Generally, 1965. After that, half-dollars were made 40% silver in 1965-1970. Occasionally, specially-ordered U.S. coins have also been made out of silver.
gold coins were in greater supply that silver coins
Unless the gold coins are solid gold and the silver coins are solid silver, it is probably worth less than the purchase price.
At minimum, they're worth the value of the silver.
A Royal Reward of 10,000 silver coins, per year, for the rest of that man's life.
Roman coins were made of silver, but when there was a need for more money and not enough silver, Rome reduced the amount of silver in its coins thus allowing them to make more coins. Coins made of silver and gold must also contain an alloy that makes them more durable. Rome eventually reduced the amount of silver in its coins from 96% to 4%. Merchants demanded more of the lower silver coins causing inflation and the military refused to be paid in Roman coins. Eventually, the Roman government also refused to accept its own money for the payment of taxes. Bartering became more popular among the people.
Germany had silver 5 DM circulation coins until 1975.
Just recently with the advent of bullion coins such as the American Silver Eagle. Coins intended for circulation were never 100% silver because silver is simply too soft of a metal for coinage. They were 90% silver in American coins until 1964 for dimes, quarters and half dollars, but other than bullion coins, no coins are made of 100% silver.
All U.S. coins were made of silver until 1965, when the Coinage Act was enacted, transitioning most coins to a copper-nickel composition due to rising silver prices and a shortage of silver. Prior to this change, dimes, quarters, and half dollars contained 90% silver. However, some coins, like the silver dollar, continued to be minted in silver until 1935, when the last of the regular silver dollar production ended.
All New Zealand silver coins from 1933 to 1946 had a silver content of 50%. From 1947 onwards, all New Zealand "silver" coins were made from a copper-nickel alloy.
It would depend on who you mean by "they", but up until the mid 20th century, silver had been used to make coins for over two thousand years.
The use of silver in Dutch coins was gradually phased out over the first half of the 20th century. From 1938 until the end of silver coinage, they were struck in 72% (720 fine) silver alloyed with 28% copper. The government of the Netherlands demonetised silver coins in 1973. Current euro-denominated coins of course don't contain any silver either.
Because silver is far too expensive. Coins used to contain silver until about 1920 in the UK, 1965 in the U.S., and 1968 in Canada. Since then they are made from a mixture of copper and nickel, so they really aren't called "silver" coins anymore.
"Most" coins of the world were never made of silver. There were always more minor coins made of copper, nickel, bronze, aluminum, etc. The larger coins of most countries contained at least some silver until the 1960s when the price of silver made almost all of them more valuable for their metal content than their stated denomination. The US eliminated silver in all coins in 1965 except for the Kennedy half dollar and it was reduced from 90% to 40% silver until 1972 when it also became a cupro-nickel alloy. Mexico and Canada had reduced the silver content of their coins even earlier, but kept a small percentage of silver in some coins for a few more years.
Yes, there are many silver Mexican coins, however, when compared to other countries, Mexico used lower purity silver in their more modern coins and often times different coins had different cut-off dates for silver. For example, until 1918, Mexican Peso coins were made out of 90.3% silver, in 1918 that was reduced to 80% silver, in 1920 it was reduced again to 72% silver, in 1947 it was reduced yet again to 50% silver, in 1950 it was reduced to 30% silver, and in 1957 the coin was only 10% silver until 1970 when it was replaced with a copper-nickel coin containing no silver. Mexico also has many modern bullion coins struck in silver.
90% silver quarters, half dollars and dimes were produced until 1964. From 1965-1970 half dollars have been 40% silver while dimes/quarters contained no silver. From 1971-present no silver coins have been minted for circulation. Today the US mints various collector coins in silver, but none for general circulation.
Zero. Due to the steep rise in the price of silver in 1919/20, the issue of standard .925 silver coins was discontinued and coins of .500 silver were minted. In 1947, silver was needed to repay the bullion lent by the USA during the war years, so silver coins were replaced with coins of the same weight and type made of cupro-nickel.
All silver coins had 10% copper added to make them harder so they would withstand circulation better. Silver was taken out of circulating US coins in 1965 with the exception of the half-dollar which continued to be minted in 40% silver from 1965 until 1970.