I am some-what of a amature to all of you but how do u tell a partly silver half dollar from a regular? talking about like 1980s to 2005
My only guess would be to compare them with the drop test, and look at their sides and look at the metals.
You can look it up in the 2005 Red Book, among other places. Page 178 - 179, for example, shows the composition of Kennedy half dollars from 1964-2005.
Welcome to the forum. I did a quick search here and found many threads on silver coins vs clad coins. Here is 1 thread you can read on dimes for example: http://www.cointalk.org/showthread.php?t=5272&highlight=silver+clad+coins If you type "silver clad coins" in the upper right box that says "search this thread", you will get hits on this topic and subject that might help or give you even more info..I also agree about the red book. That book will give you basic compositions of all us coins.
Spider - Is this what you are asking ? Say you have 2 half dollars in hand - one of them is silver clad the other is not. Are you asking how to tell them apart ? If so, the only way I know to do it is to weigh them. The silver clad issues are 11.50 gm - the clad issues are 11.34. BTW - other than Silver Proof issues, the last half dollar with silver in it was the 1976. The others were the '65 through '70.
How about by the date, Silver clad Kennedies were only minted from 1965 to 1970 after that they went to the modern coin with no precious metals included. The only ones of the independence hall Bicentennial halfs that will contain silver will be proofs and have an S mint mark Keep in mind that Nickel clad half proofs will also have an S mint mark,,but they should be easily distinguished from the reeded edge, the silver clad should not show a copper layer Rick
Small mistake there Metalman - the '76 silver clad half was issued in UNC and Proof, both with an S mint mark.
GD Your right ,,They in fact were also issued as a circulation coin, approxamately 11,000,000 of them thanks for correcting my oversight. Rick
