1980 Belgium 500 Francs Silver? - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 8 / Views: 7,430
Williamsonj320 Pillar of the Community United States 538 Posts	Posted 01/21/2013 02:25 am Hey there. I was wondering if there was a way to tell if a 1980 Belgium 500 Francs 150th Anniversary of Independence coin is the .510 silver or silver clad version. Numismaster shows both coins having a 25g weight so that didn't really help me. My coin has both the angel head mint mark and the mintmaster's bird privy mark but I couldn't determine if that would distinguish between the two types. Any help would be appreciated. Trying to properly catalog this coin. Report this Post to the Staff

sel_69l Bedrock of the Community Australia 21786 Posts	Posted 01/21/2013 06:32 am According to Krause, the .510 solid silver version is proof, the clad silver copper nickel version is non proof uncirculated. Report this Post to the Staff
Williamsonj320 Pillar of the Community United States 538 Posts	Posted 01/21/2013 09:39 am Thank you I would say mine is uncirculated version then. Why are there different KM numbers for this coin? Report this Post to the Staff
chrisild Pillar of the Community Germany 1238 Posts	Posted 01/22/2013 1:54 pm Because they are different coins. :) 161 (and 161a for the Ag510 version) is the type with the French text, 162 (and 162a) is the Dutch text type. 165 is an error piece (one side Dutch, one French). As for how to tell the silver and clad versions apart, I think that will not be easy without seeing both (to compare them). For example, the Cu-Ni coin should be slightly thicker. Maybe you can also tell the clad version from the edge, which should have a three-layer structure ... Also, I read that the silver/proof version has frosted parts that the Cu-Ni/unc version does not have. Christian Report this Post to the Staff
Williamsonj320 Pillar of the Community United States 538 Posts	Posted 01/22/2013 3:22 pm Well then, I guess I better get some photos up. Give me 30-60 minutes to get some for you guys. Thanks for all the info! Report this Post to the Staff
Williamsonj320 Pillar of the Community United States 538 Posts	Posted 01/22/2013 3:33 pm Here are the photos: I would say this is not the proof version and doesn't appear to have any frosted parts to it either. So I'm going with the Dutch version silver clad. I didn't want to take it out of the flip but there was a small gap and I was able to see the edge and it vaguely reminds me of 40% Kennedy half dollars so I would still go with silver clad. So would that make this KM# 162? Report this Post to the Staff
Jupke Valued Member Belgium 83 Posts	Posted 01/23/2013 01:22 am Although you can tell already by the absence of the typical frosting that this is not a proof piece, you can also check if this is a sliver clad piece. If you look to the edge of the piece, a silver clad piece will always show 2 different colors, being the silver and the other base material (in this case I think thats CuNi). Compare with the normal quarters of USA: you can see the red copper and the white Ni on their edges! BTW: the hybrid piece (dutch-french) was not an error. It was actually manufactured by a mint employee without authorization of the mint. It is believed that around 30 pieces were created in this way. Report this Post to the Staff
sel_69l Bedrock of the Community Australia 21786 Posts	Posted 01/23/2013 06:51 am I imagine that it might be difficult to detect by visual means, the silver cladding from the white copper nickel alloy underneath. From this standpoint, the original question asked is a good one. Report this Post to the Staff
Jupke Valued Member Belgium 83 Posts	Posted 01/24/2013 6:50 pm The color of CuNi and high content silver based alloy is in both cases a white color, but you can see the difference clearly between those two, especially if they are applied on thesame coin. Metal experts like jewellers can even tell the difference without having references. The difference in color is actually a lot bigger on the US quarter (being red copper and white CuNi), but the production method of both coins is similar. Being a collector of Belgian coins, I have seen a lot of these coins and up to now, all the pieces that I have seen, actually have this color difference on the smooth edge of the coin (fortunately for us this is smooth edged, making it easier to see the difference). But as I already pointed out: the absence of the mirror fields and the frosted details also clearly indicates that this was not struck as a proof piece but as a circulation piece. Of course you never knwon that there was a possible mixup in blanks (a lot of strange things happened at that time in the Belgian Mint) and than you can verify by checking this difference in color. Report this Post to the Staff
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