Which silver coins can I sell by post in the UK?GoldPaid buys silver coins by post anywhere in the UK: pre-1947 UK silver, Royal Mint silver proof and commemorative issues, bullion coins such as Britannias, Eagles and Maple Leafs, and world silver coins. UK coins dated 1946 and earlier contain silver; 1947 onwards are cupro-nickel and contain none. Send a photo on WhatsApp first, then post with a free prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery label for a written, itemised offer.
UK & world silver coins
Sell silver coins by post across the UK
Rated Excellent, 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 40 reviews, checked 4 October 2026.
No obligation. Free tracked return if you decline. We aim to pay within one working hour of acceptance.
Pre-1920 UK silver coins are sterling, 1920 to 1946 issues are 50% silver, and UK circulating coins dated 1947 onwards contain no silver. Pre-1947 silver, Britannias, Eagles, Maples and crowns can all be posted on a free prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery label. Send a photo on WhatsApp first and we will tell you how we would value them before you post anything.
Send a photo on WhatsApp for a rough estimate where possible, or arrange to post your items for assessment. We confirm our purchase offer after inspection, and you decide whether to accept. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
Free Special Delivery label, usually within 30 minutesPurity tested in-house by X-ray (XRF)
- GOLDPAID LTD
- Founder Rocco Clayfield
- Bristol office
- Read our reviews on Trustpilot
Before you post
The questions people ask before they send anything, answered here rather than at the end of the page.
- Can I ask first?
- Yes. WhatsApp a photo to 07944 014111, 8am to 9pm, every day, and we reply with an idea of what it is worth. Nothing is posted until you decide.
- Is it safe to post?
- Your parcel travels by Royal Mail Special Delivery, tracked and signed for. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post.
- How is it tested?
- Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and tested with an XRF analyser, an X-ray test that reads the metal without marking it. Your written offer lists each piece with its weight, purity and figure.
- What if I say no?
- We return everything by Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. Saying no costs you nothing.
- When am I paid?
- Only if you accept the written offer. We pay by bank transfer (Faster Payments), and we aim to pay within one working hour of your acceptance.
- How long does an offer last?
- Each written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses, we re-run it at that day’s rate.
- Who am I dealing with?
- GOLDPAID LTD, registered in England and Wales, run by founder Rocco Clayfield. Our office is at Unit 217, Bristol Business Centre, 179 Whiteladies Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2AG. We are postal only, so there is no counter to visit. Before we pay, we ask every seller for a photo of their passport or driving licence.
Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
A question costs nothing
Before you decide anything, send a few clear photos of your silver coins on WhatsApp, or call. You will get a quick indicative figure and a straight answer about hallmarks, the postal cover, the XRF assay or the free return if you decline. None of it commits you to posting.
GoldPaid is a UK-wide postal gold and silver buying service with no branches. Our main page on selling gold by post in the UK sets out the label, the XRF test, the written offer and the payment in one place.
Which silver coins are worth sending
The silver content of UK coins changed over the years, and it makes a real difference:
| UK coins | Silver content | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-1920 | 92.5% (sterling) | Florins, shillings, half-crowns, crowns |
| 1920–1946 | 50% silver | Same denominations, lower silver content |
| 1947 onwards | No silver | Cupro-nickel, face value only |
- Pre-1947 UK silver, florins, shillings, sixpences, half-crowns, crowns
- Britannia silver coins and other modern silver bullion coins
- Silver Eagles, Maple Leafs, Philharmonics and Kangaroos
- World silver coins and mixed inherited tins and jars
Pre-1920, 1920 to 1946, and the 1947 cut-off
Britain struck its circulating silver at the sterling standard, 92.5%, up to 1919. The 1920 coinage halved that to 50%, and 1947 removed silver altogether. Size and design barely changed, so a 1919, a 1921 and a 1953 half-crown look much the same in the hand. The date is your quickest guide at home; the XRF assay settles it here.
