On and off since the late seventeenth century, the United States has produced a wide variety of dollar coins. Made of various metals at different points, including gold, silver, copper, and nickel, they have been a popular denomination among the general public and coin collectors. Without a doubt, the most popular US dollar coin is the silver dollar. For generations, the silver dollar has attracted the interest of not only coin enthusiasts, but also those who invest in precious metals.
Generally speaking, silver dollars are made up of approximately 90% silver with an additional amount of copper added to make the coin more durable. As there was a short period of time where the silver content in the coins was increased by a small amount to compete with foreign coins that had higher silver content. These coins were not generally considered currency in circulation within the United States and came to be known as Trade Dollars. In times of scarcity of the raw silver needed to produce the coins, the amount of copper and nickel used was increased to 60% of the total content.
Silver dollars have been minted at six facilities, including mints in West Point, New York (W), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (P), New Orleans, Louisiana (W), Carson City, Nevada (DC), St. Francisco, California (S) and Denver, Colorado (D).
In the history of coinage in the United States, it is interesting to note that silver was in many ways as valuable as gold and just as hard to come by. This is why you will find that the production numbers were quite limited due to the difficulty of getting silver. When the value of silver rose to a point that made the production of silver dollars financially impractical, coin production was halted. This was the case between the years of 1804 to 1836.
Production did not fully resume until the discovery in Nevada of the Comstock Lode in 1850. The discovery of such a large silver deposit accelerated the production of silver coins in the United States. Eventually, even the massive deposits found in Nevada began to decline, causing another slowdown in production until 1904. The 1918 silver melt once again increased the availability of needed raw materials, though even this was somewhat temporary in nature, as that the silver shortage seemed to come and go as the years passed.
The United States Mint began producing the American Silver Eagle coin in 1986, a coin that is 100% pure silver and weighs a full troy ounce. Unlike previous silver dollars, the silver eagle was not intended to be a circulating coin, as the silver content is worth at least nearly five times the face value of the coin, depending on market conditions. . Many of today’s investors tend to buy silver eagles as protection against the falling value of the dollar.