14 March 2014 10:48 pm

There are a couple of ways to value them - scrap value and numismatic value.

Scrap value is easy to calculate - silver coins were 50% silver from 46-64 generally speaking and 92% silver older than 1946.

Sort them by date and place them on a scale to get weights at 50% silver and 92% silver. Silver is approx $23 per Oz and there are 31 grams in a Troy ounce so about 75 cents a gram for 999 pure silver - .68 per gram for 92% and .37 per gram of 50%

The other way is value to a collector - and condition is everything but you might find a key date that is worth some $$$ more than an average date coin. As these were in the ground and collectors don't want coins which have been cleaned it pays to check the dates before "cleaning them up"

I reckon they are worth more to keep them considering the time invested and cost of equipment vs the $100 for scrap you might get.