Strange Lightweight 1974 Quarter

I can speculate, but it isn't going to do any good until you can get a good image of it.

It could be struck on dime stock.

You're not going to lose almost 20% of the weight from wear.

It's possible that the coin is struck on thinly rolled stock. I've got a dime and a quarter which are each the thickness of a half dollar. While it's unusual, planchet thickness irregularities aren't unheard of.
Some years of quarters (70-D is best known) have been struck on Dime Stock- which is when quarter sized planchets are struck from the wrong planchet strip. BUT- your coin is not this, it has more detail and a stronger strike than would be associated with a quarter struck on stock that thin.

I know Mike Diamond will be able to give a definitive answer, but it seems as though the coin could be struck on thinly rolled stock. This would also account for the higher pitched resonance, the "tinny" ring.

quarters weigh 6.3 grams
nickels weigh 5.0 grams
thin stock quarter planchet?

If the side has no copper showing , it maybe be a quarter struck on a nickel planchet


or could be a quarter struck on a foreign planchet.

The u.s minted coins for Liberia until 1976 the 25cent Liberia coin does weigh 5.2 GRAMS and it's copper/nickel it was minted from 1966-76.

here is the chart with the coins and the countries the u.s minted Liberia is down the list goto page 4
http://pdxcoinclub.org/articles/For...%20table.pdf

Not sure if the coin has a copper strip I cant find side pictures of it online. All I know is it weighs 5.2 grams and the u.s minted coins for Liberia up until 1976
(204) Not Allowed - Auto-Removed .com/en/coins/coin/8482-25_Cents-Liberia
well the link got removed but it showed the coin weighs 5.2 grams
here is a picture of the coin itself
http://cgi.ebay.com/Liberia-25-Cent...em4157cfc872

if you look at the list also the usa minted copper/nickel coins for
for Dominican republic until 1981 ,Haiti until 1979 ,Peru until 1976,Taiwan untill 1974 but by glancing on the (204) Not Allowed - Auto-Removed .com world coin info site none match around 5 grams from those countries but Liberia does, maybe except a Haitian coin might be 5 grams from 1974 but I can't find on hatian coins maybe someone else can.

Wow Coppertop, that's very cool, great info!

The coin shown is a Philly, I wonder if both mints struck coins for foreign countries simultaneously.

I think it's important, as you said, not to get jpsned's hopes up too far yet. But it's definitely worth looking into further.

hey liveanddie,

the chart above says the PDS mints struck coins for Liberia from 1941-1976 64 types total of the types 44 of them were copper nickel,10 bronze,10 gold ,8 proofs

But it does not get into specifics what coin were minted at each mint each year ,or if P minted the Liberia 25cent coins that year . I guess some more digging might be able to tell

It's an aluminum quarter from heaven :)

Looks like it should as normal quarter stock. Perhaps just struck on rolled thin stock.