I know this is a necro post, but one well worth revisiting. While doing some research today to find out at what point are pre 1963 coins going to worth their face value, and was surprised to find out people have been making money on junk silver for quite some time. It only come to my attention in the last few years, but it seems I should have been doing it since birth.

"Once the Treasury stopped selling at that price, market quotes for silver quickly rose. In June 1963 the Treasury replaced the $1 silver certificate with Federal Reserve notes. By 1963, silver prices reached $1.29, the monetary value of silver in coinage. At prices above this level, holders of silver certificates would have been able to redeem them for more valuable silver, under the now-defunct silver certificate legislation. (The other trigger price the Treasury worried about was $1.38, at which level it would have become profitable to recycle coinage for its silver content."