Well im new to this whole coin business, but i found a JFK 1966 half dollar in my grandfathers coins (was in a brown coin sleeve - so near mint) and it seems to have rust marks or some sort of browning along the outside of the coin. I know its probably nothing, but i was just curious to what it was. Anyone know? I have a poor quality Digi cam photo below... http://users.on.net/~smwiles/sidejfk.jpg http://users.on.net/~smwiles/backjfk.jpg http://users.on.net/~smwiles/frontjfk.jpg
Well, we can't see much in the pictures but I'll bet you're seeing the copper layer at the center. They stopped minting solid silver coins in 1964. The half-dollars were minted from silver-clad copper planchets from 1965 until 1970.
on the http://users.on.net/~smwiles/sidejfk.jpg photo you can see how the left side is silver and the right side is brownish, thats not a shadow thats how to coin appears. But i wanted to know if this was from either the way it was stored, handeled, or if its just something that happens to some coins. I also have no experience with US coins as i was born in England and currently reside in Australia. This is perhaps the only US coin i have seen in the flesh So i dont know is this is common with coins that are in curculation or otherwise. **Edit i seee what you mean now, and i think you might be right
I understand and see what you mean now. I still think what you are seeing is the inner copper layer which is usually visible around the reeded edge. Normally the copper is visible all the way around the edge of the coin and usually at the center, showing three distinct layers, two silver and one copper but I have some post-1964 coins where the copper layer is not visible at all and have seem some where the layers don't appear to be even. I think that is what has happened with your coin. I'll try to take a pic of a recent coin showing what I mean.
What you're seeing is the copper. As WaA140 said, the coin was made with a layer of silver clad over top of a layer of copper which was over top of another layer of silver. So that brownish color you see is the copper. It is normal for it to show through that way.
Hey, guys, I might well be wrong here, but I really think that the clad 40% JFKs do not have a copper center, but a silver alloy center. I always figgered that it was something like 90% silver on the outside and 20% silver on the inside and it averaged out to 40%. Anyone else with me on this? In any case, I know my JFKs are a silver gray on the edge, not a bright copper color (or not a dark brown when circulated).