| UK coin | Nominal weight | Fine silver if pre-1920 | Fine silver if 1920 to 1946 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crown | 28.3 g | about 26.2 g | about 14.1 g |
| Half-crown | 14.1 g | about 13.1 g | about 7.1 g |
| Florin (two shillings) | 11.3 g | about 10.5 g | about 5.7 g |
| Shilling | 5.66 g | about 5.2 g | about 2.8 g |
| Sixpence | 2.83 g | about 2.6 g | about 1.4 g |
| Silver threepence (small) | 1.41 g | about 1.3 g | about 0.7 g |
Those are weights for new coins, and circulation wears a little off. Two quirks: the small silver threepence gave way to the brass twelve-sided one from 1937, and Maundy money returned to sterling in 1947, so a 1950s Maundy set is silver when ordinary 1950s coins are not.
How much silver is in old UK coins, and what it is worth today
How much is £1 face value of pre-1947 silver coins worth?£1 face value of pre-1947 UK silver coins weighs about 113 g at standard weight, whatever the mix of shillings, florins and half crowns. Coins dated before 1920 are 92.5% silver, so £1 face holds about 104.6 g of fine silver; coins from 1920 to 1946 are 50% silver, about 56.6 g. At the spot price on 4 October 2026 (£1.47 per gram of fine silver) that silver was worth about £154.22 and £83.36 respectively. Coins dated 1947 onwards contain no silver.
| Coin | Standard weight | Silver, to 1919 (92.5%) | Silver, 1920 to 1946 (50%) | Spot value, to 1919 | Spot value, 1920 to 1946 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Threepence | 1.41 g | 1.31 g | 0.71 g | £1.93 | £1.04 |
| Sixpence | 2.83 g | 2.62 g | 1.41 g | £3.86 | £2.08 |
| Shilling | 5.66 g | 5.23 g | 2.83 g | £7.71 | £4.17 |
| Florin (two shillings) | 11.31 g | 10.46 g | 5.66 g | £15.42 | £8.34 |
| Half crown | 14.14 g | 13.08 g | 7.07 g | £19.28 | £10.42 |
| Crown | 28.28 g | 26.16 g | 14.14 g | £38.56 | £20.84 |
| £1 face value, any mix | 113.10 g | 104.62 g | 56.55 g | £154.22 | £83.36 |
- 1947 onwards: UK circulating coins are cupro-nickel and contain no silver, so they have no silver value.
- 1920 threepences and sixpences were struck in both alloys that year, so the date alone does not settle it. The XRF test does.
- Maundy money is the exception: it went back to sterling silver in 1947 and is still struck in it.
- Wear matters. A well-circulated shilling can weigh noticeably under 5.655 g. Every coin is weighed, so the figure reflects what is really there.
These are spot values of the metal content, not a GoldPaid buying price: any buyer pays less than spot, because refining, assay and margin come out of the metal value. GoldPaid publishes no buying rates; your written offer is set after XRF testing your own items. Silver buyers deduct a larger share than gold buyers, because silver is worth far less per gram to refine.
Coins dated 1947 onwards contain no silver
We would rather say this plainly than take your postage. From 1947, UK circulating coins were struck in cupro-nickel, copper and nickel with no silver content at all. That covers most of what fills an inherited tin: post-war shillings and florins, the 1951 Festival, 1953 Coronation and 1965 Churchill crowns, and every decimal coin since. They are worth face value or whatever a collector pays, not scrap.
The exceptions matter. Royal Mint silver proof, commemorative and bullion issues, including silver £5 crowns and Britannias, are genuinely silver despite their modern dates. If a coin came in a capsule, a box or with a certificate, send that too; it often tells us which version you have.
