How Rare is Junk Silver Really?

How rare is junk silver today? Probably a lot more than you think! The best collective guess today is that only $500 million dollars (face value) of "junk silver" (pre-1965 90% silver dimes, quarters, halves) are still in existence today. The rest was melted down in the "Great Melt" of 1979 and 1980 when silver reached $50 an ounce. The tales from coin dealers in business during those tumultuous times speak of thousands and thousands of bags of junk silver lost to the refinery cauldrons. If we divided the existing silver coins among the 307 million Americans alive today, we'd have only about $1.63 available per person.

To put these numbers into perspective, let's look at just the US mint production of the base metal "State Quarters" for 2009. Over 2.4 billion quarters were minted which translates into $609 million dollars in face value. That's over $2.00 worth or 8 quarters per US citizen! Moreover, I've read that about 145 million Americans are wasting their time and scarce resources to hoard these worthless base metal slugs destined for the scrap heap of history. It's been so long since "real money" was in circulation that the average American no longer has any conception of good from fake money.

The moral to this little story? Buy as much junk silver from Apmex.com and ebay as you can afford and hold onto it as a hedge against future inflation and hyperinflation. When the final economic descent happens, it'll be too late to buy real money at any cost in paper money FRN's.

Time is running out fast! Hyperinflation seems unavoidable as fiat paper money is being printed as fast as the US presses can run. To protect your wealth and your family, buy gold and silver now from these top companies, APMEX Gold and Silver and Silver American Eagles.

Rick