First of all, I hate Ike's: there are way too many things to keep track of for such a short series. That being said, a friend of mine showed me this Ike bicentennial. From my understanding all silver Ike's were produced at San Francisco. This one appears to be a silver bicentennial with no mint mark. Am I missing something here?
Looks copper clad to me. It's best to get an accurate weight. Silver clad is 24.59g vs 22.68g for copper clad.
My scale shows it to weigh 23.12g...what do you make of that? Just to make sure it wasn't my scale I weighed a Morgan and the weight came out exactly correct.
In the book, The Authoritative Reference of Eisenhower Dollars by Wexler/Crawford/Flynn there is a story related by Tom DeLorey about the 1976 "No S" Proof Bicentennial which was struck by the Philly Mint and part of the Bicentennial Sets that were presented to the three designers and were displayed at the 1974 ANA Convention in Bal Harbour, Florida Eventually, these sets were supposedly returned to the Mint to be exchanged for the sets that were produced by the San Francisco Mint, but in 1977, it appeared that one of the Ike dollars turned up in a department store in Washington, DC. Is it possible that an uncirculated Ike was struck on a proof planchet by the Philly Mint? Perhaps you should contact Tom DeLorey and allow him to inspect the coin. Chris PS. Your photo showing the edge of the coin made me cringe. I hate to find fingerprints on any coin.
If this is/was a proof coin it's been through the wringer but your ppoint is still well taken. I did err on that part and for that you have my apologies.
I'm not suggesting that it is a proof coin. I'm suggesting that a silver proof planchet left over at the Philly Mint may have been thrown into a batch of clad planchets and struck with circulation dies. Remember, proofs are struck twice and circulation coins are struck only once. Don't worry about the fingerprints, but if you want to take a photo of the edge of a coin, you can use the plastic tongs that are often used for dipping coins. They are available at JP's Corner. Chris
ah ok I get what you're saying. That begs the question as to why a proof planchet would even be at the Philly mint seeing as all the proof Ike's were made in SF.
The weight given for this coin is within the tolerance range fo a coppernickel clad Ike 22.68 grams +/- .907 grams. Maximum weight would be 23.58 grams. It is NOT within the range for a 40% silver clad Ike. 24.59 grams +/- .984 grams. Minimum weight 23.61 grams. It is almost certainly a plated coppernickel clad dollar.
Judging from the photographs, it appears as if the OP's coin had been gold plated at one point in time and that plating has worn off on the high points but not the reeding. The color in the photograph screan CnClad to me. As for the weight tolerances quoted by Conder, he is absolutely correct. For a perfect world that is as I have a 1973-S 40% Silver coin which weighs in at 23.1 grams which I consider to be the low end of the spectrum for 40% Silver Clad coins. It's a weakly struck coin due to the thin planchet which is not that uncommon. On the same token, I also have a 1973-S 40% Clad coin that weighs in at 25.3 grams which is not particularly high but in comparison with the "lightweight" it is a measurable amount. BTW, plating Eisenhower Dollars in gold was quite common back in the day as folks could sell them for a profit to the non-numismatic minions. I've seen adverts with a $3.00 sell price.
As I stated in my previous post, there actually were some sets of proof Bicentennials struck by the Philly Mint as presentation pieces at the ANA Convention in Bal Harbour, FL (August 1974) for the designers of the three different reverses (dollar, half & quarter) but these were supposed to have been exchanged for the clad proofs once production started in San Francisco. Chris
And they still pop up on occasion at the local bank. My favorite teller always saves them for me... then they fly off my table at the local flea market for $5 each.:yes:
