Sell silver coins and silver bars

The two dates that changed everything

Britain struck its circulating silver at sterling standard until 1919. In 1920 the standard was halved, and the coins carried on looking exactly the same. In 1947 silver went out of circulating coinage altogether and cupro-nickel replaced it, again without any change to the design. Nothing on the face of a shilling records either event; only the date does.

Silver in British circulating coins, by date

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Foreign silver, commemoratives and things that are not coins at all

Jars are rarely pure British. Holiday change, coins brought back from service abroad, and commemorative issues bought at the time all end up in the same tin. Most foreign silver carries a fineness somewhere on it, or is documented well enough to be identified without one. It is dealt with on its own terms rather than lumped in with the British coins.

• Continental and colonial silver at 800, 835 or 900, which is common in pre-war European change.
• American, Canadian and Australian silver coinage, each with its own dates at which the silver stopped.
• Crowns issued for royal events from 1953 onwards, usually cupro-nickel however impressive the packaging.
• Commemorative medallions in plastic capsules, frequently silver-plated base metal rather than silver.
• Coin-shaped ingots and “first day covers” with a coin sealed into card, which are identified but rarely silver.
• Maundy money, proof sets and coins in original mint packaging, which are set aside rather than treated as bulk.

None of that has to be worked out before you send it. It is mentioned here so that you do not throw away a jar of what looks like foreign shrapnel, because the sterling in a jar like that is quite often foreign rather than British.

Silver bars, rounds and sealed tubes

Silver bars run from an ounce to a kilo and beyond, cast or minted, and almost all of them carry a refiner's mark and a stated fineness. Minted bars are usually sealed in card; cast bars are poured and stamped. Silver rounds are coin-shaped but are not currency, and they say so, usually with “one troy ounce .999 fine silver” written across them.

• Dimensions and weight are compared with the refiner's published specification. A plated base-metal bar of the right size is almost always the wrong weight.
• Silver has no near-twin in density the way gold has tungsten. Molybdenum comes closest and is still about two per cent lighter, which a weighing in water shows.
• Leave sealed minted bars sealed; the pack helps with the check and the seal ties the bar to its number.
• Sealed tubes of bullion coins are left sealed and identified through the tube where possible.
• A kilo bar, or a box of tubes, is heavy and awkward to post. Say what you have first and how it should travel is agreed with you in writing; security and insurance explains the cover.

The same checks apply as on gold bars and bullion, and a bar that fails one is described, photographed and posted back with the figures that failed it.

Send the jar, sorted or not

You can sort by date at the kitchen table if you want to, and it is a pleasant hour with the radio on. It is not required. Every coin is read here whatever order it arrives in, and a jar tipped straight into a bag is dealt with exactly as carefully as one arriving in three labelled envelopes.

• If you do sort, use three bags: up to 1919, 1920 to 1946, 1947 onwards. Label them and do not worry about the ones you cannot read.
• Do not clean, polish or rub anything. This is worth repeating because coins are the item people most often try to smarten up.
• Keep albums, folders and sets in their arrangement. Somebody put that order there and it is information.
• Coins are heavy for their bulk, and a full jar weighs more than people expect, so it may need more than one parcel. Each parcel is a lot of its own unless you ask us in writing to hold the first until the rest arrive (clause 3.3).
• Coins dated 1947 onwards are separated out, named on the list and posted back to you with anything else not bought.

If the jar came out of a house you are clearing, send it with everything else rather than on its own. A jar of change, a canteen and a jewellery box are one lot as far as this business is concerned, and dealing with them together is quicker for you. See house clearance gold and silver, or inherited jewellery if it came to you directly.

The coins in the jar that should never be treated as bulk

• Crowns and double florins were struck in far smaller numbers than shillings and are checked by date without exception.
• Coins in unusually good condition, with full detail and some original lustre, are set aside; condition drives collector value more than date does.
• Pre-Victorian milled coins and anything hammered are never treated as bulk, whatever their condition.
• Maundy money, proof coins and anything in an original case or presentation pack is flagged.
• Foreign, colonial and Commonwealth silver is identified and checked for collector interest on its own account.
• Medals with a named recipient carry provenance that melting ends, and are always set aside; war medals, badges and regimental silver explains why.

What happens to a jar of coins when it arrives

1. Tipped out and photographedThe lot is recorded as it arrived, count and all, before anything is separated. Albums and folders are photographed in their arrangement.
2. Read through for collector interestEvery coin is looked at before any of it is grouped. This is the slow stage and it is the one that exists for your benefit rather than ours.
3. Separated by date and originBritish coins go into their three date bands; foreign silver, bullion coins and anything that is not a coin are kept apart from all of it.
4. Sampled and weighedA sample from each group is tested to confirm the standard, and an unexpected result means every coin in that group is checked on its own. Each group is weighed as it actually is.
5. Listed, then one offerYou get a list naming each group with its count and weight, the coins in it that were tested, and anything set aside as collectable. Then one written offer for the lot, which you accept or decline.

The post-1946 coins do not vanish from that list. They appear on it, named as cupro-nickel, so that you can see they were looked at rather than assumed. Coins are the one category where people most often suspect something has been quietly kept back, and a list that accounts for every pile is the answer to that. Offers, returns and payment covers the offer and what follows it.

What we buy, and what we leave out

Stopped before anything is treated as scrap

• Any coin in high grade, any early milled or hammered coin, and any crown, double florin or Maundy piece is checked before anything else
• Complete date runs, proof sets and coins in original packaging are assessed assembled rather than broken up
• Foreign and colonial silver is checked for dates and mint marks that carry a premium
• Sealed bullion coins in original tubes are kept sealed and assessed as they are
• Medals with a named recipient are set aside for their provenance without exception
• Where a coin belongs with a coin dealer we say so in writing, and post it back free