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I received a silver dime in change and when I turned my quarters in for bills I got a 1964 half in a roll of halves. I thought all the silver was out of circulated coins.

Sounds like a great day !!!!

It's still there, just in small quantities (something like 1 part in 2000), and hard for (most) to find due to the rarity and the fact that enough people still recognize it to pull it out before it gets to them. There are some specific pockets in the country where people are finding some silver coin in higher ratios - it's not clear exactly why. Some if it may be due to Thogey's widow. Not counting an exhilarating experience visiting one of those silver rich pockets of the country where I was shifted back in time by a number of years to an age in which silver was still attainable from banks in reasonable volume, I've only found an average of one dime per year in change.

For most people CRH is no longer productive, though people like Portland Mint are able to capitalize on special arrangements combined with volume and automation, to pull out enough silver to cause it to be an important part of a larger revenue stream.

In the wild I think its around 1 in 3,333 for dimes. These are just back of a napkin numbers though, your mileage may vary - as 68Camero says there are probably certain pockets around the country where its higher for whatever reasons. For example, regions like where I grew up in WV you have a disproportionately elderly and rural population because all the young people leave the state to find work, so cash money has a low velocity and change jars that get dumped at banks are sometimes decades in the making. Then on the other hand you have California, Texas, or Florida boom towns that didn't even exist 30-40 years ago, so the circulation coin tends to be new, shipped in by the Fed when new banks opened there.

1 out of 3,333 dimes being silver sounds very accurate. I fish in a small tributary to Mr. Metal's big river, so its the same data point. But 1 out of 3,333 is a very good estimate, and its fairly consistent. Less for half dollars, but with random windfalls.

Things in Canada might be a bit different, but likely worse since the younger queens and kings jump out as older - unlike in the states where a Rosie silver dime looks similar to a Rosie clad at first glance. I pulled 4 silver dimes from $350 checked today, but I don't even bother with all the brand new, RCM metal recovery sorted, and recently dumps of a local coin person that marks rolls with a black marker. Sure can't earn even gas money, but if you are already going to the bank and want to kill some time otherwise wasted, it is fun to hunt for silver.

Half dollars are often far easier to find in the wild than either dimes or quarters. I said "easier to find" not "easy to find".

My average, after searching 1,093,000 dimes, is 1 in 1,596 searched.
For some reason the Midwest seems to be one of those hot pockets.
Dimes can still be had because the date is so small and overlooked, quarters are gobbled up as soon as they hit the counter.
I did get a silver quarter as change from a vending machine about two years ago, I all most dropped the soda when I heard the ring of the coin when it dropped in the change chute....that was a good day!

hags

hags wrote:My average, after searching 1,093,000 dimes, is 1 in 1,596 searched.
For some reason the Midwest seems to be one of those hot pockets.
Dimes can still be had because the date is so small and overlooked, quarters are gobbled up as soon as they hit the counter.
I did get a silver quarter as change from a vending machine about two years ago, I all most dropped the soda when I heard the ring of the coin when it dropped in the change chute....that was a good day!

hags

So about 1 per 2/3rds of a box.

I'd given up on finding ag in the wild. But then about four months ago I was counting the proceeds for a church funding drive, which for some reason came in the form of quarters. When I emptied the bag of coins on the desk, I heard that distinctive "ping." I then soon found the culprit, a well-worn 1946 quarter. Suffice to say the funding drive got an extra 3 dollars.

At BImart today the young fellow had some halves in his till so I asked to see them. I bought two 40% halves today for a buck. It is still out there and when times get tough you see more of it.

It's been years and years since I received any silver in my change. About 10 years ago I used to eat at an old diner in San Diego. I'd get a quarter or dime at least once every couple months. Most times I found myself leaning way over to get a look at the change drawers as the cash register was open. The cashier probably thought I was planning on robbing the place.

Yep they get stolen by thieves and dumped or even a kid spending a few coins from the collection, but if you figure the Coinstar rejects the silver ones. So the silver ones are being used for purchases.

I've got a coin counter that rejects silver. Several times I've been surprised to hear a silver dime drop in the reject while dumping coin I checked!