Aluminum Quarter ??? 1999 Delaware ? What Is This?

Hi All,

So, I was looking through a bank roll of quarters and noticed this really strange quarter.

It's a 1999 Delaware P Quarter and looks EXACTLY like any other 1999 Delaware P Quarter except that it feels lighter, it is very shiny, and the edge has no copper in it at all.

I only have a junky mail scale that weighs in grams but not decimal grams. It shows the weight as 5 grams (whereas a regular quarter weighs in as
6 grams).

Here are pictures. The quarter in question is on the RIGHT - on the left is a real one for comparison. The pictures were taken with my crappy phone camera without flash (flash whited out everything).

PS - Is there something wrong with the website? It's acting strange on my computer.

 

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You scale isn't accurate enough, but it is good enough to know it isn't aluminum. However it isn't accurate enough to tell whether or not it is just a plated quarter, which it probably is.

 

I will take it to a jeweler one of these days to get an accurate weight.

What is a "plated quarter"?

 

I have some that were plated with a very thin layer of Platinum. This may be what you have.

 

Why would anyone plate a quarter with Platinum, which is worth a LOT more than Nickel or Copper?

And wouldn't that make the weight higher, with MORE weight due to the additional plating? While this coin weighs LESS than a regular quarter.

 

The amount of platinum used to plate the coin would be worth at most a couple of cents. It's a very thin layer. For the same reason, it wouldn't change the weight enough to measure.

If your scale only measures to the nearest gram, it's probably not useful for figuring out what's going on with this coin. I can guarantee it's not aluminum, though; aluminum has less than a third the density of copper or copper-nickel, so it would weigh less than two grams if it were made of aluminum.

 

I will bring it to a jeweler when I can and get an accurate weight and post it when I do.

But who exactly was/is plating quarters in platinum?

Just melting the platinum to be able to apply the plating takes serious effort, as it takes a whole lot of heat to melt platinum, more than most common metals. Then there is containing it. Then to plate it so thinly that all features remain in tact on the coin, all seems to require a lot of skill and effort.

So, who is putting in all this effort, with all this skill, plating quarters in platinum, and why would they do it?

 

They sold them as novelties along with gold plated ones. Like @-jeffB said it is a very thin coating.

 

Plating is done with electricity "ELP" not with hot molten metal. Just like Copper plated cents because zinc melts at a lower temperature than copper.

 

If it weighs less it could be a thinly rolled planchet,
but the damage from the plating destroys any possible value.
It's not aluminum. That is 100% impossible.

 

I say you have something, put it in your pocket, you know it wasent produced by the mint.

 

lets get back to basics
, don't need to weigh anything, its not valid currency.

 

Were these REAL quarters plated in Platinum? Or fake quarters plated in Platinum?

 

Interesting! I have to find a "For Dummies" explanation of how that works.

 

Real quarters.

 

Real. That is interesting!

I just Googled the words from your picture. Seems there are lots of these sold in Mint Sets as collectors items. The sets come with a COA and at the bottom is a phone number 800-604-2761 which I called - it's the Cable Shopping Network.

Do you know if people buy these loose for more than $0.25 ?

 

Of course it is.

 

food sence you try harder, to sell us that crap

 

sorry Goodsence

 

The only ones that sold on eBay were Uncirculated. Mine is clearly circulated.

edited B/S/T not allowed in general forums