Interactive · Debasement Basement Tools
What is a 1964 silver quarter worth?
A single 1964 quarter holds 0.1808 troy ounces of silver, worth about $9.77 at a silver price of $54.05 an ounce.
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In 1964 · Minimum wage
$1.25 was 5 silver quarters — 0.90 troy ounces of silver.
The silver is worth 3.6 times what the official inflation measure says that money should be worth today. Same 62 years. Grandma’s jar of old quarters beat the government’s inflation math, and the jar never once held a meeting about it.
An hour of 1964 minimum wage — $1.25, or five silver quarters — holds 0.90 troy ounces, worth $48.87 today. The Consumer Price Index says that same $1.25 should be worth $13.48. The coins kept 3.6 times more.
Until 1964, American dimes, quarters and half dollars were 90% silver. The coins in an ordinary pocket were, quite literally, money. Enter any price from before 1965 and see what those same coins are worth today — next to what the government's own inflation measure says they ought to be worth.
Is my quarter silver? Type the year
Yes. A 1964 quarter is 90% silver.
It holds 0.1808 troy ounces of silver, worth about $9.77 at today’s price. Every Washington quarter dated 1932 to 1964 is 90% silver, whatever its mint mark.
Where to find the mint mark
- 1932 to 1964: on the back, just below the eagle’s wreath. No letter means Philadelphia; D is Denver; S is San Francisco.
- 1965 to 1967: no mint mark at all, from any mint.
- 1968 onward: on the front, to the right of Washington’s neck. Philadelphia added its P in 1980.
- S on a modern quarter means a collector’s set, which may be silver (see above). W (West Point, 2019 and 2020) is a collectible, but copper-nickel.
A roll, and a bag, of silver quarters
| Amount | Quarters | Silver | Worth today |
|---|---|---|---|
| A roll ($10 face) | 40 | 7.23 oz | $390.99 |
| $100 face | 400 | 72.3 oz | $3,910 |
| A bag ($1,000 face) | 4,000 | 723 oz | $39,099 |
At full mint weight. Dealers usually count worn coins at 0.715 ounces per dollar of face, about 1.2% less; the junk silver calculator does it either way. Rare dates and proofs can be worth more than their silver. That is a question for a dealer, and this page does not price it.
How this is calculated
- 1. A pre-1965 quarter weighs 6.25 g and is 90% silver, so it holds 5.625 g of silver. Four of them — one dollar of face value — hold 22.5 g, which is 0.72339 troy ounces.
- 2. Silver value = face value × 0.72339 × the spot silver price, currently $54.05 per ounce.
- 3. CPI value = face value × (334.4 ÷ 31), the ratio of today's Consumer Price Index to that year's.
This measures the melt value of the metal, not what a collector would pay — coins in good condition often sell for more. CPI figures are annual averages from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis; 2026 is an estimate based on second-quarter data. Benchmark prices are well-known approximations, not precise records.
Sources: CPI-U from the Minneapolis Fed, which republishes Bureau of Labor Statistics series CUUR0000SA0 (all items, US city average). Silver is indicative spot from gold-api.com when it loads, otherwise the stored $54.05 an ounce from October 24, 2026 (metalcharts.org). Coin weight and fineness are the statutory 6.25 g at 90% silver; worn coins hold slightly less. Data updated October 2026.
Why the coins changed
By the early 1960s the silver in a quarter was starting to be worth more than a quarter. When that happens, the coin stops being money and becomes metal — and people notice long before governments do. The Coinage Act of 1965 removed silver from dimes and quarters entirely and cut half dollars to 40%.
What followed is the cleanest demonstration of Gresham's law in American history: bad money drives out good. Nobody announced it and nobody organized it, but within a few years the silver coins had simply vanished from circulation into coffee cans and dresser drawers, while the copper-nickel ones stayed in tills doing the work. Given two coins of identical legal value, people spend the one they trust less and keep the one they trust more. They always have.
The quarters are still out there, in those drawers. That is what the number above is measuring.
