Sorry I don't have a digital camera to show you pictures of this, but I found a 2004-P Michigan state quarter that appears to be struck on either a solid nickel, or silver, planchett. It is definitely not a clad coin. The edge does not have any copper at all (like a Canadian coin), and the color of the coin is much "whiter" than a clad coin. However, it does not have that distinctive silver ring when you spin it or drop it. What the heck have I got?
Howdy neburg964 - Welcome to the Forum !! I suggest you weigh the coin - that will go a long ways towards helping identify it.
I suppose I can go to any coin shop, correct? FYI, I brought it home last night and laid it out on the table with a handful of other state quarters, and asked my wife - who knows nothing about coins at all - if she thought "any of these quarters appears to be different from the others." She picked my "error" coin right away. It sure looks like a silver coin when viewed next to other quarters (or any clad coin) but it doesn't have that distinctive silver '"ring". It's a mystery!
Yes - any coin shop could weigh it - so could any Post Office. You need the weight in grams. It could well be a silver coin - or it could be an ordinary quarter that has been plated. The weight will tell.
no kidding, the amount of fake £1 coins i've had lately, i begin to view all 'odd' coins as fakes. I'll admit it sounds far fetched, since it'd not really be worth faking a 25c coin really would it?
Then again, I haven't heard of any among state quarters. Weigh it and look at the details of the design under magnification. They should be clear. There should be no bumps or toolmarks. Flow lines in the field are a sign of authenticity. Check the diameter with a caliper or micrometer. It should hover around 24. 26mm. The coin should be perfectly round, so measure the diameter at several points. Check the reeding. Shape and spacing should be exactly the same as a normal quarter.
I'll get it checked out tomorrow, and let all of you know what it is. FYI, if this is a counterfeit, it's a good one. I compared it to a regular 2004-P Michigan quarter, and other than the metal I can't see any detail differences. Of course, this was done with just a naked eye, but I was looking for any details that did not appear quite right. I couldn't spot anything wrong.
Hi, If I had to make a guess without actually seeing the coin...then odds are that it is one of those quarters from a set sold on the coin televison ...they advertise them as gold. platinum and clad.........I would say that yours is one of the so called "platinum" quarters.. .......just a guess
That's the most sensible explanation yet, but aren't those coins polished to a high luster to resemble proofs? This one looks like your average circulated quarter - definitely NOT MS-63. It's what you'd expect of a circulated coin in excellent condition - bag marks, nicks in the edges, etc. It's just not the right metal. I have a coin dealer around the corner from my office, I'll take it to him tomorrow afternoon. The curiosity is killing me. Just for laughs, if this turns out to be a genuine mint error, what do you think it's worth?
Yes the quarters as they come out the those sets are nice and shiny....but this could quickly dissappear once it had entered circulation. ........should it turn out to be an off metal planchet error...I can tell you they are quite collectible.......there simply arent enough of them to go around........I cannot give you a dollar figure as this would depend of several factors.......but you can look around the net for "error coin" dealers and get a pretty good idea!!.........GOOD LUCK!!
It turned out to be a silver-plated quarter. My local coinshop was really excited about it, since it turned out to have the proper weight and diameter. The plating job is excellent; it looks so good that the coin does NOT look plated (if that makes any sense). Even under a microscope it was hard to tell. In fact, they insisted that I let them broker the coin if it turned out to be genuine. Unfortunately, once we did a chemical abrasion test the truth was revealed. Major bummer! Why would anyone silverplate a regular quarte and then throw it back into circulation? Probably to get somebody's (mine) pulse racing. Thanks to all of you for your feedback and advice. I appreciated it. Cheers, Marc
I probably used the wrong terms to describe what they did. Basically, they rubbed the edge of the coin very lightly against what looked like a fine-grade sanding block, to test the metal filings for chemical composition. They put some fluid on the filingss which revealed the presence of silver. Next, we examined the edge of the coin where it had been filed. Note that the filed area whas not visible with the naked eye. Under a jeweler's eyepiece, we were able to see the copper peeking through. That's when we knew we had a clad coin that had been plated. The quality of this plating is so good that 3 different experts examined it, and it wasn't until we did this test that we discovered the truth. I can't imagine what this coin would have been worth, had it been a genuine error coin. Oh well, it's nice to dream, right?
<<My local coinshop was really excited about it, since it turned out to have the proper weight and diameter. >> Obviously they don't know much about errors. As soon as it checked out as proper diameter and weight I would have been 98% sure it was altered, not excited. And any halfway decent plating job is NOT going to suddenly "jump out" as plated, even under relatively high magnification. A bad plating job will, but just because you don't see a bad plating job doesn't mean it hasn't been plated. I also don't have much respect for a coin shop that uses destructive testing to evaluate a suspect coin.
Point 1: They checked beforehand the published weight for both a clad State quarter and a silver State quarter. Both coins are supposed to be 5.6 - 5.7 grams, and my quarter was right there. There was also the possibility that since the Philly mint produces coins for other countries, one of their planchetts might have been used, and it just happened to have the exact weight as a State quarter. Point 2: They offered to send the coin out for an evaluation for me if I desired. Or, they could perform this test. Point 3: They asked my permission beforehand before performing the "destructive" evaluation, and assured me that it would be almost invisible to the naked eye (which turned out to be true). The abrasion test was done on the reeded edge of the coin, in one spot. I agreed to this test because it would have revealed the truth to us immediately. And, this is a circulated coin; it's not in perfect condition, so their test really didn't alter its condition. Had the coin been in a gem brilliant uncirculated state, I would have sent it out for evaluation.
I would hate to guess how much value would have been lost by this test, had it been a true error. Circulated or not. I have a quarter that is missing a layer or nickel that I found in circulation. D**n shame someone had scratched the obverse fields all up trying to determine if it was plated.
Well, as I said it is nearly impossible to see the spot on the coin where this test was done. I am holding the coin right now and I cannot find the spot where they did it. So I seriously think no value would have been lost.
<<There was also the possibility that since the Philly mint produces coins for other countries, one of their planchetts might have been used, and it just happened to have the exact weight as a State quarter.>> The US has not made coins for other countries since 1984 except for he 2 Kroner Leif Ericson commemorative in 2000. That planchet would have been a much different size.
