Okay I'm going bonkers. :hammer: I've been looking through all of my quarters and I've noticed that on quarters that if you look on the ridged edge you see where the copper clad and nickel clad combine. On all of my old washington quarters the copper clad is used on the obverse side and the nickel clad is used on the reverse side.. On all the new state quarters it is the exact opposite... The copper clad is on the reverse side and the nickel clad is on the obverse side... HERE IS THE CRAZY PART! I've found an old washington quarter with switched sides.. this quarter (1998-D) has nickel on the obverse side and copper on the reverse side... ??? Is it worth anything, or just a common error ??? :bigeyes:
Welcome to the neighborhood! Copper represents the core of the clad coins, and all you are seeing on most is simply due to the thin layer of nickel with copper showing through it when the reeded edge is formed by the collar in the coining chamber. There is no one side which has copper. It is in the center of the coin. I'd like to see photos of the 98-D. If I understand you correctly, it may be missing the clad layer on the reverse. Does the reverse look something like the photo below? Chris
Theres no special way for the copper to be on the obv. or rev edge. Its just like the printing on the edge of the presidential dollars, some are right side up and some are upsidedown. The planchets are not fed into the machine a certain way, its a random feed... Is this what you are speaking of?
Thanks guys! no unfortunately it doesnt have a copper appearance it is still a grey color. Thank-you for the new information. I always assumed it was to pieces of metal smooshed together haha.
It is three pieces of metal "smooshed together". Think of a clad coin like a ham sandwich. The two outer layers (the bread) are cupro-nickel (75% copper and 25% nickel) and the core (the meat) is pure copper. Coin blanks are punched out from a sheet of this material and struck into coins (after a few more steps).
