Several popular investment newsletter writers recommend that investors buy silver bars and “junk silver coins” as a hedge against economic & monetary uncertainty. Buying kilo bars of silver in Australia is easy enough – you just need to get in touch with the Perth Mint or the bullion dealer in your local Yellow Pages to get as many as you want. But many Australians have no idea what “junk silver coins” are, whether we have them in Australia and where can buy them.

“Junk silver coins” is a term used in North America to refer to bulk quantities of silver coins that were actually used as legal tender in the US prior to 1965, and are now traded in bulk for their silver value. The “junk” part of the name refers to the fact that these coins don't have any numismatic or collector value.

US dimes; quarters; dollars and half dollars struck before 1965 have a 90% pure silver content – many investors prefer buying silver this way because it's in a form that they know and trust. We've obviously never used dimes or quarters here in Australia – so what did we have? There are 3 basic types of “junk” silver coins here in Australia. This listing is for a $10 bag of "pre" 1946 silver florins and shillings.

Pre silver. This term refers to the Imperial silver coins (threepences, sixpences shillings and florins) that were issued in Australia between 1910 and 1945. These coins were made with 92.50% (Sterling) silver - 1910 is the earliest date because that was the first year that the Australian Commonwealth Government issued silver coins. 1945 is the final date because the Commonwealth Government reduced the percentage of silver in Australian coins to 50% from 1946 onwards. Other countries in the British Commonwealth also issued coins in 925 silver - it's not unusual at all for these coins also to be found in bags of pre silver - they did circulate in Australia as well after all!

Pre silver and post silver coins are generally sold in small plastic bank change bags containing $10 face value in each bag. Keep in mind that each florin weighs approximately 11.31g and has an equivalent decimal face value of 20¢, the smaller coins are fractions of that.

Using the figures above and some simple mathematics, you'll be able to see that there's basically $17.70 in face value of pre & post silver coins per kilo. That means that a $10 bag of pre silver coins contains approximately 523g in pure silver.

Just which type of “junk silver” coins you buy will depend entirely on your own personal preferences – just which you buy is entirely up to you – keep in mind that the best portfolio / holding of junk silver coins contains a wide range of coins, and not just one type.