error question..... 1978 quarter silver rare? error? anything?

i found this 1978 quarter and it might be silver.. is that an error? rare? anything?

 

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What makes you think it could be silver, Sam?

 

acid test

 

because when u drop it... it doesn't sound the same as if your dropping a clad quarter.. and i have other silver quarters and when i compare the 1978 quarter (dropping all together) they sound the same..

 

So anything?

 

what the edge look like all white ?

 

If you put the coin on edge, a silver quarter will be all silver and a clad coin will be copper/silver color. So, if the edge is solid silver, then you may have an error coin, as I don't remember any 1978 Washington Quarters, issued in silver?

 

Forget the sound, forget the appearance, check the weight. That will eliminate some 99.99999% of all the "is this silver" questions relating to coins that aren't supposed to come in sliver.

 

The easiest is to look at the edge and the best is to weight the coin. They did make 1978 silver proofs, pretty sure, but there is no S mm. If you don't have a scale yet, it is a great tool to have while coin hunting

 

Take a white kleenex and place it over the coin. If its black, its clad, if its white, its silver.

Before the skeptics pounce on this.. try it.

 

There were no silver proofs minted in 1978........

 

Gang, there were no silver dimes minted in 1965 either.. But they are out there.

 

Green18 you are right the 1978-s proof is not silver....

 

Oh Yeah!

That's an ultra rare item you have there which should be shipped off to either NGC or PCGS for attribution and encapsulation!

For the life of me, I cannot figure out virtually ANY circumstance where a 90% Silver planchet might have made it into the Washington presses but if that's what you've got, somehow it happened!

Did you mention the weight of the coin? That is a sure sign that its silver as the CnClad coin will weigh 5.6 grams vs the heavier silver coin at 6.25 grams.

 

Oops. Since the end of 90% Silver in 1964, No Silver Proofs until 1992.

Of course this excludes the 40% Clad Siler but those stopped in 1976.

 

well the edges look the same as a regular quarter... i havent weighted it yet

 

here are some more pix

 

Those were transitionals. 1978 is a long way from 1964.

 

So what does that mean.....?

 

When the Mint transitioned from partial silver planchets to non-silver ("clad") planchets, some of the old ones stayed in and got mixed with the new. Thus, in a "transition" year (1964 -> 1965, 1976 -> 1977, etc.) when they were changing from coins with silver in them to coins without silver, there's a good chance there were some mistakes made.

hope that helps.