Nickels and dimes
Silver dime value: what are my old dimes worth in silver?
Type how many silver dimes you have: the tool gives the pure silver they contain and its value at the live price, which you can replace with your own.
How much are my silver dimes worth?
Melt value of 10 coins
$39.06
| One coin | $3.91 |
| Face value | $1 |
| Pure silver | 0.723 troy oz |
At silver $53.94 per troy oz (last price read).
Every dime dated 1964 or earlier is made of 90% silver and 10% copper and weighs 2.50 grams, so it holds 0.0723 troy ounce of pure silver. At $53.94 an ounce, the price read on October 27, 2026, that is $3.91 of silver in a single dime, many times its face value. From 1965 the Mint switched the dime to a copper and nickel sandwich of 2.27 grams with no silver, worth about 3.3¢ as metal. The quickest test is the date; the second is the edge, which shows a copper stripe on a clad dime and an even silver color on an old one. Ten silver dimes contain the same silver as four silver quarters or two silver halves, because the Mint struck them in proportion to face value. The tool above multiplies by the number you hold, and the price follows the market as the page loads.
Roosevelt dime: silver or clad by year
Metal value of one 1964 coin
$3.91
| Struck at this mint | 1,357,517,180 |
| Mintage band | Very high mintage (over 200 million) |
| Metal | 90% silver dime |
| Mint mark on the coin | D |
At silver $53.94 per troy oz (last price read).
Mintages, metals and prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
Why a dime from 1964 is worth more than a dime from 1965
Until 1964 the United States struck its dimes, quarters and halves in 90% silver. From 1965 dimes and quarters were struck in copper-nickel clad instead, and the Bureau of the Mint tables move them from the silver tables to the clad ones that year. Coins dated 1964 were in fact struck into 1966 to meet demand, which is why 1,357,517,180 dimes carry the 1964 date and a D.
| Dime | Metal | Weight | Silver | Metal value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 and earlier | 90% silver, 10% copper | 2.50 g | 0.0723 oz | $3.91 |
| 1965 and later | copper-nickel clad | 2.27 g | none | 3.3¢ |
From a roll to a bag: counting silver by face value
Old silver coins are often counted by their face value rather than one by one. A dollar of face value in 90% silver dimes, ten coins, holds 0.7234 troy ounce of pure silver; so does a dollar in quarters or halves. A roll of fifty dimes is five dollars of face and about 3.62 troy ounces. That rule makes it easy to check any offer for a mixed jar: count the face value, multiply by the silver per dollar and by the price.
Prices come from gold-api.com when your browser can reach it, and otherwise from the last reading at build time, with its date. The World Bank monthly average for September 2026 was $64.60 an ounce, a useful check on how much the price moves from month to month.
Sorting dimes before counting them as silver
A silver dime is never worth less than its metal, but a few are worth much more. Before you treat a batch as bulk silver, sort it by design and date. Mercury dimes run from 1916 to 1945 and include some of the lowest mintages of the century; the Mercury dime page lists them. Roosevelt dimes from 1946 to 1964 are silver too, and were struck in far larger numbers; the tool below reads their figures by year and mint.
Roosevelt dime: silver or clad by year
Metal value of one 1964 coin
$3.91
| Struck at this mint | 1,357,517,180 |
| Mintage band | Very high mintage (over 200 million) |
| Metal | 90% silver dime |
| Mint mark on the coin | D |
At silver $53.94 per troy oz (last price read).
Older Barber dimes, dated up to 1916, are also 90% silver and appear in the coin checker on the home page. For a mix of dimes, quarters and halves, the junk silver page converts any face value into ounces in one step.
What melt value does not tell you
Melt value is the value of the metal at the price shown, not what a buyer will pay. Anyone buying silver coins works with a margin, and this site does not track those margins or recommend a buyer. It also does not give collector prices: no official source publishes them. Silver dimes are not covered by the melting ban of 31 CFR Part 82, which concerns cents and nickels, so the silver figure is a real measure of the metal, not only a curiosity. Keep a note of the price and the date you used, since the silver price can move by several percent within a single month.