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What is the purity of the silver layers in 40% Kennedy halves?
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<p>[QUOTE="CaptHenway, post: 7567953, member: 13813"]A fine question worthy of an answer, but I'm not sure there is one. My answer was based upon the Coin World Almanac, which I was a contributor to when I worked for Coin World back in the 1970's, though that particular chart of U.S. coin specifications had been prepared by Ed Fleischmann for the Collector's Clearinghouse page long before the Almanac was published.</p><p><br /></p><p>I worked for Ed, and he was fairly meticulous about such things, but I do not know where he got that specific percentage. The 1971 Mint Report is useless; it gives the percentage of the core as "approximately 20%," which only guarantees that the percentage is not precisely 20%.</p><p><br /></p><p>If the thicknesses of the three clad layers are proportioned 1-4-1 as were the copper-nickel clad coins of the era, then the two 80% clad layers together weigh 3.833295 grams and the core weighs 7.666705 grams. The two 80% silver clad layers would contain 3..066636 grams of silver. At .200 fine the core would contain 1.533341 grams of silver. Combined they would contain 4.599977 grams of silver, approximately 11.50 grams gross weight times .400 fine which equals 4.600 grams net silver content.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, upon further review, I would say that "approximately 20%" figure is closer, but it is never going to be precise[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="CaptHenway, post: 7567953, member: 13813"]A fine question worthy of an answer, but I'm not sure there is one. My answer was based upon the Coin World Almanac, which I was a contributor to when I worked for Coin World back in the 1970's, though that particular chart of U.S. coin specifications had been prepared by Ed Fleischmann for the Collector's Clearinghouse page long before the Almanac was published. I worked for Ed, and he was fairly meticulous about such things, but I do not know where he got that specific percentage. The 1971 Mint Report is useless; it gives the percentage of the core as "approximately 20%," which only guarantees that the percentage is not precisely 20%. If the thicknesses of the three clad layers are proportioned 1-4-1 as were the copper-nickel clad coins of the era, then the two 80% clad layers together weigh 3.833295 grams and the core weighs 7.666705 grams. The two 80% silver clad layers would contain 3..066636 grams of silver. At .200 fine the core would contain 1.533341 grams of silver. Combined they would contain 4.599977 grams of silver, approximately 11.50 grams gross weight times .400 fine which equals 4.600 grams net silver content. So, upon further review, I would say that "approximately 20%" figure is closer, but it is never going to be precise[/QUOTE]
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What is the purity of the silver layers in 40% Kennedy halves?
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