I have never seen a quarter this color. Could someone explain this to me, I can't seem to find anything online either and I am very new to coins. Thanks!!
Welcome to cointalk. The picture shows a brown tone. Certain paper products like napkins or paper towels may cause the brown tint. Hard to know unless you know the history of the coin but that is my best guess.
It's surface oxidation. It's completely normal and will happen to all coins eventually. The surfaces of your coin look a little porous though, so I would guess this coin spent a significant amount of time outside in the elements or perhaps underground.
Your Quarter is almost 52 years old.. I'm not the same color I was when I was born 45 years ago due to the sun, tattoos and aging
Yes, unfortunately in this case it is nothing but discoloration due to environmental damage, as @paddyman98 indicated. But hey, it brought you here, and you must have had at least some interest in coins to be paying attention to it, so keep paying attention, and stick around! Maybe you'll find something worthwhile! It happens.
That would be true on a silver coin, though this one is of course copper-nickel clad and therefore would be less prone to (though not totally immune from) sulfur based toning like the paper napkin thing. As a detectorist, I can tell you that clad quarters like this quite frequently turn dark grey or brown in the ground, the shade depending on the soil. Anyone who's found one that spent any time outdoors exposed to the elements will have noticed that. This one is not all-over brown like most of my dug clads, though, which indicates to me that it got enviro damage from some time in the elements (as the porosity also indicates), but then it went back into circulation for a while and got "shiny-ish" again (though not enough to wear away all of the traces of the enviro damage). Bottom line, my value estimate on the coin in the OP is 24.9 cents. Spend it.
This coin had the same obverse and reverse toning. After a few months of the obverse being set on a white napkin, the obverse toned brown and the reverse stayed the same. I had read that this would happen and I will represent to you that the obverse was the same white before it had been set on a white napkin for a few months. Napkin was from my favorite Italian restaurant. I read that Taco Bell napkins will tone a coin with nice colors but no Taco Bell where I live.
That Coin seems to have, a little silver in it. If I am wrong, I am gonna wonder if @Insider created another profile. Just kidding that's something only the DR. would know.
The Nazi coin posted above is silver. So yes, no surprise that it would tarnish/tone like that. The quarter in the OP is of course a copper-nickel clad coin, which is a horse of an entirely different color (pun only partially intended).
The "Taco Bell Napkin" thing really refers to any of the brown-colored paper napkins used in fast food chains. Some coins (usually silver) left in these over time can develop attractive toning, due to the sulfur content of the paper. I would imagine the toning doesn't always come out attractive or colorful, though.
Mental note to self... Never store any of my precious coins in paper napkins. Especially the ones from Taco Bell!
Just a thought...if I were you, I would stop the napkin experiments or use them on inexpensive coins. The reason: Most collectors would consider the German coin to be unattractive. A TPGS may call it "Environmentally Damaged" as would I.
You make a good point and I do not test any of my coins as a rule. This is the first and only one I have tested. I bought the German coin below melt because it has a hole and the coin appeared polished. To me that was the perfect coin to test. Its value won't drop below silver melt because of my test.
