What Year Did They Stop Making Coins Out of Silver?

For centuries, silver held a prominent place in the United States’ monetary system. Since the U.S. Mint’s establishment in 1792, coins like dimes, quarters, and half-dollars contained significant silver, representing tangible value in daily transactions. This practice highlighted the nation’s reliance on precious metals for coinage, with their intrinsic value ensuring widespread acceptance and utility.

The End of Silver in US Coinage

A significant shift in United States coinage occurred in 1964, the last year circulating dimes and quarters were minted from 90% silver. The Coinage Act of 1965 then altered the composition of these denominations, eliminating silver from dimes and quarters entirely. While dimes and quarters transitioned immediately, half-dollars changed more gradually. From 1965 to 1970, the Kennedy half-dollar’s silver content was reduced from 90% to 40% before becoming silver-free by 1971.

Economic Pressures Driving the Change

The decision to remove silver from coinage was driven by economic pressures during the early to mid-1960s. The market price of silver rose significantly, pushing its bullion value above the coins’ face value. For instance, the silver in a 90% silver quarter became worth more as raw metal than its twenty-five cent denomination. This imbalance led to widespread hoarding of silver coins by the public, who recognized their increasing intrinsic worth. People began removing these coins from circulation, some even melting them for their silver content.

This widespread hoarding and melting created a severe shortage of circulating coinage. The diminished availability of dimes, quarters, and half-dollars threatened daily commerce and monetary stability. The U.S. Treasury and Mint attempted to increase production, but dwindling government silver stocks could not sustain demand. This situation necessitated a change in coin composition to ensure an adequate currency supply.

The Emergence of Clad Coinage

To address the coin shortage and rising silver costs, the United States Mint introduced “clad” coinage. Clad coins feature a layered, sandwich-like construction: an inner core of pure copper bonded between outer layers of a copper-nickel alloy. This composition allowed the government to produce coins with an intrinsic metal value significantly lower than their face value, preventing the hoarding and melting that plagued silver coins.

Dimes, quarters, and eventually half-dollars transitioned to this new clad composition. These modern coins differ noticeably from their silver predecessors. A distinct copper edge is visible on clad dimes and quarters, unlike the uniform silver appearance of older coins. Clad coins are also lighter than their silver counterparts and produce a duller sound when dropped, in contrast to the higher-pitched ring of silver coins. This new composition ensured a stable, plentiful supply of circulating currency, resolving the coinage crisis of the 1960s.