? Silver Clad 1974 Quarter ?

Hi !
We are required to sort thousands of quarters per day so we encounter all kinds of things. We found a 1974 quarter today that stood out originally because it rang like the sliver quarters do when handled, so we took it aside to see the date and were surprised to see a 1974. We looked at it and the edge appears to have a strong clearly defined sandwich of metal , but the cladding looks silver and the coin has a totally different sound than all the other 74 quarters. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Any information is greatly appreciated.

 

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Weigh it. That's the ultimate determiner as to whether it's clad or silver. 6.25 grams for a silver........

And no, I've never heard of a silver business strike after 1964. Some claim they're out there but no one has come forward to my recollection. Welcome to the forum Steve.........

 

Well he is obviously thinking 40% silver clad because he says the edge clearly shows the "sandwich". Weight is NOT conclusive to tell 40% silver clad from copper nickel clad. (40% silver clad can weight as low as 5.55 grams and copper nickel can weight as much as 5.9 grams. So there is a big overlap in the weight ranges.) Specific gravity should be conclusive. Copper nickel clad SG is 8.92, 40% silver clad is 9.53.

However if it is a Philadelphia the chance of it being 40% silver clad is pretty much zero because there is no place for the planchet to come from. If it is Denver then there is a slight chance because rejected proof planchets are sometimes shipped fro San Francisco to Denver to use for circulation strikes and there have been 1974-D 40% halves and Dollars found. So a 40% 1974-D quarter could be a possibility. But not a Philadelphia.

 

Has there ever been a 40% quarter?

 

In 1976. So this would have to be another "mischievous time-traveler" error.

 

Yes. Various.

But most importantly there's a 1977 40% BS quarter.

Remember that quarters were struck into 1975 simultaneously with 40% bicentennial coins so it's not impossible ended up getting struck in 40%.

I'm dubious since in all these years it should have been discovered but maybe it was and got back into circulation. If it's solid XF or better than the chances of it being real soar.

 

Were 1974 coins still struck in 1975? I know 1964 coins were struck late, but hadn't heard about others.

Also, were there ever any official 40% quarter strikes other than 1776-1976? I don't recall hearing about them...

 

Bicentennial Quarters (as well as Halves and Dollars) were struck beginning in July 1975 and struck until December 1976 (give or take).

No time travel necessary.

Coinage of 1974 Quarters, Halves and Dollars was continued until June 1975.

 

I Did Not Know That. Time to go back and reread the Red Book, I guess.

The OP's coin suddenly sounds a lot more interesting...

 

Who are "we"? And why are you required to sort so many quarters?

 

Totally typo on my part, jeff.

Dates of Bicentennial coinage production were July 1975-Dec 1976 and 1974 Quarters, Halves and Dollars were produced until June 1975.

 

's OK, I didn't know that either.

So, maybe a 40% planchet could've gotten ahead of the production run -- but that seems really, really unlikely, unless someone in a trusted position decided to engage in a little extracurricular activity.

 

40% silver planchets existed at least by 8-12-74 when ceremonnial specimens were struck for the various designers including Ahre's quarter design which won the design competition. Believe it or not there were a couple 40% bonded silver planchets made for 1965 quarters but none of these are likely to have ended up struck with '74 dies. The first 40% coins were being struck April 23. 1975 but the planchets would have been prepared before this.

 

I should mention that I have seen odd looking 1974 quarters that are more "silver-like" than most dates. I'd guess it's more likely one of these than a 40% planchet.

Each date has a distinct personality but most dates have a few outliers as well.

 

The problem is how does a 40% silver planchet get to PHILADELPHIA? To Denver there was a way it could happen because planchet were shipped from San Francisco, where 40% silver planchets were available, to Denver. They were NOT shipped to Philadelphia. There is no place for a 40% silver planchet, or in fact any silver planchet, to come from in Philadelphia in 1974, 75, or 76.

 

before anything really can be speculated the weight of the coin in questions needs to be known. It could be a 40% but it is so far unknown to numismatics. My guess is it is a normal quarter. I Hope it is something else though that would be mighty cool.

 

40% silver coins don't show cladding on the edge.
They don't look like 90% which is a whiter edge, but there's no copper color on the edge.
Normal quarter from description.

 

I have run across many 40% that have the clad layer showing. It does look silvered but, still layered.

 

OK. I've never seen a 40% (halves only not quarters) that showed copper on the edge.

 

If the container for these 40% planchets was EVER shipped back to Philadelphia for ANY reason (including to be recycled and filled again), you now have a way for the silver planchet to arrive in Philadelphia.