Silver or clad

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Well, if you have reason to believe that you found one of ten pieces that were struck as a trial in silver, then I suppose you could go by weight. A normal copper clad would weigh 22.68 grams, a silver clad would weigh 24.59 grams.

What I meant to say was that there were no general circulation strikes made in 1974, in Denver, in silver clad. There were 45.5 million struck in copper-nickel clad.

But let me say this, if you do by some chance have one that is a trial piece, out of silver, then I would hang on to it. If only ten pieces exist, then 1 to 3 thousand seems terrifically undervalued.
 

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It would be nice to have stumbled on a rare one but I don't think so. I assume the special silver ones would be much different in appearance, shinier. Is that true?
 

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Look at the edge of the coin, if its solid silver color its silver, if it has a line of copper in it then its clad :) That would be cool if it was silver :o
 

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The 90% silver are not banded on the side like the clad, but the 40% still are. It could look like clad from the edge and still be the 1 in 10 40% silver you mention. As mentioned above, weigh it if you want to know for sure.
 

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Oh yea, forgot it was only 40% :-\ most scales are not accurate enough to tell the difference unless you have a triple beam balance or a good digi.
 

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OK, curiosity got the best of me, so I had to go and dig out my assorted "not worth putting in a folder" coins, LOL! I got a 1968 Kennedy half that is 40% clad out and checked the edge. The bands are noticeable, but much greyer than a copper nickel clad, so that is one way to tell, possibly. Weight would probablt be the best way, though, and I think you can pick up a cheap set of gunpowder scales for about 20 bucks, although you'd have to convert grains to grams, and they may not even go that high. This may sound weird, but maybe even check the head shops in your town. I am sure they would have gram scales, as most dopers sell their stuff by the gram.
Always handy to have a set of small scales around anyways, especially if you do any panning or dredging. checking coin weights would be a plus, and even a good way to detect a counterfeit, if you ever decide to any investing in coins.
 

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Your options include:

1- Take the coin to a reputable coin dealer. Free to nominal charge.

2- Submit the coin to a reputable coin grading service. This will cost you several times the value of the coin (unless you have that one in 4,551,700 40% silver).

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about 90% silver, 40% silver and clad coinage. A 90% silver coin is 90% silver and 10% copper and is uniform throughout the piece. A 40% silver coin has outer layers of 80% silver/20% copper and an inner core of 20.9% silver/79.1% copper giving a 40% overall silver content. A clad coin has outer layers of 75% copper/25% nickel and an inner core of pure copper. If you know what to look for you should be able to tell at a glance of the coin's edge what type of coin you have (tough to do with a slabbed coin).
 

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If you are looking at a roll of half dollars from the side, you can usually guess which ones are 40% from the depth of the banding as klaatu mentions. The edges on most all clad are very inconsistant. If you roll the coins in your hand, you can also watch them change how thick the band looks from the side. I wouldn't use that as a reliable method to determine a clad vs 40% in a case like this.

Thinking about other ways to tell however, silver is going to be a better conductor with less resistance, maybe with a good DVOM, you could tell the difference accurately.
 

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Would you be able to hear the differance??I noticed with,what I think are silver quarters,when I put a couple other coins in my hand with it and shake them together they make a totally different sound.The non silver quarters are a higher pitch.NATE
 

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Clad means "layered" basically. check the edge of a standard quarter. You'll see a copper looking inner core with an outer core of mostly nickel. Its two different metals bonded together in sheets before the coin blanks (called planchets) were punched out. As opposed to a solid coin, which is the same material throughout the thickness of it.

I know the techies will get me on this, LOL! I like to try and use laymans terms most of the time, if its unclear I'm sure someone will jump in with more.
 

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Jeffro is close.

'Clad' is in the dictionary and is not specific to coins. One definitiion is "to cover (a metal) with another metal by bonding". For coins the definition is "consisting of outer layers of one metal bonded to a core of a different metal".

Coinage came about as a way to have a consistant medium of exchange of known values. Precious metals (gold, silver, copper, etc.) of specific weight and fineness were stamped with an image (e.g., the Emperor). If someone presented a gold coin you felt reasonably confident it contained a certain amount of gold. (That is a lot easier than having to weight gold dust or nuggets for every transaction.) Even into modern times our coins contained precious metals. People felt confident that there was an inherent value in their money; a silver dollar contained $1 of silver and a $5 gold piece contained $5 of gold.

Unfortunately, inflation made the precious metal in coins more valuable than the face value of the coins. In the 19th century the US Mint adjusted the weight of silver coins several times as the price of silver rose and fell (that's what those arrows beside the date of some years signifies). Large cents were replaced with small cents when the price of copper made it cost more to make a cent than its face value.

1965 saw the end of US silver coinage. The mint came up with a cupro-nickel (copper and nickel) design with 75% copper and 25% nickel faces bonded to a core of pure copper. This gave a silverish looking coin that weighs reasonably close to the silver version. This is a clad coin. Look at the edge of a clad coin and you will see a copper core sandwiched between the silverish surfaces. Compare that with a pre-1965 silver coin.

So, a clad coin consists of 3 layers - two outer surfaces of one metal mixture bonded to an inner core of another metal.

Nickel is a much harder metal than silver so modern clad coins wear much slower than silver coins. Compare a 1965 quarter with a Standing Liberty quarter found in change 40 years ago - the 1965 quarter today will grade maybe VG-10 to F-12 after 40 years of circulation where the SL quarter in 1965 would grade AG-3 or less with very little detail remaining after 40 years of circulation. I have a 1994 Kennedy half that I have carried in my pocket for over 11 years and it is amazing how little wear it shows after so much "use".

Hope this helps to understand what a clad coin is.
 

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bobinsd said:
I have a 1974D Ike dollar in a pliofilm with a red sealed edge.? How do I tell if it is "40% silver" or clad? There is apparently a significant difference in collectability.

Sorry, I'm new to this.
Thanks.
Hello!

My 2004 Red Book states; " A few of the 1974D and the 1977D dollars in silver clad composition were made in error".

Here is a link for you to read about it.

http://www.fredweinberg.com/inventory/item.asp?ID=3795

I would double check that one, a certified one in Mint State 60 lists for $5,000.

HH and good luck!

T.G.Creations
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