Let me start by saying I am not an avid collector, but since I was a kid, it has been a habit to watch for silver coins, quarters and dimes in particular. I recently ran accross this 1999 New Jersey State Quarter with a P mint. Hopefully the picture quality is good enough for you to see that it does not seem to have the copper core. I have been unable to find any information online about this quarter being made in silver anywhere except for the proofs from San Francisco. There has been information about some experimental planchets, but they have mostly been gold in color like the Susan B Anthony Dollars. This does not appear to have any other color to it. I unfortunately do not have access to a scale that is accurate enough to weigh it to a tenth of a gram, and there is not a coin shop near me. Does anyone have any idea what I might be looking at, and would it be worth taking it somewhere to get looked at professionally and/or graded? Any idea of a possible value? Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions.
Newbie holding the coin. Just had a hard time getting a good picture of the edge. Didn't really think about scratching it with the tweezers. It definitely seems to be heavier than a regular quarter, but if it is silver, something is still fishy because there seems to be no record of Philadelphia minting any silver NJ quarters in 1999. Thanks
This has been asked a ton of times. You won't find them often, but you will find the occasional clad coin that doesn't show the copper layer. It's still clad, it's just that they're struck in a certain way, I think. You will find better info from other people, but there's nothing rare or valuable you've got there. Just a standard clad coin with the copper layer hidden. Clip it in half if you want to see.
Don't clip it in half... if you don't mind possibly damaging the coin, you can scrap the edge with a razor blade to see if there is copper. Sometimes the coins are plated, and sometimes the clad layer is sheared in a certain way that makes it hide the copper core.
