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 Replies: 24 / Views: 20,495 |
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Valued Member
United States
232 Posts |
I have a Canadian 10 cent coin from 1967 - the centennial commemorative. It came from circulation, so it is not any kind of proof coin. The Krause manual lists 2 of these coins - one with 80% silver (KM 67) and one with 50% silver (KM 67a). Is there any way I can tell which one I have, short of a smelter?
Thanks
John Paul
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1080 Posts |
no, you can sometimes tell by color or by the sound it makes when plunked on a table, but otherwise, they are indistinguishable I believe.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
535 Posts |
No, there is not a definite way that a normal person could. I think that if you were of a scientific mind, you could do a specific gravity test on it to determine.
As a matter of fact, when I have seen these bought or sold in bulk, a dealer will figure the silver content at 65%. I figure if dealers don't distinguish between the two when they are buying and selling, I'm not going to get to excited about figuring out the difference.
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Valued Member
 United States
232 Posts |
Thanks,
I'll look into a specific gravity test, but it won't exactly be a priority.
JP
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
Would the weight show up differently using a digital scale? The 80% weighing more then the 40%. John1  |
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Valued Member
Canada
168 Posts |
Good idea John1. Although I have yet to see the weights published, I do know that the 1965 and 1966 are 80% and the 1968 is 50% so if you have those, weigh the coin to see the reference weight for the % of silver.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
535 Posts |
Unfortunately with the 1967 dimes both the 50% and the 80% are 2.3328 grams. Specific gravity is the only way.
Iaconic - 1968 is not 50% silver. There are actually three varieties of 1968.
- 80% silver minted in Ottawa
nickle minted in Ottawa
nickle minted in Philadelphia
These are actually relatively easy to distinguish the differences.
Ottawa and Philadelphia have different styles of reeding. You can find some references on the web.
You can usually see the difference between the silver and nickle, but just to be sure the nickle dimes are attracted to a magnet. The silver dimes are not.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
598 Posts |
^^^ Quote:
Iaconic - 1968 is not 50% silver. There are actually three varieties of 1968.
- 80% silver minted in Ottawa
karrlot Canadian 1968 dimes (and quarters) have silver and nickel issues as mentioned. 1968 dimes are 50% silver (or nickel)... not 80% silver... as the silver content was phased out (to magnetic nickel) 'till 1999. There were transition years from .800 silver to .500 silver(1967) and from .500 silver to nickel(1968). 50 cent and dollar pieces were .800 silver till 1967. Prior to 1920 all silver was sterling .925. edit>>> Related Good Link VVV http://www.coinscan.com/technical/canasp.htmlEdited by IBGolden
02/26/2010 11:37 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
535 Posts |
Quote:
Canadian 1968 dimes (and quarters) have silver and nickel issues as mentioned. 1968 dimes are 50% silver (or nickel)... not 80% silver... as the silver content was phased out (to magnetic nickel) 'till 1999.
There were transition years from .800 silver to .500 silver(1967) and from .500 silver to nickel(1968). Well this is confusing! The website you quoted shows: 1967 - 80% and 50% 1968 - 50% and nickle I double checked my book "2004 North American Coins & Prices" (which is a Krause) where I got my info: 1967 - 80% and 50% 1968 - 80% and nickle So then I checked my 2006 Standard Catalog of World Coins (also a Krause) and it matched the website you quoted: 1967 - 80% and 50% 1968 - 50% and nickle So then I assumed that my first book had an error. But I thought that I'd go right to the source http://www.mint.ca/store/mint/learn...00028#10_top the Royal Canadian Mint. Here is where I got very confused. It listed: 1967 80% 1968 nickle All of that was for dimes. Interestingly, every source (including the mint) listed the following for quarters: 1967 - 80% and 50% 1968 - 50% and nickle I am inclined to believe your source. It is logical that they would transition from 80% to 50% in 1967 and from 50% to nickle in 1968. It also makes sense that the composition of the dime and quarter would be the same. Its not surprising that a book would have an error, but it is weird that the mint had an error on their website. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
598 Posts |
The Canadian equivalent to the U.S. RedBook would be the Charlton Catalogue. It lists the metal content for said dimes & quarters as previously stated... 1967 - .800 and .500 silver 1968 - .500 silver and nickel This would be my source of info but provided that link because it's just a straightforward metallic content list and I can't link to Charlton. I have been sorting CDN silver for years and was unaware of it being any other way... other than extreme rarities I 'spose. I was also unaware or too lazy to look up such things anywhere else but my old, beat up Charlton. The fact that the R.C.M. has lost track of what their myriad of products contain should be of no surprise to anyone.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8515 Posts |
I just picked up a 67 mackerel dime and was hoping there was a way to tell between the 80 and 50 %'ers. I guess I will just label the 2x2 with 65% lol. a good compromise. As far as I can determine, there is no way to tell the two 67's apart.
Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Moderator
Canada
10456 Posts |
For fun, I checked about 20 of the 1967 10-cent coins with the XRF in my lab. All were .500 silver. A coin dealer, who once had strong connections to the RCM, once told me that only the proof-like and specimen strikes from 1967 were .800 silver, the business strikes were .500 silver. Of course, that is heresay, but I am not about to start zapping rolls of 1967 10-cents to prove it one way or another. Given the mintage of that series, I would have to spend days with the XRF zapping hundreds of coins to get a 95% confidence interval of that data... "Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
Edited by SPP-Ottawa
12/04/2012 3:30 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1411 Posts |
SSP... You mean that the 1967 dimes are 50% silver, not the pennies?
I better stack some of those pennies!
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Moderator
Canada
10456 Posts |
Good catch - I edited the original post.
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8515 Posts |
So you can one hundred percent tell for certain what the silver content is with an XRF ? Not that it would do me any good, I don't have one. I had to Google what it is lol.
Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Moderator
Canada
10456 Posts |
Yes, to within 3 decimal places (of a percent).
"Discovery follows discovery, each both raising and answering questions, each ending a long search, and each providing the new instruments for a new search." -- J. Robert OppenheimerContent of this post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses...0/deed.en_USMy eBay store
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Replies: 24 / Views: 20,495 |
Posted 02/21/2010 10:26 pm
