What years were Eisenhower Dollar Coins made of 40% silver?

I know these were all made for proof sets and none (to my knowledge) were made for general circulation, but has anyone here actually found one of these in general circulation? And, I know the colors of the metals would (should?) look different from copper clad Ikes, but, what years should I be looking for, when hunting for possible silver Ikes when or if I can get Ikes from banks when they are available?

 

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1971-S - 1974-S & 1976-S Unc.

Chris

 

Okay, so it was 1971 through 1976, and all were S's? Do they look that funky color that 40% silver halves look like?

Come to think of it, there were no 1975 quarters, halves or Ikes minted, were there? I thought I heard or read this somewhere. I thought it was because of the Bicentennial. And how come there were no Bicentennial pennies nickels or dimes? I never did get that. Was there a reason?

 

The ones I have are just as bright and shiny as the day they were minted.

I don't know about the cent, nickel & dime, but if I were to guess, it would probably be because they were too small for the dual date.

Chris

 

I found a silver ike at a bank once. Found a clad proof and a 1973 nifc ike today.

 

Holy cow! Sounds like they would be hard to spot! I'll have to be more careful. I think I'd like to buy some that are just the coin outside of the set.

That would be a dumb reason, as I am sure they could have found a way to make it work (maybe put "1776" on the from of the coin and "1976" on the back of the coins) Bicentennial pennies nickels and dimes would have been awesome. Especially, the Bicentennial penny, since it was the only circulating U.S. coin that was not silver at the time. Dang, that would have been a sight to see.

Thanks for the info, Chris!

 

Lucky you. I've never even seen one. Or maybe I have seen one that I did not know was silver.

Whats an "nifc" Ike?

 

Not really as dumb as you might think. For one thing, a design that separated the dates onto both obverse and reverse for the 1c, 5c & 10c would look odd compared to the 25c, 50c & 1$. Besides, if you take a good look at the reverse of the smaller coins, you'd see that there is very little room for the second date without substantially changing the design.

Wrong! The cent wasn't the only non-silver circulating coin at that time. The nickel, dime, quarter, half and dollar were all struck in cupronickel.

Chris

 

nifc - not intended for circulation. The 1973 ike was in mint sets only.

 

So? They still could have changed the designs for that year.

You've got me all wrong on that one. I meant silver-COLORED coins. I guess I should have been more specific about what I meant by "silver coin"

 

heres a silver one in this set http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Silver-Coin-Lot-/271041510888?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item3f1b553de8

 

There were more of these made as business strike coins than there were proof coins. The silver proof examples were sold in faux-wooden cardboard boxes that stored a large plastic holder with faux-gold embossing on the cardboard. The silver business strike examples were sold in a mylar type plastic that had the coin on one end and a blue, plastic government disc on the other side. These were sold in blue, faux-leather envelopes. Both proof and business strike 40% silver Ikes were produced from 1971-1974 and also with the dual date 1776-1976. All had an S mintmark.

The Red Book is an excellent resource for this type of information.

 

I recall as a kid spending these and obtaining them out in the wild. My dad use to give them to us to buy candy or Garbage Pail Kids (oh yeah, the good ol days) at the nearest convenience store.