Why Silver Coins for Daily Commerce?

Of  all the precious metals, silver seems to lend itself as the ideal one to be used for daily commerce activities. It has the six aspects of money in a classical sense. It is consistent, convenient, divisible, durable, has utility value, and cannot be created by fiat.

Silver is a very well known precious metal and  has a long history of being  used as a medium of exchange and as a store of value.

It has been used for thousands of years as money. In fact silver has been used in more places and for longer periods of time for money than gold.

Features of money

Desirable features of money are for  it to be liquid, easy to trade, and easy to transport. Given the fact that precious metals have a high value to weight ratio; copper, nickel, steel, zinc, oil amongst other things cannot be considered practical as money. It should also have the ability to be divided into small units without wiping out its value. It should also be fungible; this means that one unit or piece should be the same as another. It should have a certain weight, or measure, in order to count it in a certifiable way.  It should store value, meaning that it should be strong and  last a long time. It should also be something difficult to forge, and its authenticity should be easily identifiable.

Junk silver  fills all of the above mentioned catagories. Other precious metals such as gold and platinum are not divisible into small enough coins to be useful in the general marketplace. Sure you can get one-tenth ounce gold coins, but they are still worth over $100 each and that does not work as a convenient medium of exchange when going to pick up a gallon of milk. These 90% silver coins are very easy to identify since look like our current US coin currency, but are easy to keep seperate by the date minted i.e. before 1965. Another easy way to verify the 90% silver coins is to look at the edge. A post 1965 coin that has been used as currency will show copper while the pre 1965 will not.

Other benefit with the junk silver is that it is not easy to forge, since made by the US mint and highly recongnizable. It is also easy to assess value by either weight or in multiples of face value.

Therefore going to the store for that gallon of milk would be much better served with some 90% silver in your pocket since a junk silver quarter is worth $3.14 at todays silver spot price of $17.37 per ounce.