What is a silver dollar dated 1879 worth?
I am assuming that this is a Morgan silver dollar you are referring to. First, you need to look for the mint mark. Then you need to get a good idea of the grade of the coin, specifically its condition, uncirculated, fine, poor, etc.
Some prices here: http://www.pcgs.com/prices/frame.chtml?type=date&filename=morgan_regular
I’ll double your money and give you 2 crisp one dollar bills for it!! 
Thank you. Looks like I need to do a little research.
At the very least, current silver prices would probably get you $11-12 regardless of condition.
My wife was going through some of her Grandma’s stuff and she has a kind of old coins. It’s amazing.
I’m guessing that the coins were in sort of a bundle, which means they were probably culled from circulation, i.e. pocket change. Most likely then, these will show typical wear and won’t qualify for anything near “uncirculated” quality. Still, there could be some gems in there.
My advice is to go visit a Barnes and Noble type big book store, or a good newspaper shop with a lot of magazines, and look for a book or coin magazine with current coin values (or Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0794820379/103-3055657-3955854). These should have the mimimum discussion on identifying coins ( e.g. mint marks, and locations, die variations, etc), and a little bit of grading information. Grading is the major issue, but it has a lot of caveats. Morgans, for instance, if not melted down by the government, mostly sat in bank vaults for a hundred years. Thus, there are an awful lot of beautiful Morgans floating around (and yup, it is one of my personal favorites, right up there with Liberty Walking halfs). However, for the most part, older coins fetch much higher prices for lower grades such as fine or extra fine (think pre 1900).
Now, if her grandmother was a real collector…
For the record, before 1964 when the government stopped minting high silver content coins, there were a lot of amazing coins still floating around in circulation, coins like Indian head cents, liberty standing quarters and buffalo nickels. After 1964, all those got sucked up fast, along with the silver coins. Don’t ask me how I know.
She did not collect, she just rat-holed money everywhere.
Hmm… given her age (I’m just guessing) and a good size hoard, I’d get a very good book and get a little edgicatin’ if I were you. The silver dollar is nice and flashy, but some Washington quarters or buffalo nickels from the '30s could be far more valuable if they are the right date and mint mark and only in half way decent shape as compared to a pretty shiny silver dollar from 1879. Even some Lincoln cents from 1909 -1919 are worth hundreds of dollars.
Get a book, do a little homework and send me a pm later on what turned up. It sounds really interesting, a modern day treasure hunt!
I’ve got a bunch of circulated silver coins I’ve had since the early 60’s, nothing special. Whats the best way to sell em, eBay?
I have been out of the loop for a while, and I am definitely not an eBay kind of person. If you are sure none of the coins are special (easily enough to figure just by looking at mintage numbers/quantities and double checking that there weren’t any special mint mistakes, mis-strikes), then most likely, I would just call up major coin shops in the area and ask them what prices they are buying silver at. You can track the silver market either online or in the financial section of your local newspaper. I would suspect that the major shops would all be pretty close in their purchase price. Note that prices are denomination specific, which I think reflects silver content of the coins.
Precious metal prices are just like any other commodity and flucuate on a daily basis. eBay has a built in lag because of the auction, transaction sequence designed in. Now, regarding prices, the quick little dig I did in answering the OP indicated that the expectations were for silver to go back up to the $15 range (per oz) from the current $12 price. Me thinks it would pay to do a little homework and watch the market for a bit.