World silver coins
Foreign coins from holidays, service abroad or an inherited collection are welcome in the same parcel. Standards varied by country, denomination and year, so nobody should be identifying these from memory, ours included:
| Where from | Silver period | Typical fineness |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Dimes, quarters, half dollars 1964 and earlier | 90% |
| United States | Half dollars 1965 to 1970 | 40% |
| Canada | Pre-1920, then 1920 to 1966 | 92.5%, then 80% |
| Australia | Pre-1946, then 1946 to 1963 | 92.5%, then 50% |
| Ireland | 1928 to 1943 coinage | 75% |
| Europe generally | Pre-1960s francs, marks, guilders, lire | commonly 80% to 90% |
Tins, jars and bulk lots
Silver value is weight-driven, so mixed lots are worth sending whole rather than picking out what looks interesting. Two rough guides help: £1 of face value in pre-1947 UK silver, twenty shillings or eight half-crowns, holds roughly 1.8 troy ounces of fine silver, and the same £1 of face value in pre-1920 sterling holds roughly 3.4 troy ounces. A dull-looking bag of old shillings is often the most valuable thing in a parcel.
Do not sort, clean or polish anything first. Cleaning can reduce what a collector will pay and does nothing for melt value. Tip the tin in as it is.
Melt value or collector value
Most silver coins are worth their silver, but some are worth considerably more. Key dates, high-grade uncirculated pieces, proofs sealed in their capsules, error coins and complete Maundy sets can carry collector value above melt, and a specialist dealer or auction can serve those better. For albums and whole collections, see sell coin collections. For the British pre-decimal denominations on their own, with the silver-content sums for every date range set out so you can check them, see sell pre-1947 British silver coins.
The process, step by step
- Get in touch and show us. A WhatsApp photo of your silver coins is all we need to give you a quick indicative figure before anything is posted.
- Get your free label. We send a prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery label, fully tracked. If you have no printer, a QR code for the counter does the same job.
- Send it at your own pace. Wrap it in any padded envelope and hand it in at a Post Office whenever it suits you.
- See the written offer. Everything is weighed, metal is XRF-assayed and any stones are assessed separately, usually on the working day your parcel arrives. You then get an itemised breakdown showing exactly how the figure was reached.
- Decide. Say yes and the money is sent by Faster Payments. Say no and your items come straight back, free and tracked.
Your parcel is signed for on arrival and opened at our Bristol office, where each item is weighed and XRF-tested before the written offer is prepared.
How the offer is worked out
Every coin is weighed and XRF-tested at our Bristol office, and the written offer lists each one on its own line, with the reading, the weight and the figure, before you decide anything.
Coins are grouped by type and period, since one tin can hold three or four different finenesses, then weighed and XRF-assayed to confirm the silver content of each group. Your written breakdown shows each group with its weight, confirmed fineness and figure, with non-silver coins listed separately at nil.
Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
One parcel gets one written figure, itemised piece by piece. Any gold or silver jewellery in it is priced on the weight and purity we measure and the live precious-metal market, with our margin already inside the figure.
Postage and cover
Your parcel travels on Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed: tracked end to end and signed for on delivery. Royal Mail cover may be available up to £2,500 depending on the postal method and cover level used. GoldPaid can confirm the appropriate postal option before you post. If your items may be worth more, message us first and we can split them across more than one prepaid label, each with its own tracking number, at no charge. Full detail is on postage and cover, and is it safe to post gold? walks through posting valuables safely. If a parcel is lost on its way to us, the compensation claim goes to Royal Mail from you, the sender, using your Post Office receipt, and we give you our tracking records and help you make it. Lost parcels, step by step.
Declining, made simple
A quick message is all it takes to decline, and you do not need to give a reason. Your items are then returned free of charge on a tracked, signed-for service, with no fee and no pressure to reconsider. What happens if I decline the offer covers it fully.
The written offer is dated and holds for a limited time, because metal prices move. If it lapses before you decide, we re-run it against the live precious-metal market on the day, at no charge. You can also accept part of a parcel and decline the rest, with no minimum and no penalty for splitting it.
