{"id":183,"date":"2021-11-01T15:22:07","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T15:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ukscrapgold.co.uk\/blog\/?p=183"},"modified":"2021-11-01T15:22:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T15:22:08","slug":"the-world-of-british-silver-coins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ukscrapgold.co.uk\/blog\/the-world-of-british-silver-coins\/","title":{"rendered":"The World of British Silver Coins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The story of silver coins charts the ups and downs of UK history, from the Middle Ages right the way through to the 1940s, when silver was effectively phased out of actively-used coinage. One thing you might not be aware of is the varying purities of the different types of silver coins in your possession. Depending on when your coin was minted, you could expect\u00a0to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukscrapgold.co.uk\/sell-your-precious-metals\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sell\u00a0your coins<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0fetch a completely different value.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>A matter of purity\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Middle Ages, original English silver coins often carried the highest purity available, known as fine silver.\u00a0However, the coins suffered from easy wear and tear, prompting the authorities to start minting silver coins with a slightly less than pure content using harder alloys. Copper was often added at 7.5 per cent, with some of the purest silver coins going forward being 92.5 per cent silver for much of English and UK history.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if you happen to find UK-based silver coinage from days gone by, it\u2019s more likely to have been minted closer to the 20th century, which is when the currency underwent a radical overhaul. That\u2019s because any silver coins minted up until 1920 retained that 92.5 per cent\u00a0purity. As world wars, economic depressions and other factors weighed on the British economy, the content of coinage was debased\u00a0towards cheaper metals instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, coins minted between 1920 and 1946 saw silver content reduced dramatically to 50 per cent. The remaining half of the coin\u2019s content was often consisting of manganese\u00a0and traces of other cheaper metals, which\u00a0often\u00a0causes old coins to darken in colour over time. Such a move has a significant impact on the valuation you can expect to gain from your coin, and lower silver content has a dramatic impact on its appearance relative to more pure-silver ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>Shimmering silver coins\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>By 1947, silver coinage had well and truly had its day, being phased out of\u00a0use\u00a0almost altogether. While the average silvery coin in your wallet might give the appearance of true silver once more, it\u2019s more likely a trick of the eye: nickel-plated steel\u00a0is the go-to in more recent times, giving coins the look of silver but with metals that are far more resilient to\u00a0wear\u00a0than purer silver.\u00a0Modern coinage might look like the real thing, but its value is far lower and better use to you as spending money.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>UK Scrap Gold\u00a0has its very own\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukscrapgold.co.uk\/silver-price-calculator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Scrap Silver Calculator<\/a>, which allows you to ascertain how much a typical silver coin could potentially\u00a0be worth. With silver yielding 44p per gram\u00a0at\u00a0.925 (92.5 per cent purity), you might need a\u00a0fair few coins\u00a0to generate the kind of money you would expect from a smaller haul of a more valuable precious metal like gold.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The date your silver coin was minted will have a significant impact on its purity, especially if you\u2019re having to determine whether it was pre-1920 or not. UK Scrap Gold are specialists in all things related to precious metals, and we would be happy to help assess\u00a0your coins to make sure they\u2019re the genuine article. Give us a call today on\u00a001902 623 254.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The story of silver coins charts the ups and downs of UK history, from the Middle Ages right the way through to the 1940s, when silver was effectively phased out of actively-used coinage. One thing you might not be aware of is the varying purities of the different types of silver coins in your possession. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukscrapgold.co.uk\/blog\/the-world-of-british-silver-coins\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The World of British Silver Coins&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The World of British Silver Coins - Welcome to the UK Scrap Gold Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At UK Scrap Gold, we often receive what is believed to be silver coinage from those wishing to cash in, but just how pure is your haul?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ukscrapgold.co.uk\/blog\/the-world-of-british-silver-coins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The World of British Silver Coins - 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