pyrobor Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 I received this in change today. It's a 2006 Colorado State quarter with a "P" mint mark. It is NOT a clad quarter and lacks the nickel-copper-nickel layers typical of a standard strike coin. The only modern silver quarters minted are the silver proof and they are only minted at the San Francisco mint. I don't know if this would count as an error coin or what. If this is silver, why was there a silver planchet in a mint that doesn't mint in silver? In that case, could this be a clad coin missing the copper component? Under magnification, the rim doesn't appear to have been tampered with, e.g. plated, or otherwise altered. I will weigh the coin later this week to see how it's weight compares to a regular clad and to a silver proof. Any input would greatly help. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedeadpoint Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Hmmm. Interesting. I wouldn't have noticed that with all the quarters I go through. I bet someone thinly-plated it because I think I see some discolorations on the rim. But I know next to nothing. Let's see what everyone else says. Welcome to coinpeople! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrobor Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Hmmm. Interesting. I wouldn't have noticed that with all the quarters I go through. I bet someone thinly-plated it because I think I see some discolorations on the rim. But I know next to nothing. Let's see what everyone else says.Welcome to coinpeople! Under magnification, the rimmings (or grooves) don't appear filled in as if it was plated. I don't know if plating would fill in the grooves any, but they appear untampered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vfox Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Looks like one of those electro-plated platinum (which really contained NO platinum btw haha) quarters that they sold on QVC, it's a 1/100 of a mm thick layer of metal over a normal coin. The only other possibilites are of course, silver, and the other is a missing clad layer on a just nickel planchet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thedeadpoint Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 I still stick with my plated conjecture. As Vfox noted, the plating is very thin and wouldn't be noticed by filling in grooves or letters. Why would someone do this? I don't know. Maybe for a chemistry experiment. I do not think it is another metal. I am assuming that the dies striking clad quarters need higher pressures to give the coin full relief than dies striking silver quarters (because of the hardnesses of the respective coinage metals). Therefore, if this were silver, I think you would see some weird deformation patterns because of the higher-than-needed striking pressures. Only three easy methods can answer your question: 1) get a cross-section of the coin. cut it in half! 2) drop the coin and listen for the same resonance that a true clad quarter has 3) weigh the coin vs. a clad quarter. On coinpeople.com, I recently saw someone's ghetto balance: a popsicle-stick see-saw with a number 2 pencil as the fulcrum. Tape each coin to an end of the popsicle stick. If you cannot balance it, then there is a significant weight difference. You have yourself an oddity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrobor Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 I still stick with my plated conjecture. As Vfox noted, the plating is very thin and wouldn't be noticed by filling in grooves or letters. Why would someone do this? I don't know. Maybe for a chemistry experiment. I do not think it is another metal. I am assuming that the dies striking clad quarters need higher pressures to give the coin full relief than dies striking silver quarters (because of the hardnesses of the respective coinage metals). Therefore, if this were silver, I think you would see some weird deformation patterns because of the higher-than-needed striking pressures. Only three easy methods can answer your question: 1) get a cross-section of the coin. cut it in half! 2) drop the coin and listen for the same resonance that a true clad quarter has 3) weigh the coin vs. a clad quarter. On coinpeople.com, I recently saw someone's ghetto balance: a popsicle-stick see-saw with a number 2 pencil as the fulcrum. Tape each coin to an end of the popsicle stick. If you cannot balance it, then there is a significant weight difference. You have yourself an oddity. 1) if it is 1 in a million, cutting it in half would negate any value it may have. 2) I did a drop test with a clad colorado quarter, as well as a 1961 silver one I had lying around. The silver one has a slightly higher tone than the clad one. My odd one has a pitch inbetween the clad and silver. 3) The weighing, my college chem lab has a scale that measures to the 0.0001 gram (ten thousandths of a gram). On Monday or Wednesday I'll weigh it as well as regularu cald ones and silver ones and post the weights. I know the typical silver quarter is about .6 grams heavier than clad, so the weight should be definetive about plating vs. different planchet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pyrobor Posted January 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Something my grandfather alerted me of (he's an avid collector, btw), that the Philly mint mints coinage for may various countries. So, there is always the possibility that it is a foreign planchet... If I sent it to PCGS, and had it graded, would they be any help, or just a waste of money in this case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gxseries Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Weigh it first before putting all your eggs in one basket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stilson Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 You might also check for a local coin show or shop and see if they can help. (Scales etc.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burks Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Please do weigh it and let us know the results. I've done the same thing but with 1982 cents before. TA gave me one strange look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccg Posted January 28, 2007 Report Share Posted January 28, 2007 Looks plated to me. On the pic of the edge, the right side is darker, suggesting a copper layer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
28Plain Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Something my grandfather alerted me of (he's an avid collector, btw), that the Philly mint mints coinage for may various countries. So, there is always the possibility that it is a foreign planchet... If I sent it to PCGS, and had it graded, would they be any help, or just a waste of money in this case? I would send it to NGC if you're more concerned with learning what you actually have there. PCGS is best if you want to sell it on ebay, but their graders can't tell AU58 from MS63, original BU from dipped, or even mutilated from Mint State, so I wouldn't depend on them to tell me whether the coin is a wrong metal strike or plated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDJMSP Posted February 6, 2007 Report Share Posted February 6, 2007 I received this in change today. It's a 2006 Colorado State quarter with a "P" mint mark. It is NOT a clad quarter and lacks the nickel-copper-nickel layers typical of a standard strike coin. The only modern silver quarters minted are the silver proof and they are only minted at the San Francisco mint. I don't know if this would count as an error coin or what. If this is silver, why was there a silver planchet in a mint that doesn't mint in silver? In that case, could this be a clad coin missing the copper component? Under magnification, the rim doesn't appear to have been tampered with, e.g. plated, or otherwise altered. I will weigh the coin later this week to see how it's weight compares to a regular clad and to a silver proof. Any input would greatly help. Thanks. What you have is not that uncommon - it is an ordinary quarter. What makes it look different is that the cladding has been pushed down over the edge when the planchet was cut and thus the cladding covers up the inner copper layer. Which of course makes it look like it isn't a clad quarter, but trust me, it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Becky Posted February 7, 2007 Report Share Posted February 7, 2007 I'm totally with GDJMSP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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