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Eric, my FIL also appeared to have been deliberate about his collection, although it had some other coins which might have numismatic value (I doubt it) but have no silver value. We don't have any of the '71-'76 half dollars, but we do have some other 40% silver coins. Funny thing is, I never thought of him in that light. He was a JPL engineer, and he made a good salary. I don't think he collected these coins for their collection value. I think he collected them as a hedge for their silver value. I was initially surprised, but then he was a survivor of the depression and the Kansas dustbowl, so maybe that kind of thinking shouldn't be a surprise at all. Who knew they were latter day preppers?

Edited to add: none of our coins seem particularly high grade. They've all be well circulated, and he did not keep them in holders, just little manila watch envelopes. The most interesting one (to me, anyway) is an 1890 Morgan Silver Dollar. On today's spot market, it has a value of $22.0742, but I have no idea if it has any numismatic value. It is well circulated and tarnished, although it's in pretty good shape for its age.

Also, I just checked the spot silver prices using that link I gave before, and it has come down more than a little bit, and I wondered what would cause that until I remembered that the stock market has improved since the last time I checked silver; and of course when stocks go down, precious metals go up..... and visa versa.

...which is why junk silver coins are a great prepping investment. When there is no stock market and paper money makes poor toilet paper, silver is king.

Eric, what a find! I can't really tell you much about numismatic value in terms of "collectibility," but in pure "value of silver" terms, you have inherited a small fortune there. In that aspect, your nickels and pennies are worth their face value, and no more. The very last coins containing any silver were minted in 1976, and not ALL pre-1976 "silver colored" coins have any silver in them. But for instance, at today's rate, those 400 1921 and earlier silver dollars are worth approximately $8,829.68 at this morning's silver exchange rate ($22.0742/coin).

We inherited a small amount of "junk silver" (as it is known) from my FIL when he passed, although not nearly as much as you have. Here is the link I have used to calculate the value of our coins: http://www.coinflation.com/silver_coin_values.html.

When I check their rates against other sites, they all seem pretty close to one another. The things to remember are that A) a silver coin has far more value in silver than its face value, and so it can be a little confusing until you forget the actual face value other than as a general "this has more silver than that" comparison; B) No silver coin is ALL silver and there are some date ranges for some coins where the the percentage is very different than for other coins (1965-1970 half dollars are only 40% silver, for instance, and 1971-1976 Eisenhower Dollars are also only 40% silver); D) silver rates fluctuate up and down daily, but the overall trend seems to be always upwards.

I made myself a simple spreadsheet so that I can simply plug in the quantity by coin type and the current silver value rate for that type of coin, so I could come up with a total value in silver for our inventory. It's not real fancy, but it works. I would be happy to email you a copy of that spreadsheet if you like. Just let me know.