Need A Little Help With Eisenhower Dollars

40% silver Ikes were only produced in proof. The 71-S and 72-S were 40% silver. The 73-S and 74-S proofs were offered in either 40% silver or nickel clad. If still in the holder, the blue slabs are nickel clad and the browns are 40% silver. Out of the holder the copper core is very evident in the nickel clads and not so much in the 40%.

Ike dollars were not in the 1971 and 1972 Proof Sets but 1973 and 1974 included a CuNi Ike dollar. 1971S-1974S 40% Ikes were sold individually in two versions. Uncirculated Ikes had blue packaging while Proof Ikes had brown packaging, hence the Brown Ike and Blue Ike nomenclature you might have heard of before. In 1976 had three S-mint Ikes- the normal CuNi clad Ike in the regular 6 coin Proof Set, an Uncirculated 40% silver Ike was included in the 3 coin Bicentennial Mint Set and a Proof 40% silver Ike was included in the 3 coin Bicentennial Proof Set.

I find it amazing all the confusion over the 40% silver Ikes. This question gets asked over and over. Once again here we go

ALL business strike S mint coins are silver. (exception: there is a unique 1973-S business strike known on a CUNI clad planchet.)

ALL 1971-S and 1972-S Ikes are silver

ALL 1976-S Type II, 1977-S and 1978-S Ikes are coppernickel

ALL P and D business strikes are CuNi clad (Exception: there are about a half dozen known 1974-D and 1977-D Ikes struck on 40% silver)

So this means the only ones that come both as silver and CuNi are the proof 73-S, 74-S, and 76-S type I Ikes. If these are not in the government holders, they can easily be told apart using the tissue test. Put a single layer of toilet tissue or facial tissue over the coin. If it is CuNi it will appear dark. If it is silver it will appear white.

Do not sweat it.

Just in case anyone needs it, here is an example of the tissue test.

I have a problem with the three of those with Type I reverse because some refences have said they are silver and some have said they are clad so I don't know what they are. The unique piece with the Type II brings up the question "Where did this come from and why?" With a Type II reverse it wasn't struck until 1976. There would be no need for a display coin to be struck by that late date, they could have just used one of the millions of already struck coins. One possibility for the missing mint mark would be that it was simply accidentally left off a die sent to San Francisco like the other known missing mintmark proof coins. But then there is the problem of the type II reverse. Those weren't used for proofs until 1976 and all the silver striking was over with earlier in 1975. I think it is pushing credibility to believe that an error obv was sent to San Francisco in 1976, got paired up with a Type II reverse, and then just happened to be used for one one and that happened to be on a leftover silver planchet from the previous year. If it was struck in Philadelphia, where did the silver blank come from? This is a coin that has no reason to exist. It strikes me as being an after hours fantasy piece.

I could see it being a pattern if it was clad, showing the new reverse. But not 40% silver. The silver pieces had already been struck so this design would not be struck in silver. Why make a silver pattern for a coin to be struck in clad? Especially since Philadelpia would have had to have had a silver planchet shipped to them from San Francisco to make it.