Which Roosevelt dimes are silver?

Circulation strikes from 1946 through 1964. They are the old .900 fine dime. The same portrait continues after 1964 in clad, and that later coin has its own page.

How do I sort a tube without a chart?

Read the date, then look at the reeding. Coins from this silver run do not show a copper line in the edge. A date of 1965 or later belongs on the clad page, not in this pile.

Is 1964 a key date because it is the last silver year?

No. 1964 is only the last year this silver page covers. Plenty of them were saved. A last-year date is not the same thing as a scarce date.

A strike designation on the bands of the torch. It applies to Roosevelt dimes. It is not the Full Bands call collectors use on Mercury dimes.

Pre-65 Roosevelt dimes are the silver ones

Roosevelt dimes dated 1946 through 1964 are the 90 percent silver ones. Check the edge and the date. 1965 is clad and lives on another page.

A pre-65 Roosevelt dime is John R. Sinnock's portrait in the old silver alloy, dated 1946 through 1964. You still see the same face on a modern dime. The metal is the difference, and the date is how you prove it. The silver chart is the pre-65 Roosevelt page. Clad 1965 and later stay on the Roosevelt dime page. Do not put both coins on one list and call it a single series.

Edge, date, initials

Tip the coin and look at the reeded edge. Silver is one color all the way across. Clad shows a copper-colored sandwich in the middle. Then read the date. 1964 and earlier, with that solid edge, is this coin. 1965 and later belongs on the other page even if someone dropped it into a "silver" tube.

JS sits under the bust. That is Sinnock's initial, not a mint mark. On the reverse, a D or an S stands beside the torch. Unmarked coins from this stretch are Philadelphia.

PCGS CoinFacts and NGC's Roosevelt explorer both cover the design as a whole, silver and clad. Use them to see the type. Use the date on your coin to pick the series page.

A pile of worn ones is usually melt

Common worn dates from this run are a silver conversation more often than a key-date conversation. The melt calculator multiplies the fine silver in a pre-1965 dime by a cached spot. The page says that result is not a bid and not what a shop pays. A cleaned coin can share the melt of an original one and still be the worse buy.

Full Torch means the bands on the torch are fully split. That is a Roosevelt strike call. Mercury dimes, the series this portrait replaced, use Full Bands on a fasces. Do not borrow the Mercury term for this coin.

If the tube is mixed, sort it before you ask for a number. The dealer directory is the list of public shops that can check the pile you are unsure about. They should not have to pick copper edges out of a roll you already called silver.