bags.  These bags consist of US-minted, 1964 and before, silver dimes and silver quarters and are usually only worth the "melt-down" value of the silver contained in them. 

Nevertheless, these old silver coins are, by definition and law, real dollars because $1.00 of them originally contained at least 371.25 grains of silver.  (However, some of them may be worn so much that they now contain less than 371.25 grains of silver and should be melted down and minted into new coins.)  These old silver coins are 90% silver and 10% copper.  Today they are referred to as "junk silver", a term which is particularly inappropriate because, after all, it is real money.  (Perhaps we should start referring to Federal Reserve Notes, FRAUDs, as "junk paper" since they are worth much less than a real dollar, are steadily declining in value and have created an astronomical national debt.)  I therefore use the term Old Silver Coins (OSC) to denote these "junk silver" coins including half dollars and dollars, all of which were minted in 1964 or before.