I like to stack gold and silver as a hedge against impending inflation, but that is the subject of many rants in other threads. This thread is about finding silver in unexpected places, your pockets! Some of you may know, but I suspect many don't that United States coins once had silver in them. Today's coins are clad cupronickel and except for the nickel are not worth their face value based on metal content. Older coins, however, are actually worth more than their face value based upon the metal content. Pennies before 1982 were 95% copper and are worth more than $.01, but this is about silver!
I love silver, it's my favorite metal even more than gold. I always scan my change for what is called "junk silver" and I will frequently swing by the bank and pick up some coin rolls to try my luck. Today I went to the bank and came home with four Kennedy half dollar coins. The one to watch is on the left.
1966 is a year of interest. Between 1965 and 1970, half dollars were 40% silver. These are old coins and being silver are usually tarnished. Now for a coin collector what am I about to do is sacrilege, clean it. Most silver bugs like tarnished coins; they call it "toning." I f*** hate stained silver and there is nothing particularly numismatic about a 66' half dollar.
Silver tarnishes when it reacts to air. The common method to clean it is with a polish. DO NOT DO THIS. In scrubbing the silver sulfide off you are actually removing silver, stop that.
The better way is to reverse the reaction. You need an anode that will give up it's electrons to the reacted silver. Aluminum foil works well. Hot water facilitates the reaction, but you need something to create an electrolytic solution to allow current to pass. Most of the time I use baking soda. It's not just for the 1000 other reasons you use baking soda.
I was out, so I squirted some lemon juice in there. put the foil in and drop in the coin.
After a minute or two stirring the water and a quick buff, she's all purty!
I didn't want to waste the solution I made so I dug out some more of my junk silver to clean.
Now if you want to see the process, check this video out. see how quick it happens when you supercharge it with a battery!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGCx9HZwYBo[/youtube]
And here is my current crop of salvaged silver.
The bottom row are 40%, everything up top is pre 1964 and contains 90% silver. The face value is $12.50, but these are actually worth over $84 based on silver content.
You won't get rich this way and they are hard to find; 50 years of people before you have been grabbing them. If you wish to secure a silver position with junk silver you can buy bags of them at many online metal retailers, but you will pay over spot price. I prefer to just look as a hobby and it's fun to find one in a handful of change or when you dump out a roll. Silver makes a distinctive "tink tink" sound when banging against other coins. If you are jingling change and hear one that sounds odd, chances are you have a winner!
If you are interested this is a good list of coins to watch out for and what they are worth. Happy Hunting!
Yeah, let's do some math. 
