What is 1oz silver worth?

One troy ounce of pure silver is worth the current spot price, which right now is around $63.64. That figure changes throughout the trading day, so the number you see this morning may not be the number this afternoon; you can check the live price anytime on our silver price chart.

Which "ounce" are we talking about?

Precious metals are measured in troy ounces, not the ordinary ounces on a kitchen scale. A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams, while a standard avoirdupois ounce is only 28.35 grams. That difference matters: if you weigh silver on a household scale and read the ounces directly, you will overestimate how much silver you have by about 10%. When we quote "1 oz silver," we always mean one troy ounce of pure (.999 fine) metal.

How much you receive when you sell

Like gold, silver is priced against a constantly moving spot price, and what a buyer pays depends on what form the silver takes:

• Silver bullion (coins, bars and rounds). We pay close to the live spot price, sometimes more on especially in-demand products such as American Silver Eagles. Your exact rate depends on the specific product and volume, and no rate is ever guaranteed because the market changes daily.
• Sterling jewelry and flatware. Sterling is 92.5% silver, so one troy ounce of sterling contains only 0.925 troy ounces of actual silver. Your payout is based on that actual silver content and purity, based on the metal content we measure. Per gram, sterling is currently worth about $1.89.
• Pre-1965 US coins. Dimes, quarters and half dollars from before 1965 are 90% silver, worth about $1.84 per gram of coin. A full $1 in face value contains roughly 0.715 troy ounces of silver.

What you pay when you buy

If you are buying rather than selling, expect to pay spot plus a premium. The premium covers minting, distribution and dealer costs, and it varies by product. Government mint coins like the Canadian Silver Maple Leaf carry higher premiums than generic rounds or bars, which is why many investors who want the most silver per dollar choose bars and rounds. Because silver's spot price is far lower than gold's, the premium is a larger percentage of the total on silver than on gold.

Silver is more volatile than gold in percentage terms. A large share of silver demand is industrial (electronics, solar panels, medical uses), so the price responds to manufacturing activity as well as to the same forces that move gold: inflation data, the US dollar, interest rates and geopolitical events. Sharp moves within a single week are not unusual, which is why we quote from the live market at the moment of your transaction rather than from a printed sheet.

Whether you hold one ounce or several hundred, we test and weigh every item in front of you and quote from the live market feed. Get a free evaluation on your silver here, or explore our silver bullion buying page to see what we pay for coins, bars and rounds.