1979 Jefferson Minted In Silver?

I'm curious, what does silver feel like? I find that most metals feel the same, hard and cold to the touch. Some lead alloys can have a slightly greasy or oily feel to them. I think bismuth does as well.

So the next question would be: 'What stock material at the mint is that thickness of a nickel that is silver?' Nothing. So how could a nickel be struck on a silver planchet?

I don't think anyone is trying to make you feel stupid. I think you are being a tad sensitive. The cup holder comment wasn't sarcastic, but was saying that the coin looks like one that has sat in a cup holder and been soaked in soda / coffee / whatever and so environmentally discolored. We commonly see coins here that people think are special that turn out to be Dryer Coins (coins that have spent time in a commercial clothes dryer and now heve a turned up edge), dug coins from metal detecting that are now an unusual color, acid dipped coins with the metal eaten out of the center from high school experiments, plated coins from aftermarket sellers or high school experiments or vise job coins (where someone pressed two or more coins together in a vise to make a coin look doublestruck. People are trying to ask you the questions needed to determine what you might have.

a quick test you can do, without damaging the coin, is to try the ice melt theory, take another similar nickel, and the nickel in question, and place approximately the same size piece of ice on each nickel.. the nickel in question if silver should melt much faster, than the regular nickel.

So if we were to blindfold you and have you touch a piece of metal you could tell what it was? WOW!



Long half hour.



The San Francisco mint strickes all the proof coins and the also struck the Unc 40% silver Bicentennial coins. Sometimes planchets get rejected for not being up to quality standards for the proof coins. These accumulate and eventually San Francisco ships them to Denver to be used for business strikes. The silver planchets (40% or 90%) are not supposed to be shipped but apparently a few got mixed in with the coppernickel clad rejects and that is where the 1974 D and 1977 D 40% silver coins came from. The WAS a potential source for the planchets. Your nickel is a 1979. You don't mention a mintmark so I am going to guess it is from Philadelphia. I'm not sure but I believe the last silver coin that Philadelphia had struck was in 1966, and that was in a different building. I don't know where a silver planchet could have come from.

how about a pic of the other side , as one that has posted coins that I thought might of been something other then it was, I see how you can get upset, but you came here to ask , and didn't like what you heard .you can always go to a coin dealer that can see it in hand, or see if there is a coin club near you. ps. coop does have a lot to help us with. he is like a coin god , so don't take stuff to heart , you can learn a lot here, and hope to see more of your finds.good luck and happy hunting.

Forgot the back of the 1079

@rj67, thank you for jogging our memory. We get a large number of new coins posted each day and so ones from a month ago pretty quickly fall off of my radar. I had suggested to the OP that he or she get an XRF to non-destructively determine the alloy. Later, the wolf recommend an ice test. The OP seemed to say that he or she would do both of these. The new pics though look more like an acid or corrosive liquid was dabbed on several coins, including that '79. Without more information about what was done, I'm just not sure how to respond.