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 Replies: 6 / Views: 3,021 |
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Valued Member
United States
297 Posts |
*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***How much longer (if at all) will a clad coin wear in circulation vs. a silver coin? I guess the only 2 series you could compare are the Washington quarter and Roosevelt dime as both were minted in both metals. It seems a lot of silver coins such as Mercury dimes, Barber series, and Standing Liberty quarters seem to be worn flat with the rims and reeding gone. So other than factoring in the years and economic circumstances such as hoarding silver in which they originally circulated, the types of fabrics worn by the public at that time, what could be bought with a dime at the time, the amount of smog in the atmosphere, etc if 2 coins of the same design but of different composition went head to head what is the life expectancy before Good or About Good grades developed between teh 2?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2734 Posts |
Every 1965 Quarter and Dime I see in circulation are in at least VG condition with full rims, letters and dates, after 46 years of use.
Compare that to the multitude of AG/G 1930's/40's Quarters that were pulled from regular circulation by the mid-1960's. I have a 1948-D Quarter in AG-3. If it was pulled in 1965, it wore down to AG-3 in only 17 years. A number of my 1964-D's (Dimes, Quarters) are as low as VF grade, and those should not have been in regular circulation for very long.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
It's an interesting question, and a nice reply to,, but the fact is its not the years of supposed circulation,...I've not done the metals hardness test..ROCKWELL standard's, or something like that tests the hardness of any metal, I bring this up as I have a somewhat back round with guns and there harness factors but never applied it to silver or the nickle clad. as they are obviously weaker or softer as it goes... Personally I cant tell you weather nickle is softer than silver, but I suspect silver is softer,, However in either case the coins marks of wear compared to any of its own mint series have there own standards.. In which grades are given....all of these coins were minted through a press and dropped into the bucket below bagged and so forth...Even Mint issue coins will have some dings unless they were taken from the press before they reached the bucket,...As most of all years were not this way some coins had very little battle marks for general release, not being mint issued coins persay... But the bottom line for any series is what marks or wear the coin has.which will, determines the grades...Even during the WWII series as the Zinc steel pennies they still have lots of wear...even with some steel content as they needed the copper for bullets back then...All in all, one must learn the determining factor of the coins type, penny nickle dollar and so forth of its issue to know the wear patterns these coins have for understanding and evaluating the coins grade....There is no "one standard" for all coin types ..its simply learning how to grade the type of coin your collecting...  , hope this helps in the long run... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1150 Posts |
Silver is softer than the copper/nickel composition of clad coins, so it would stand to reason that 90% silver coins would wear faster with all things being equal.
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Valued Member
United States
161 Posts |
silver was alloyed with copper to make the silver coins more durable, and I'm quite certain that nickel is even more durable than copper, so if a clad coin was in CONTINUOUS circulation it would probably last a minimum of 60 years. the coinage of today does not work as hard as the silver did, for one, there is more physical coin in circulation now then there probably ever was, present day inflation assures a good portion of that doesn't circulate much past the change tray in the car to the change jar at home. the people of the 40's 50's and 60's didnt keep their change in jars, they spent it, because they could buy something with it. a quarter today isn't spent, its tossed in a jar. a perfect durability test of clad coins is the local casino. those coins get constant 'round the clock use, and they are still plenty recognizable. the dollar coins will last 200 years, by that time the government may have figured out another dollar coin to try and shove down our pockets
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3076 Posts |
in the end,, it really has no function of wear or durability it's simply the series and its... wear patterns or how its features are graded....not how long one would think or how many years it takes to wear it self away...every series has its own GRADING standards....PERIOD....long of short..for the years of wear...There is not one standard for all coins...
The type of metal plays no mind to the series and its wear characteristics...One can not say...MY coin is made of DIAMOND.. yet they all circulate together, and diamond rubs diamond and wears each other as such... so to its the same with the CLAD era...the circulated together..so hardness of metal has no factor in its mingling... within the general
population of its coin era..
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Valued Member
United States
161 Posts |
i read the post as a question of: How much longer (if at all) will a clad coin wear in circulation vs. a silver coin, if clad being harder than silver, it will hold up longer, and thus remain in circulation longer. silver coins didnt circulate ONLY with other silver coins, they circulated with wheat cents which being primarily copper, and harder than the silver, and thus helped abrade them. the clads were most likely as durable if not more so than the copper cents they came into contact with, so I believe that a clad coin ( a Washington quarter for instance) would fare better in circulation and remain usable many more years than a silver Washington quarter. |
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Replies: 6 / Views: 3,021 |
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Posted 10/26/2011 12:29 am