Which quarters are silver, and the thirty-second test
The rule is a single date. Every Washington quarter dated 1964 or earlier is 90% silver, and every one dated 1965 or later that you will ever find in change is not. The same date works for dimes. Half dollars are the one wrinkle: the 1964 Kennedy half is 90% silver, and the halves of 1965 through 1970 kept 40%.
You do not need to read the date to sort a jar. Stand the coins on edge and look at the rim. A silver quarter is silver all the way through, so the edge is one solid color. A modern quarter is a sandwich — copper-nickel on the outside, copper in the middle — and the copper shows as a thin stripe around the edge. Thirty seconds with a coffee can will tell you whether you are holding pocket change or a small position in a precious metal.
Once they are sorted, you do not need to weigh them either. Every dollar of face value in 90% coins holds the same silver, whichever mix of dimes, quarters and halves makes it up. The junk silver calculator does the whole jar at once, by face value or coin by coin. For nickels, dimes, halves and dollars, the is my coin silver? checker sorts them by year and mint mark.
Worked examples
- A dollar in 1964 quarters (four coins) holds 0.72 troy ounces of silver, worth $39.10. The CPI says that 1964 dollar is worth $10.79 today.
- A 1950 quarter holds the same 0.1808 ounces, about $10 in silver. By the CPI, a quarter from 1950 is worth $3.47 today.
- A 1964 gallon of gas at about 30 cents (an approximate price, not a record) was 0.22 ounces of silver, worth $11.73 now. The CPI puts it at $3.24.
Silver at the stored price of $54.05 an ounce, October 24, 2026; the calculator uses the live price when it loads. CPI-U annual averages with the 2026 estimate.
Questions people actually ask
How much is a 1964 quarter worth?
A 1964 quarter holds 0.1808 troy ounces of silver, worth about $9.77 at a silver price of $54.05 an ounce, spot on October 24, 2026. That is its melt value. A coin in unusually good condition can sell to a collector for more.
Which quarters are made of silver?
Every Washington quarter dated 1964 or earlier is 90% silver. From 1965 onward, the quarters in circulation are copper-nickel and contain no silver. The one exception is the 1976 Bicentennial quarter struck in 40% silver for collector sets and marked with an S; the 1976 quarters found in change are copper-nickel.
How can you tell if a quarter is silver?
Check the date first: 1964 or earlier. Then look at the edge. A silver quarter is silver all the way through, so its edge is one solid color. A copper-nickel quarter shows a thin copper stripe between the two faces.
Are 1965 quarters silver?
No. The Coinage Act of 1965 switched the quarter to copper-nickel starting with 1965-dated coins. A few 1965 quarters were struck on leftover silver blanks by mistake. They are rare, and they weigh 6.25 grams instead of the normal 5.67, so a kitchen scale that reads to a hundredth of a gram can spot one.
Is a 1964-D quarter worth more than one with no mint mark?
Not for its silver. Denver (D) and Philadelphia (no mark) both struck 1964 quarters by the hundreds of millions, and both are 90% silver with the same 0.1808 troy ounces. Only coins in unusually fine condition, or with a genuine minting error, sell to collectors for more than melt.
How much is a roll of silver quarters worth?
A standard roll holds 40 quarters, $10 of face value. That is 7.23 troy ounces of silver at full weight, or about 7.15 ounces at the trade's allowance for wear. Multiply by the silver price, or enter 40 quarters in the junk silver calculator to get it at today's price.
How many grams of silver are in a silver quarter?
5.625 grams. A pre-1965 quarter weighs 6.25 grams and is 90% silver, which works out to 0.1808 troy ounces. The other 10% is copper, added to make the coin hard enough to circulate.
Why did the US stop making silver quarters?
Silver got too valuable to spend. By the early 1960s the metal in a quarter was worth close to its face value, people began hoarding coins, and the Mint could not keep up. The Coinage Act of 1965 took silver out of dimes and quarters and cut the half dollar to 40% silver.
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