what is a silver quarter worth today

[LeWeston]

Ah, the silver quarter! Not to be confused with its sad, post-1964 cupro-nickel cousins, this little disc is a whole different beast. If you're holding a U.S. quarter dated 1964 or earlier, you're not holding 25 cents; you're holding a tiny silver ingot with George Washington's face on it.

Your garden-variety silver quarter, minted between 1932 and 1964, is a respectable 90% silver. Each one contains about 0.1808 troy ounces of the precious metal. This means its value has very little to do with its ability to buy a gumball and everything to do with the fluctuating daily price of silver.

So, its worth today is a moving target. Its value is based on its "melt value," which is what a precious metals dealer would pay for the silver it contains. Coin aficionados lovingly refer to these as "junk silver," not because they're trash, but because their value is tied to the raw material, not their rarity as a collectible. To find its exact worth, you'd need to multiply that 0.1808 ounces by the current spot price of silver, but it's safe to say it's worth many times its original 25-cent face value.