Hey folks! New to the site but not to collecting. My uncle recently passed away and I inherited his collection to incorporate into mine. He had a coin tube which contains several error coins of which i will show in time here but the quarter is what I have a question about. I've seen many types of errors and have read about their causes but this is something i've never seen. It's a 1982 Quarter ( i think that's the correct date, im currently at work) but it's swollen; like the inside of it is filled with a hollow space. and it's not a slight swelling either. When dropped on a table it sounds similar to other quarters of the same vintage. I will post several pics of it when i get home just wondering if anyone has seen something like this. thanks!
Hi, Welcome to Coin Talk and we hope that you will stay! We have seen just about everything that there is to be seen and there are quite a few reasons why that the Quarter is swollen from an air bubble which developed inside the planchet when it was created to Post-Mint (Man-Made) manipulation. However, it is really hard to make any type of assessment of the coin without pictures! If you can post some pictures we will take our best stab at determining the cause. Frank
As a machinist working with steel and other metals heat is one of the few things that can deform a metal like you have with your quarter . rzage
Neat looking coin would make a great talking piece or it is a very rare coin that nobody has ever seen before. Or it was zapped with martian heat gun..there out there you know..I know cause....just because. Happy Thankgiving!
My next question is: Can you squeeze the bubble and compress it? If not, then I would say that the Cladding has not separated from the core but the core has expanded. Since it is quite possible that the core had minute air bubbles (pockets) throughout it's make-up, then heating would cause the air bubbles to expand and thus expand the planchet. Another possibility would be that someone drilled a tiny hole on the edge and injected air into the planchet as it was heated, thus causing a similar effect as above. Frank
First, it's hard to see how heat would affect only the center of the coin. Enough heat to warp/expand/vaporize the center of the core would certainly affect the edges too. Second, your third picture (the edge of the coin) shows no evidence of the copper core - this should be a clad coin. This may be something other than a real quarter. What is the diameter and the weight?
Davidh If the heat is applied by a torch then the heat right at the tip of the flame will be much hotter than the coin will be just 1/2 inch away thus heating just the center of the coin enough to bubble it. The longer the heat is applied the more the bubble on thecoin will expand high school metal shop! Richard
huntsman53 - i tested to see and yes I can push it in with a lot of force so it does feel as if a thin layer has bubbled up. it's still very hard though. I cant push in the whole thing but i bit it and i could put a dent in it davidh - it's a real quarter. it has the coppering around the ring.
If there was a air pocket between the layers and heat was applied then of course the air would expand causing the metal to warp. That's what I think happened here.
Hey, I have a quarter that i found like 2 years ago it also has a bubble in it, it looks just like the one you got, have you found out why it's like that i'll post pictures of mine later
