5 Tips For Investing in Silver Dollars

For a growing class of investors, silver bullion coins aren’t the only way to stack precious metals. Silver dollars are a classic, time-honored investment vehicle for silver stackers. For nearly one-hundred years, Americans have used silver dollars to diversify their portfolios. These coins feature brilliant designs that remind us of an earlier era of American coinage. 

While some silver dollars aren’t made using actual silver, Hero Bullion’s extensive inventory of silver dollars features coins minted with .90 fine silver bullion. We’re excited to introduce a new generation of silver stackers to the silver dollars we’ve enjoyed for decades. 

Today, we’re walking readers through our top 5 tips for investing in silver dollars. We can’t promise you’ll be an expert in numismatics by the end of this guide, but our advice can help you save big money while investing in silver dollars for your portfolio. 

Are Silver Dollars a Good Investment? 

Silver dollars are a good option for investors. Traditionally, silver stackers tend to prefer silver bullion coins for their silver stacks. Bullion coins are usually sold in Brilliant Uncirculated (BU) condition and feature a high percentage of pure gold – typically 99.9%. 

Investing in silver dollars might not come with the high purity and new packaging of bullion coins, but that doesn’t mean they don’t come with their own distinct benefits. 

Pros and Cons of Investing in Silver Dollars

There are both advantages and disadvantages to any silver investment – and silver dollars are no exception. In the next couple of sections, we’ll outline the major pros and cons of investing in silver dollars. 

For the most part, silver dollars excel when it comes to historical value, classic designs, and liquidity. However, silver dollars are often saddled with higher premiums than bullion coins, and their limited variety is a cause for concern to some investors. 

Pros of Buying Silver Dollars

There are several pros to investing in silver dollars. We’ll highlight 3 in this guide: historical value, beautiful and classic designs, and high liquidity. These three benefits combine to make investing in silver dollars a fantastic experience for investors who want to diversify their portfolios using historically valuable silver dollars. 

Historical Value 

Silver dollars aren’t only valuable for their silver content. Investing in silver dollars is a popular choice because these coins also offer numismatic value. Numismatic value refers to the value we assign coins based on their historical importance, collectability, or a combination of both. Silver dollars containing actual silver are relatively rare, and they come from an integral point in U.S. coinage history. 

Because of this, almost all silver dollars are worth more than their value in pure silver. This helps to explain the high premiums associated with investing in silver dollars. These historically valuable silver coins can add quite a bit to your silver portfolio. 

Silver stacks composed entirely of bullion coins are entirely dependent on the current spot price of silver. When silver becomes cheaper, expect these bullion-only collections to lose considerable value. But by investing in silver dollars, collectors can diversify with style. If you choose to invest in some silver dollars, you might profit – even when the market takes a dive. 

Beautiful, Classic Designs 

Investing in silver dollars is particularly popular because of their impressive designs. New bullion coins from the U.S. Mint are certainly beautiful, but some investors opine that they just don’t have the same antique feel as an early-1900s silver dollar. 

We tend to agree. There’s really nothing like the classic designs on old silver dollars, and we aren’t alone in that opinion. Each year, investors from around the world build their portfolios using beautiful American silver dollars. In addition to a high pure silver percentage, the symbolic images on the obverse and reverse of our most popular silver dollars help make them a staple to many collectors.

If you’re looking for a modern spin on the classic silver dollar, consider investing in silver dollars from 2023. To celebrate the history and influence of American silver dollars, the U.S. Mint released Morgan and Peace Silver Dollar Sets (pictured below) in 2023. 

These coins take the original silver dollars into the 21st century and contain .999 fine silver bullion. To make this deal even sweeter, the U.S. Mint released these coins in MS70, uncirculated condition. 

Easy to Resell 

Silver dollars are always in demand. This has been true since the very first standardized American silver dollars. Even the Peace Dollar was an immediate hit when it was released to the general public – and investors have been hooked ever since. 

For the modern investor, this translates to one of the most important benefits of investing in silver dollars: resale value. You’ll never have any trouble finding a buyer for your silver dollars when you’re ready to sell. Our recommendation is to stack silver dollars that are continuously in-demand among collectors. 

This is a big deal. Some bullion coins are popular but minted in such high numbers that demand is never particularly inflated. Investing in silver dollars is a different story entirely. There are always buyers for silver dollars, and they tend to hold their value well. While a new American Silver Eagle is released every year, we’ll never see another 1921 Morgan Silver Dollar circulated into the economy. 

Cons to Buying Silver Dollars

Don’t be fooled – no investment is perfect. There are a couple main downsides to investing in silver dollars: high premiums and a limited variety. We tend to think that silver dollars are still a good investment despite their cons, but it’s important that investors understand the downsides to this classic method of stacking silver. 

High Silver Premiums 

One big con to investing in silver dollars is their high premiums. Not all silver dollars are sold with high premiums over spot price, but these coins are usually sold for much more than their silver melt value. 

Expect to pay high silver premiums anytime you invest in numismatic coins. These coins are always sold at a premium over spot price because they’re valuable for more than just silver content. 

