How can you tell which s proof halfs are silver .

[treeslayer]

I have about 40 s proof halfs that i have saved in the past year. I would like to know how to tell which ones are silver. Thanks for the help, and happy holidays.

 

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[Dok Holliday]

Same as any other half dollar : edge check. Luckily, silver proof halves will be 90% silver if made after 1992 so they are easy to check by the edge. Some proof halves were made of 40% in the days of 40% halves ('65-'70, '76). If you don't see the brown ring all the way around, it is silver. If you see any hint of brown, it is Cu-Ni Clad. If you see a blue-grey ring, then you probably have a 40% silver proof, but that ring doesn't always show up...so you can go by the years. When they made 40% proof halves, they did NOT make 90% proof halves, so you're lucky that there is no confusion there.

You can also weigh them. A clad proof will weigh the same as a normal clad. A post 92 silver proof will weigh the same as a pre 1964 non-proof Half, or any other 90% silver half dollar. A 40% proof will weigh the same as a 40% silver half.

 

[Gilmore Happy]

What Dok said.

Or do the flick test. It will ring like a 90% instead of a clad. Cant miss it.

 

[rileyboy]

1970-s , and some of the 1776-1976-s are 40% silver. Then starting in 1992 -2011 they started minting 90% silver proofs along with clad ones for the same years. You have to look at the edge.
Hope that helps. Also, buy a cheap coin magazine and it will tell you all you need to know about the coins you are searching for. The magazines are helpful to newcomers.
All the best
rileyboy

 

[db23]

This post is almost completely wrong Dok.

Same as any other half dollar : edge check. Luckily, Proof halves will be 90% silver, so you won't have the problem of being confused by the Silver on Not-so-Silver cladding of the 40% half dollars. If you don't see the brown ring all the way around, it is silver. If you see any hint of brown, it is Cu-Ni Clad.

The silver proofs between 1965 and 1970 as well as the 1976 were 40% and in fact sometimes do show a copper looking line on the edge. As rileyboy pointed out, the newer proof halves are 90% and will look more like the solid silver edge halves you see on the regular 90s.

You can also weigh them. A clad proof will weigh the same as a normal clad. A silver clad will weigh the same as a 1964 Half, or any other 90% silver half dollar.

A silver clad = a 40% half

So a silver clad should never weigh the same a a 1964 or any other 90% half dollar. It should in fact weigh closer to a regular 40% silver half dollar, which is also silver clad.

 

[Dok Holliday]

Yikes! Looks like my fingers moved faster than my brain. I forgot about the 40% proof years...and had typed one word and thought another. My "clad = proof" error has been corrected. Thanks for catching that!