@hk, first welcome to CCF. Second, while nickle-plating is the most likely explanation, I'm wondering about your comment that this quarter is lighter than normal. Can you please post the weight? Thx.
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I just used a food scale at work. A regular quarter with copper shows 6g and this one shows 5g. It feels lighter to hold, and idk if I trust the scale. But it does stick to a magnet where the regular quarter doesn't.
A Canadian quarter weighs 4.4 grams and has a smaller diameter of 23.88 mm. If one was struck at a US Mint, it would show some signs of spreading to fill the larger collar and not have full rims.
Quote: A Canadian quarter weighs 4.4 grams and has a smaller diameter of 23.88 mm. If one was struck at a US Mint, it would show some signs of spreading to fill the larger collar and not have full rims.
If this were struck on a 1968-1999 nickel twenty-five cent planchet, the diameter would still be 23.88 mm, but the weight would be 5.05 g. The coin would be magnetic, but less strongly so than the plated steel coinage of 2000-date.
That said, the improbability would be even greater than for a contemporary plated steel planchet: 1. There would still be the spreading that you correctly noted was missing on this coin. 2. Like you, I fail to see how any Canadian planchet could make its way into the Denver mint. 3. A nickel twenty-five cent planchet would have been more than a decade out of time when this coin was struck. No reasonable explanation could cover this.
I just don't see a Canadian explanation for this one.
Eh, I'm not married to it being Canadian. It was just an idea someone posed to me on Reddit. I'm just super confused by it. When holding it, you can feel the difference between it and a standard copper plated US Quarter. It feels like when you hold a Canadian quarter (which isn't only a comparison so the two you can imagine what I'm feeling holding it).
It just confuses me and I wish I knew what it was. If it came apart it would make sense that it's a trick coin, but it's solid. It sounds different when dropping it on a table, but not like when you drop silver.
1. If I can find one! The one at work is for the guys to weigh food for "gains" so it's just a simple one. But if I can find someone who has one I definitely will!!
2. Not sure what you mean? When I drop it, it sounds different than both a regular copper filled quarter AND a silver quarter.
Specific gravity measures the density of the coin. It requires a digital scale with at least two decimal places of accuracy, a plastic cup, water, and dental floss. (Yes, indeed. Bear with me.)
1. Zero the scale. 2. Weigh the coin when it is dry. This number will become the numerator in the fraction. 3. Fill the cup with enough water so that the coin can be covered standing up, when it is suspended in the water. 4. Tie the dental floss around the coin so that the coin won't slip out of the loop of the floss. Leave enough floss so you can dangle the coin in the water, fully submerged but not touching the sides or bottom. 5. Place the plastic cup with water on the scale. 6. Zero the scale. (This is essential) 7. Dangle the coin in the water, submerged, not touching the sides or bottom of the cup. The measurement will become the denominator of the fraction.
The rest is math: the dry weight (numerator) divided by the submerged measurement (denominator) = specific gravity of the coin.
Specific gravity does not depend on the size or denomination of the coin. It measures the relative density of the composition. If my arithmetic is correct, specific gravity of any copper-nickel clad US coin should be very close to 8.92.
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Posted 07/04/2018 2:59 pm
to CCF. Nickel plated would be my guess. No way for a Canadian planchet to end up in the US mint.
If this were struck on a 1968-1999 nickel twenty-five cent planchet, the diameter would still be 23.88 mm, but the weight would be 5.05 g. The coin would be magnetic, but less strongly so than the plated steel coinage of 2000-date.