Who this helps
The inherited tin of old UK coins is the classic one: nobody is sure which of them hold silver and which are cupro-nickel. Holders of modern silver bullion coins use the service for a simple postal sale. So do people clearing a home who have come across a collection and want the silver value confirmed properly rather than guessed at.
The payment step
Acceptance starts payment: we aim to send a Faster Payments bank transfer within one working hour of your acceptance, to the account you give us. Nothing to bank and nothing to chase.
What we pay nothing for, and the ID we ask for
What we pay nothing for. UK circulating coins dated 1947 onwards are cupro-nickel with no silver content, so GoldPaid pays nothing for them as precious metal. Any such pieces in your parcel are listed at nil on the written valuation and returned free of charge by tracked post, whether you accept the offer on the rest or decline it. The full list, and where those items can go instead, is on what we don’t buy.
ID and ownership checks. Every seller sends a photograph of UK photo ID, a passport or a driving licence, whatever the parcel is worth. We check the name and address on the Royal Mail label against the name on the bank account, and ask you to confirm that the items are yours to sell. GoldPaid only buys from sellers aged 18 or over. Why we check, and what the law does and does not require, is set out on payments, cash and money-laundering rules.
Who stands behind the offer
- Owner-run, with founder Rocco Clayfield personally accountable for the service
- Every item XRF-assayed, the result shown to you in writing
- Free tracked postage both ways, so a valuation carries no obligation
- Honest about its limits, including when a specialist would suit you better
- No fabricated reviews and no invented numbers, anywhere on the site
What decides your offer
Every parcel is opened at our Bristol office and each piece is handled on its own. Nothing is averaged across the parcel.
- Weight. Each item is weighed on calibrated scales. Stones, steel springs, non-gold clasps and cores are separated first, so you are paid on metal, not on what the piece looks like on the scales.
- Purity. Each item is tested with an XRF analyser, which reads the alloy without marking or damaging it. The hallmark tells us what the maker claimed; the XRF tells us what is actually there. We pay on the test.
- The market on the day. Gold and silver are priced against the live precious-metal market at the time your parcel is assessed, not at the time you posted.
- Condition and intact value. Broken is fine and does not reduce a metal offer. Where a piece is worth more intact (a named maker, a collectable coin, a locket with provenance) we tell you before testing, so you can choose.
- Anything that is not gold or silver. Plated, rolled-gold and base-metal items are listed on the offer at nothing and returned to you free. We never quietly keep them.
Why we do not publish a per-gram price list. A single printed rate hides the things that change the figure: hollow versus solid, stones, mixed carats in one bag, a mark that does not match the metal. We would rather show you the weight, the tested purity and the figure for each item, in writing, and let you decide. Final offers depend on inspection, item weight, purity, hallmarks, stones, non-gold components, condition and the live precious-metal market.
What you see before you decide. A written, itemised offer by WhatsApp or email: every item, its weight, its tested purity, and its figure. Accept and we aim to pay by bank transfer within one working hour. Decline and the whole parcel comes back by Royal Mail Special Delivery at our cost. No fee, no deduction, no questions.
Common questions
Which old UK coins actually contain silver?
UK coins dated before 1920 are 92.5% sterling silver. Coins from 1920 to 1946 are 50% silver. From 1947 onwards UK coins contain no silver. Send the lot, the XRF assay confirms the content of each.
Do you buy modern silver bullion coins?
Yes, Britannias, Silver Eagles, Maple Leafs, Philharmonics and similar. They are weighed and XRF-assayed, and each one is listed on the written offer.
I have a jar of mixed coins, do I need to sort them?
No. Send the jar as it is. We separate silver from non-silver, weigh and assay the silver, and your written breakdown shows each group. Anything with no silver value is returned at no cost.
Are UK coins dated 1947 or later silver?
