Silver Quarter Value
Byline: Reviewed by the Silver Value Chart Editorial Team · Updated September 19, 2026
$12.00 melt value per coin
0.18085 troy oz of silver at $66.38/oz
Quick answer
A pre-1965 US quarter contains 0.18085 troy ounces of silver — 6.25 grams of 90% silver alloy — worth $12.00 as of September 19, 2026. That is roughly 48 times its 25-cent face value.
Quarters dated 1965 or later contain no silver.
- Years struck
- through 1964
- Gross weight
- 6.25 g
- Fineness
- .900
- Actual silver weight
- 0.18085 troy oz
- Diameter
- 24.3 mm
- Face value
- 25¢
The three designs you will find
All pre-1965 quarters share the same silver content. They differ in design and in how much the coin market cares about them.
Washington quarters (1932–1964) are the overwhelming majority of surviving silver quarters and the backbone of junk silver bags. Most trade purely as metal. The exceptions worth knowing are the first year's low-mintage 1932-D and 1932-S, which carry real premiums in any grade.
Standing Liberty quarters (1916–1930) are scarcer and more collected. The 1916 is a genuine rarity, and the 1918/7-S overdate is a well-known variety. A practical problem with this design: the date sat on a raised surface and wore away quickly, so huge numbers survive dateless. A dateless Standing Liberty still contains its full silver content and is bought and sold as bullion.
Barber quarters (1892–1916) are older still. Most circulated examples trade near melt, but the series has key dates — the 1901-S above all — that are worth substantial sums even heavily worn.
How to tell silver from clad in seconds
You do not need to read dates on a whole jar.
Look at the edge. This is the fastest and most reliable check. A silver quarter shows a solid silver-white edge. A clad quarter shows an unmistakable copper stripe sandwiched between two white layers. Stack a handful on their sides and the clad ones identify themselves instantly.
Listen. Dropped on a hard surface, silver rings with a longer, higher tone; clad thuds. Dealers sort by ear faster than most people sort by eye.
Weigh. Silver 6.25 g, clad 5.67 g. Obvious on a 0.1 g scale.
Check the date. Definitive, but slowest — and the coins you most want to find are often the ones whose dates have worn away.
The 1976 trap. Bicentennial quarters are dated 1776–1976 and most are ordinary clad. Silver-clad 40% versions exist but were sold in collector sets, not released into circulation. A Bicentennial quarter from pocket change is almost certainly not silver — check the edge.
Worked examples at today's price
| Quantity | Face value | Silver content | Melt value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 quarter | $0.25 | 0.18085 oz t | $12.00 |
| 4 quarters | $1.00 | 0.7234 oz t | $48.02 |
| 1 roll (40) | $10.00 | 7.234 oz t | $480.19 |
| 100 quarters | $25.00 | 18.09 oz t | $1,200.47 |
| $100 face | $100 | 72.34 oz t | $4,802 |
Note the second row. Four quarters hold exactly the same silver as ten dimes or two half dollars — 0.7234 troy ounces per dollar of face value. US 90% coinage was struck to a constant weight per unit of face value, which is why mixed bags can be valued by face value alone. The arithmetic is on our junk silver calculator, which also explains why the trade uses a slightly lower 0.715 multiplier for circulated coins.
Rolls, bags and how quarters are traded
Silver quarters trade in standardized quantities, and knowing the vocabulary helps when you call a dealer.
- A roll is 40 quarters, $10 face, about 7.23 troy ounces.
- A half bag is $500 face.
- A full bag is $1,000 face — the standard wholesale unit, about 715 troy ounces at the trade multiplier.
Dealers quote junk silver as a percentage of melt or as a multiple of face value. Both are easy to compare once you know the melt figure, which is the number at the top of this page. A quote given only as a lump sum for "the jar" is one you cannot evaluate — ask for it per dollar of face value instead.
What dealers actually pay
Junk silver trades closer to melt than almost any other scrap, for one reason: no assay is needed. The coin is its own certification. A dealer verifies by date and edge in seconds and can resell immediately to retail buyers who like the divisibility.
Expect offers near melt, occasionally slightly above when retail demand is strong. That is unusually good — most scrap sells at a much wider discount.
Melt value remains a ceiling, not an offer, but here the gap is narrow.
Two things to do first: check for the key dates listed above, and do not clean the coins. Cleaning removes metal and destroys any collector value the coin might have had.
If you are buying instead
Silver quarters are a common entry point: cheap per coin, hard to counterfeit profitably, endlessly divisible, and recognizable to anyone. They carry a modest premium over spot which widens when retail demand spikes.
See what a realistic premium over spot looks like →
Related pages
Silver dime value · Silver half dollar value · War nickel value · Junk silver calculator · Morgan silver dollar value
FAQ
What year did quarters stop being silver? 1964 was the last year of 90% silver quarters. From 1965 they were struck in copper-nickel clad, with no silver content.
How much silver is in a pre-1965 quarter? 0.18085 troy ounces. The coin weighs 6.25 grams and is 90% silver.
Are silver quarters worth more than melt value? Common dates in worn condition trade close to melt. The exceptions — 1932-D, 1932-S, 1916 Standing Liberty, 1901-S Barber and high-grade examples generally — are worth substantially more.
Is a dateless Standing Liberty quarter worth anything? Yes. It contains its full silver content and trades as bullion. The design wore its date away easily, so dateless examples are common and perfectly saleable as metal.
Are Bicentennial quarters silver? The ones from circulation are not. Silver-clad 40% versions were sold only in collector sets. Check the edge for the copper stripe.
Data sources: Spot price via api.gold-api.com · COMEX futures (SI=F) via Yahoo Finance. Prices are for informational purposes only and may be delayed. Figures on this page were generated . Silver is quoted in US dollars per troy ounce.