High premiums aren’t a huge problem for most investors. Investing in silver dollars means putting your money on rare, collectable coins from early American history. If you’re able to secure rare coins, it might be worth spending a bit more money. Because these coins aren’t still being produced, they’re likely to retain – or gain – value over time. 

Limited Variety (Sort of)

Throughout the history of the United States Mint, a number of beautiful silver dollars entered circulation. We don’t exactly call this a limited variety, but there aren’t quite as many variations of the American silver dollar as you’d see with popular bullion coins minted in the modern era. 

Generally, investing in silver dollars involves looking for rare years, errors, and mint marks of your favorite coins. This can be an extremely fun, rewarding experience. For the savvy stacker, investing in silver dollars is a great way to diversify your portfolio and maximize profits. 

We thought we’d include this con to buying silver dollars because some investors like variety – especially when it comes to their coin designs. If you’re someone who gets tired of collecting the same designs over and over, silver dollars might not be for you. Most silver dollar stackers view these coins as fascinating numismatic investments, so they aren’t ideal for collectors who aren’t interested in the history of coinage. 

5 Tips for Investing in Silver Dollars

Now that you have a bit of background on why silver dollars are a good investment, let’s run through the Hero Bullion list of tips for investing in silver dollars. By finding the best silver dollars, shopping around to compare prices, ensuring that you’re buying real silver, considering numismatic value, and diversifying your portfolio, you can stack silver dollars with confidence. 

1: Find the Best Silver Dollars

Finding the best silver dollars can be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Ultimately, all it takes is a bit of research. The two main silver dollars traded in 2024 are the Peace and Morgan Dollars. These classic coins compose the vast majority of the products in our inventory, as well as the lion’s share of auction sales globally. 

If these silver dollars aren’t quite your speed, consider looking for some older American silver dollars. Coins like the Seated Liberty Dollar and Flowing Hair Silver Dollar are always great choices. If you find some of the rare silver dollars from the earliest era of American coinage, they might be worth thousands of dollars – or more! 

Investing in silver dollars isn’t for everybody. But if you like the look and feel of classic American coins, identifying your favorite silver dollar variations is a great way to start building your silver stack using numismatic silver. 

2: Shop Around to Compare Prices

Once you know which silver dollars you want to invest in, take some time to compare prices. We recommend checking out multiple dealers before settling on one. It isn’t always just about premiums, either. Silver dollars are sold at a premium – no matter who you choose to do business with. 

But aside from premiums, there are a couple of charges you should consider when determining the total cost of your silver dollar investment. Shipping costs can quickly add up – especially if you’re doing business with a dealer who charges particularly high fees to ship your items. 

Hero Bullion offers competitive prices on all of our silver dollars, and our shipping fees are always reasonable. Our goal is to make the buying experience as easy and intuitive as we possibly can. 

3: Make Sure You’re Buying Real Silver

Some silver dollars don’t contain real silver. In 1965, the Coinage Act passed by Congress mandated that the U.S. Mint stopped producing .90 fine silver coins. The good news for investors is that all silver dollars produced before 1965 do still contain actual pure silver bullion. 

If you’re not careful, it’s possible to accidentally buy silver coins that contain no actual silver. We recommend taking a look at some of Hero Bullion’s .90 silver dollars. If you plan on investing in silver dollars, you should have a good idea of which coins contain real silver – and which don’t. 

4: Consider Numismatic Value 

Numismatic value refers to a coin’s collectability or historical importance. When a coin has numismatic value, it’ll usually be sold at higher premiums over spot price. Silver dollars offer high numismatic value for a couple of reasons. First, these coins are extremely collectable. For decades, coin collectors have flocked to U.S. silver dollars to build their portfolios. 

Second, silver dollars are historically important. Dollars like the Peace Silver Dollar were minted following major wars and during integral transitory periods in the United States Mint. To numismatists, this makes silver dollars especially valuable as collectibles. 

We recommend considering numismatic value when buying and selling silver dollars. The best silver dollars to invest in combine pure silver content with high collectability. Over time, these coins might become more valuable. This means more profit for your portfolio! 

5: Diversify Your Portfolio!

Investing in silver dollars is a great way to diversify your portfolio. Instead of allowing your stack to sway in value at the whim of silver’s spot price, consider buying some collectable silver dollars. 

Even once you’ve invested in silver dollars, we highly recommend diversifying using coins from multiple historical periods. Silver coins from early American history are especially valuable to collectors, but you can also find cheap coins from popular mintage years for Morgan and Peace Dollars. 

Stacking with a wide diversity of different coins can help your portfolio become more valuable. Diversification is never a bad thing, and savvy stacking means finding multiple ways for your portfolio to stay in the green! 

Final Thoughts: Investing in Silver Dollars

Silver dollars are a great choice for investors who want to start – or continue – stacking silver bullion. While these coins are usually sold at high premiums over spot, they offer extreme historical value and collectability. 

You might also be interested in: 

• Are Silver Dollars a Good Investment? 
• The Best Silver Dollars For Investors
• How to Grade Silver Dollars: 5 Tips For Collectors