I dug some change from my pocket today and heard what sounded as if I had a silver coin in there, but when I checked , all that I had were clad quarters. the one in question is a 1974 and it is definately clad. That ringing sound is very similar to the way a 90% silver one sounds when dropped on a table, but not quite, and it definately rings different than other clad quarters do, Any thoughts on this?
I had the same thing happen to me except it was a 1965 clad quarter. However, I am just assuming its solely clad
I thought maybe the clad composition could be a little different in places on the planchets. I was really hoping it was silver when I first heard it. It's always nice to get a little bonus in pocket change. I would imagine that a 1965 quarter struck on a silver planchet would be quite the error. I will weigh it tomorrow and post the results.
Doug, I think you misunderstood me. The '74 I have is definately clad, no question about it. When Reaper posted about a similar thing with a '65 he had, I was saying that a '65 struck on silver would be one hell of an error to have. It would even seem actually possible with a '65 because of the changeover to clad, JMO. In 1974, definately no chance.
I believe there are recorded examples of 1965 quarters struck on silver planchets, at least according to "Strike it Rich".
There is a possibility this coin could have just been post-mint heat treated, probably cooled extremely fast. If it's weight checks out, this would be a likely explanation.
Not to derail the thread any, but the interesting part about my example is it weighs in at 5.8g which, according to the Redbook, is the weight of the bicentennial silver clad coinage. This is odd because it would match his 1974 closer than my 1965. Mine could be clad, but in 1965, I would expect a silver planchet rather than a silver-clad one.
Is the coin in question a 1974, or a 1974-D? I don't think there is any chance of a 1974 quarter being struck of a silver planchet but there IS a very slight chance that a 74-D quarter could be struck on a 40% silver planchet.
The coin weighs just under 5 grams and it shows plenty of wear. I also weighed a state quarter and it was between 5.6 and 5.7 grams. Conder, it is a 1974, and definitely clad. Will post some pics if I can get a decent shot of it.
Only thing i can assume is that is is struck on a planchet punched from rolled thin strip. I considered if it might be punched from dime stock strip but it is too heavy for that. (Quarter on dime stock would weigh 4.18 grams)
