Posted this also on Coin Chat I search half dollars for silver. I found this coin because when edge hunting it caught my attention. I can not determine if it s silver and a mistake made by the mint or some other anomaly. The half has a great luster, almost ike a silver half from a proof set, but evidence that it has run through circulation. So looks on both sides as a normal 1996-P. The edge is white just like silver half and shows no sign of the typical cupro-nickel banding. Silver plachett mistake? Does not sound like a silver half, 40 or 90, but also does not have a ring like a cupro-nickel either. Any thoughts? Thanks Tyson
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Check the weight see if it matches. IMO it's likely plated. But you could get lucky, it has some circulation wear & seems to have a little environmental damage on both sides, unless that's lighting effects.
Almost certainly plated. Where would a silver planchet come from? They aren't making any silver coins. They aren't striking coins for anyone else. And they blank their own from strip. Half dollar planchets aren't provided from outside sources. (The typical way an orphan planchet occurs.)
Don't know just trying to figure it out. Why would someone plate a rather common year half? Just an oddity? The mint will strike foreign coins at times from some research and those planchette can get left during a die change. It's thicker than a normal half but has the crisp edges of a non plated half that I have seen before (i.e. Gold plated 1776) I'm assuming just a strange oddity. Thanks for everyone's input.
Why? $$$. They sell these things with a huge mark-up, while making people (suckers) believe they are a great investment, then when those people (suckers) that bought them try to sell, they find that they are only worth face value. That's why they are found in circulation. https://www.etsy.com/listing/450094...1d1bb58a575e&gclid=CM_qs5iujM4CFdgcgQodP6QPUw $30 face value, 50 cents worth of PM plating all in a pretty presentation case that cost no more than $5. Mark it up to $120 and there is a fortune to be made. There's a sucker born every minute.
But other than 1000 Kr coins for Iceland struck in 2000, the mint hasn't struck coins for another country since 1984.
Yes there are 90% silver planchets for the proofs, but they aren't in Philadelphia, they are either shipped directly from a fabricator to San Francisco, or at that time maybe blanked in house in San Francisco. On at least two occasions 40% silver blanks have been shipped from SF to Denver in error, but there would be no reason to ship planchets to Philadelphia.
