There was a time, in fact, when a silver dollar was worth $1. Those days, because of the price of bullion, are long gone. The government long ago removed US currency from a standard based on precious metals for a variety of reasons. For every economist who bemoans this and thirsts for a return to the gold or silver standard, there is another who considers these standards to be as archaic as abacuses and ox-drawn plows. Today, silver is all about investment, and that has real advantages for everyday people who want to safeguard their wealth.
Silver has long been associated with currency. In fact, the name for money and the name for silver are virtually the same in some languages. A silver dollar was once something that just about everyone carried around with them and was used in general trade. This all ended when the price of silver bullion exceeded the value of the dollar. Today, the value of a one troy ounce silver coin is around 20x more than a dollar, which makes it very impractical as a form of actual currency. The inflexibility of monetary standards based on precious metals made them unpopular, as well.
If you have an old silver dollar, you are looking at a piece of history, and one that is likely to never return. The value of silver is simply too high to make it practical for coinage today. In fact, the value of copper has climbed so high that pennies are no longer made out of mostly-copper alloys. This places a lot of power in the hands of investors, however. Instead of being the basis for currency valuation, silver is a sensible investment today because of its practical value.
The silver dollar you have could be put to numerous uses. It could be formed into the most precise of precision circuitry. It could be used on components that are sent into space and, in fact, only gold is more valued for space program uses. The silver could be made into jewelry or used in scientific instruments on Earth. It could be used in medicine to kill bacteria or in restaurant containers to prevent spoilage. There are so many uses for this metal that it’s inconceivable, in a way, that so much of it was once required to make a mere dollar. There are good reasons to consider investing in this metal.
A silver dollar will last several lifetimes and, therefore, it can be passed down. If you’d held on to a silver dollar from the turn of the 20th century, in fact, you’d have quite a bit to show for it today. Perhaps one of your relatives did just that! If you have silver dollars from any era and they’re not alloy coins, have them examined by a numismatist. They can tell you if you have something very valuable on your hands. If you happen to have a rare coin, it may be worth thousands.