Well, I finally got around to checking my late Kennedy clad & silver proof coins. I put a Kleenex over them, and to my amazment the silver one's looked white. The clad one's, you couldn't see at all. Thanks for your help guy's..
Don't thank me, thank Conder101. I got that bit of knowledge from him many years ago on the old Coin World forum.
Seems to be an old trick that many don't know. I local dealer taught me this years ago and I share it whenever possible with customers.
If the Kleenex is used to determine if the coin is silver or not, you don;t need it. Just look at the coin. Silver looks a lot different than the base metal version. It's brighter.
If you place a silver coin and a clad coin side by side and cover them with a Kleenex - the silver coin will show up as whiter. It is an easy way to tell one from the other.
Because there are times when the silver colored CU cladding is pushed down over the edge covering all of the copper core. There have been a great many posts on this forum with people asking if their post '64 coin is silver because they can't see any copper core on the edge. This test will answer that question quickly and easily.
It's also a good way to test to make sure no one has replaced the silver proofs in a set (album or proof set) without opening it up and removing the coins. Swapping the coins in something like a 1999 or 2001 silver proof set with clad coins is a good scam. Or buy a common post 1999 silver set on eBay and an empty 1999 or 2001 silver proof set box, put the clad 1999 or 2001 coins in the holder and slip them into the box and sell on eBay, or flea market, maybe even at a coin show. Get the cash and disappear. The tissue paper is a quick, cheap, and conclusive test. After all if you are buying a set from someone they might take umbridge if you started opening it up and popping the coins out of the set.
