How Much is a Silver Dollar Worth?

Coin collectors have the unique task of combining the history, craftsmanship and authenticity of a coin to make it worth way more than it was originally meant to be. Sometimes, a coin’s story can also make it particularly enticing to the right buyer, adding to the price. 

This article discusses how you can price your own silver dollars. This often starts by classifying them.

What kind of silver dollar do you have?

To provide an initial pricing answer, although this is still vague, silver dollars today vary widely in value and can be anywhere from $30 to over $1,000 in price. Some of them are worth literally millions of dollars. Take a look below to see if you’ve lucked out.

If you happen to have found a Gobrecht Dollar, a Draped Bust Dollar or a Flowing Hair Dollar, you are in the winner’s circle. These are each worth anywhere from $1,500 to potentially over one million dollars.

Going down from here, the next steps are Peace Dollars, Morgan Dollars, and Trade Dollars. These are still unique, but they’re a bit less rare than the ones above. These will typically sell for in between just a few dollars and over $100,000. 

Clearly, we still have a huge range of potential values here. So, if you think you have a coin that may actually be worth something, be sure to check with at least several experts before actually selling it. Auctions are also a great way to increase the percieved value of an already coveted silver item, particularly when it leads to competitive bidding.

It’s all in the Details

But what are the guidelines to get a general sense of the value? The most important things are the date, the mintmark and the condition. These will help verify the validity of the coin and show where it was made. 

Mintmarks are signified by the first letter of the city the coin was made in. Cities are limited to Denver (D), San Francisco (S), West Point (P), New Orleans (O), and Carson City (CC). 

Adding up the year and the mint mark will give you a better sense as to the general range. Be sure not to try to make any major changes to the coin. Cleaning, for instance, by anyone other than a true expert is far more likely to cause damage than it is to add to the coin’s value. 

Before being sold, silver dollars should be graded by an expert, based on their quality, which generally correclates closely to how much they’ve actually been used in circulation. While a story might seem great, coins that have never been in cirulation and are therefore in mint condition are more coveted than others. 

We could list all the various pricing combinations here, but honestly it’s best for you to start by knowing what key traits to look for on the coin itself. From there, you can do another search for your coin’s specific details to get a more accurate idea as to what it is considered to be worth in the marketplace.

Santa Prisca Silver is a wholesale silver jewelry dealer, based in Taxco, Mexico. We like to cover ‘all things silver.’ Feel free to reach out on our about page or by using the contact form below if you have any questions, want to learn more about our process or are interested in our Taxco silver jewelry.