I'm not a mind-reader. Tell me what I should be looking for. This isn't a game of 20 questions for crying out loud.
A 1965 half on a coppernickel clad planchet would be impossible unless the half dollar planchets were punched from quarter thickness CuNi clad strip. (There was no CuNi clad strip of half dollar thickness at the mint until 1971.) And a half dollar struck on quarter clad stock would weigh 9.01 grams. Your coin is much too heavy to be that. It is NOT possible to tell a 40% silver clad half and a coppernickel clad half apart by weight. Due to the tolerance range allowed by the mint the 40% silver half can weigh anywhere from 11.9 grams to 11.1 grams. A copper nickel clad half can weigh anywhere from 11.89 grams to 10.89 grams. So unless your coin weighs between 11.09 and 10.89 grams you can't be sure it is copper nickel clad. Your coin falls well within the size and weigh range to be a normal 40% silver half dollar. If you reaaly want to check and see if it is 40% silver or Copper nickel clad do a specific gravity test on the coin. A 40% silver will have a SG of 9.53 and copper nickel is 8.92
While we're on the subject, how come other countries use a an alloy to make their coins (no copper seen on edge), while we use a "sandwich" of two metals?
Because this is the United States of America and we like to make things as confusing as possible to meet certain political interests.
I am sure you have better sources than me. Can you point me to a net site for tolerances? My old redbook, 48th ed states clad quarters weigh 5.67 grams, drop 2 of them in there and you get 11.34. Thanks for making me look that up, turns out real close to my coin. Far as I know the density of Cu is 8.940 and Ni 8.908 coinflation puts the mix at 0.901675 Ni over all and factmonster puts it at 0.91670, either way that comes to 8.91 clad coin density. what is the actual overall composition of clad coins? Let me guess that varies also Similarly if Ag is 10.490 a 40% coin with Cu is 9.560 over all coin SG. If the tolerances you claim are real, then weight alone is not the key, which is why I mentioned using a Jolly up there ^. I tried to rig up a jolly on a triple beam today and come up with 8.9715 on this coin and almost exactly that on an 83 half. I tried a 1.541 gram of Cu wire as a check and came up a tad high, 9.1183 before temp correction. 17C. So if the coin was a light version of the right mix and the mix was skewed toward Cu, I have a cheaply made coin. I need a reference to tolerances to limit the possibilities, mathematically. And probably a better Jolly. A worn 1966 silver came back at 9.302, which makes sense since it is the silver that wears not the core.
