Sell silver coins by post across the UK

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 rough estimate 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:

• 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.

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?

• Ordinary circulating issues from 1947: the silver content was removed. Do not assume a silver-coloured coin contains silver.
• 1920 threepences and sixpences: both alloys occur, so date alone does not settle composition.
• Maundy money: this is a separate exception and returned to sterling silver in 1947.
• Collector value: a scarce date or unusually good condition may matter more than metal content. Photograph both sides before deciding how to sell.

GoldPaid does not publish a price list or calculator. Send photos for a rough estimate where possible; your written offer follows inspection of your own items.

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:

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

1. Get in touch and show us. A WhatsApp photo of your silver coins is all we need to give you a rough estimate before anything is posted.
2. 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.
3. Send it at your own pace. Wrap it in any padded envelope and hand it in at a Post Office whenever it suits you.
4. 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.
5. 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.

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

Common questions