Silver Eagle over weight?

JD-GA · Jan 3, 2011

So today a friend of mine at a gold shop asked me about a silver eagle that weighs 31.5 grams instead of the dead on 31.1 i have ever weighed before. The coin is perfect in every way. Sound, look, everything. Its not counterfeit. Anyone else ever hear of one weighing too much?

mts · Jan 3, 2011

I've never seen one that weighed that much but I guess it's possible. Most of mine weigh just a tad over 1 troy ounce.

JD-GA · Jan 3, 2011

1 troy ounce = 31.1 grams. We weighed 3 silver eagles, 2 of them 31.1, and 1 of them the 31.5. Ive weighed tons of them and never have even seen 31.2 unless the coin was dirty.

mts · Jan 3, 2011

Actually, that's really only about 1% overweight. I was thinking that it was much more than that. Many of my SE's weigh 1.01 troy ounces which is about the same weight. So it probably isn't that odd.

SFBayArea · Jan 3, 2011

I personally haven't weighed any Eagles but I guess you got a bit of a bonus. I have weighed my Kennedy's and those are usually off. Many of them have less weight according to the newer halves and dime rolls that I've weighed. I just thought the mint was trying to save money by using less material in their coins. They are usually off and weigh less than 11.34 grams.

mts · Jan 3, 2011

Most of the halves I've weighed have been noticably light due to wear. That wear and tear is expected when buying and selling junk silver and the prices often reflect it. That's one of the many reasons why junk silver can sell for less than melt value at times. Silver Eagles are usually bought and sold in BU condition and the mint adds a bit of extra (often up to 1%) to make sure that they aren't underweight to begin with. So finding SE's that are underweight is really rare unless someone has been terrorizing it.

I've bought halves that were worn completely flat before. One lady who had a shop sold them to me for half price. I think if I remember correctly they were about 20% underweight. But to me, silver is silver so they were a great deal. No one else wanted them though because they were "worn coins".