I have this Ike dollar that weighs 23.02 grams. I wanted to know if this is normal. I took pictures of a tissue test I performed to see if it could be a light weight silver-clad coin. I know the pictures aren't very good but would like your opinion as to which ones look silver to you and if this tissue test even matters? Thanks.
A heavy CnClad IKE is not that uncommon and 23.02 grams is well within tolerance. A 40% Silver coin would be closer to 24.5 +- grams in weight.
Coin weights are good indicators that something is up but its figuring out what that "something" is, is the challenge. I have a 1973-S 40% Business Strike silver IKE that weights 23.1 grams which is on the extremely low end of the acceptable tolerances for 40% Silver IKE's who have target weights of 24.6 grams. On the other hand, I also have 1973-S 40% Silver Business Strike IKE's that weight 25.3 grams which is on the acceptable high end. The light weight coin shows evidence of a weak strike near the periphery of the coins edges which tells me that, for whatever reason, the planchet was just a wee bit thinner than the typical 40% Silver planchet. Big money? Only to the right coin geek who likes IKE's but I have never found such a person. Unusual? I have no idea since I just don't weigh every IKE I come across. This coin only got weighed because I was actively searching for 73-S 40% coins struck on CnClad planchets of which 3 are known to exist. I was buying a lot of 73-S 40% Ike. It turns out, I wasted a bunch of money and time because the one I did find..................... came from the bank for $1.00. http://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/CertResults.aspx?CertNumber=2559629-001
