Found in a nickel roll this morning . . . thoughts? I'm sure it's not worth anything other than face value but I'm not even sure it's a real coin. Sounds like a nickel when dropped on my desk though.
Your Nickel is real.. But it was plated gold. They do this as a novelty (Not the US Mint) https://www.thepatrioticmint.com/20...-Dz2Raihq56dpOlYE4fxzEA2eS9qbEVQaAnQPEALw_wcB
…...and 1999 happened to be the first year of the State Quarter program if that means anything. Chris
Not at all.. Unfortunately people purchase these plated coins which are actually damaged thinking they have value or that they will have a premium in the future.. Waste of money!
If I remember correctly, Mike Meezak, the famous TV hawker of overpriced coins made himself a tidy fortune back in the height of the state quarter campaign... I believe his shtick was along the lines of sending him a big cash outlay and you would receive as they were issued a mint state Philly and San Fran quarter... AND a 24 carat gold plated state quarter... I know for years I would run into the gold plated quarters from time to time in my pocket change..... Once the novelty wears off, these type things just find their way back into circulation. What else ya gonna do with em when the famous "red oak display box" wears out?
Personally, I would say that it is a great find. That bit of gold aught to make the piece worth at least 25 cents in my opinion. Mabye 50. This is just my two cents tough, nice find though!
It's a nickel but I would save it in a flip anyway because it's still a gold plated curiosity/ conversation piece. The value of the plating prob isn't even 1 cent worth of gold. The amount of gold atoms used in the plating is incredibly small.
The problem is something like a gold plated coin or a vile of gold actually contain almost no gold value (cents, not dollars worth). However, obtaining one will always cost way more than the gold value. It is a novelty, but a novelty that would cost you at least a couple dollars. So have fun with the gold plated coin you got for only 5 cents that you can carry around or leave on your desk to fiddle with while you're on cointalk.
Better yet, super-glue it in a place where you can watch people try to pick up this “treasure”. At least 5 cents worth of entertainment. More, if you record the action.
just peruse this ... and it's only *ONE* place of many that plates coins, medals, etc. to resell to the public. https://www.merrickmint.com/24k-gold-plated-coins.html?limit=64 sooner or later when the owners realize their coins are only worth face value, the coins end up in circulation. And thus someone finds it thinking it's a mint error worth $$ ... then learn .. and it ends up back in circulation. And the circle of "million dollar mint error" continues ....
The gold plating is so thin that the value is very low. I would save it just for the novelty and looks, and heck, it only cost a nickel. You cant lose.
at one time I figured this out as i'm sure it's not more than decorate gold plating/flash, which in itself is designated at .175 microns thick (that's 7 micro inches) up to .381 microns which is 0.000015 of an inch (15 millionths of an inch thick) I'm assuming the thinner version was used. which would be what ... around 3 milligrams for a quarter ?? since there are 1,000 milligrams in a gram, and a gram of gold is about $42.50 shift the decimal place over 3 ... and you get virtually nothing. So to extract the gold from those it would cost more than the recovery costs. don't quote the numbers .. I just threw them together quickly but should be generally in the ballpark. edit: make a quick change to the above. a gold flash is normally 10k. So adjust the numbers for a 24k flash and you'll have a bit more money in your pocket. edit again: one place that does gold plate pennies showed this equation: A one mil thickness of 24K gold plate will weight 0.316 grams per square inch. The surface area of a US penny is ~0.88 square inches. Therefore - 20pennies * 0.88 in2/penny * 0.316 grams 24K gold/in2/mil thickness * 7mil thickness = 38.93 grams 24K gold for 20 pennies. Or 1.9465 gr per penny for a THICK gold plate. I'm unsure if that is for hardened or softened gold, and since it's not jewelry I'm sure they are probably a bit more stingy on the thickness.
I like the idea of gold plating, as it makes cheap things look nice" but it wears very easily. Then its too unattractive to wear I wont buy it, even if its gold over silver, because of this It is only in rare instances, such as a racketeer nickel, that I would buy. Although it may be a viable option if you wanted to fill in expansive gaps in your collection with copies. Even so, I would rather use the money for 10 good fakes to buy one good real coin. Gold plating usually commands a premium far above its pitiful actual value anyway.