No. UK circulating coins from 1947 onwards are cupro-nickel and contain no silver, including the 1951 Festival, 1953 Coronation and 1965 Churchill crowns found in most tins. The exceptions are Royal Mint silver proof, commemorative and bullion issues, and Maundy money, which stayed sterling.
How much silver is in a pre-1947 shilling or half-crown?
A shilling weighs about 5.66 g new and a half-crown about 14.1 g. At the pre-1920 sterling standard that is roughly 5.2 g and 13.1 g of fine silver; at the 1920 to 1946 standard, roughly 2.8 g and 7.1 g. Circulated coins weigh slightly less, so yours are weighed and assayed before any figure is set.
Do you buy American, Canadian or other world silver coins?
Yes. World silver coins run from 40% up to 92.5% silver depending on country and year. Send them in with your UK coins and they are sorted and XRF-assayed here.
Where can I sell silver coins in the UK?
Coin dealers, bullion dealers, auction houses and postal buyers such as GoldPaid all buy silver coins. Pre-1947 UK coins and modern bullion coins sold for their silver suit a postal or bullion buyer, where each coin is weighed and tested; key dates, proofs and Maundy sets suit a coin dealer or auction. UK circulating coins dated 1947 onwards contain no silver, so no buyer pays a silver price for them.
What if a coin is worth more to a collector than as silver?
Key dates, sealed proofs, error coins and complete Maundy sets can be worth more than their silver content, and a specialist dealer or auction can serve those better. Send a photo of both sides on WhatsApp first and we will tell you how we would value them before you post anything. If you post and then decline the written offer, everything comes back free.
What if I think the offer is too low?
Decline it and everything comes back free of charge by tracked, signed-for Royal Mail Special Delivery, with no fee and no follow-up pressure. Before you do, check the sum: each group of coins is listed with its weight, its XRF purity and the figure for it, so you can compare it with another buyer’s written figure.
Do you buy 1947 onwards British silver coins?
No — UK circulating coins from 1947 onwards are cupro-nickel, with no silver content. The exceptions are Royal Mint silver proof, commemorative and bullion issues (Britannia from 1997, Lunar, Queen's Beasts and so on) and Maundy money, all of which stayed sterling or finer. Send mixed parcels as they are; non-silver pieces come back at no cost.
Are silver Britannias CGT-exempt?
Yes — UK legal-tender silver Britannias are exempt from UK Capital Gains Tax under HMRC's legal-tender rule, in the same way Sovereigns are. This has no effect on the per-coin GoldPaid offer (we pay for silver content on the day), but it may matter for your own tax return. Guidance only; check with your accountant.
Pre-2013 versus post-2013 Britannias: do they weigh the same?
They weigh the same (31.1 g, 1 troy ounce) but have different purities. 1997–2012 Britannias are .958 Britannia-standard silver; 2013-onwards are .999 fine. The fine-silver content is the same 1 troy ounce either way, so the per-coin figure tracks the live silver spot rate the same way.
Are damaged silver coins worth anything?
Yes — damaged, bent, drilled or soldered-on silver coins are still weighed and XRF-assayed and paid at their silver content. The collector premium is lost, but the metal figure is intact. Send a photo on WhatsApp if you want an indicative figure before posting.
Not the question you had? The full GoldPaid FAQ covers the rest, from postal cover and ID checks to what happens if you decline the offer.
Get a free Royal Mail label by email
Free, and it commits you to nothing. We test your items when they arrive and send a written offer; anything you decline comes back free.
Rather ask a question or send a photo first? Message us on WhatsApp.
GOLDPAID LTD · 07944 014111
UK-wide by post, no shop visit needed
Sell your silver coins by post
Send a photo on WhatsApp, ask anything, and request your free prepaid Royal Mail Special Delivery label when you are ready. No obligation, free tracked return.
No obligation. Free tracked return if you decline. We aim to pay within one working hour of acceptance.