Weight tolerance of clad coins
rec78
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If you manage to get an out of weight tolerance clad half as shown below, what do you do with it? Why is it out of tolerance?
I found the 1977 clad half dollar shown in a coin roll. This coin weighs 10.75g as shown on the scale. A regular clad Kennedy half should weigh 11.34g per the mint website. The tolerance range is +/- .454g I believe. This puts the weight tolerance range at 10.886g to 11.794g. Thus this 1977 Kennedy half dollar is out of the weight tolerance range. What causes a clad coin to be out of the weight tolerance range? This coin is not very worn and the edge looks like an almost uncirculated coin. The coin also has a more silver look to it. I do not know what to think of this coin. Any opinions will be greatly appreciated. The scale shows a regular 1972 half weighing 11.22g and this coin weighing only10.75g. I Weighed about 50 other Kennedys and they were all in the allowable range except this one. Thanks, Bob
BTW, A lot of 1977 quarters and halves seem to have a silver color to them. I will weigh all 1977 quarters and halves from now on.
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Comments
Official weight is a goal often not achieved. That is why they have weight tolerances, but a certain percentage of coins exceed even those tolerances. In the days of gold and silver such coins were remelted. Today I doubt that they care.
The correct range is 10.886 to 11.794 grams.
Assuming that your scale is properly calibrated and on a level surface, It may be slightly underweight. Blanks are punched from steps rolled to the specified thickness. Occasionally the strips may by a little thicker or thinner, which would result in the blank being slightly over or under weight.
Other than the weight, the coin looks normal.
Your right, why would they care? Weight tolerances are meaningless today and nobody cares. Remember the days of the "assay commission"? Which became totally useless after Dec. 31, 1970, but was kept around until 1980.
If the coins are struck from the same die, with the same pressure with correct planchets they should all be in tolerance. The tolerance is a pretty wide range in my opinion. I thought that possibly there could be a wrong metal or variant metal that could cause this or wrong planchets. I have noticed the color difference in 1977 coins (Quarters and Halves that is.). I am going to weight them all (1977 off-color even slightly off-color halves and quarters) in the future. I never weighed a half dollar before but this one got me curious because of the off-color.
Weigh all 1977 coins?
To what end? If the coin is not noticeably off in size or weight, what is the purpose?
If it keeps you tied up and let's me search more coins them I guess it's a good thing for me.
Minor weight variance... This has been discussed occasionally here in the past. Happens with modern/clad coins from time to time. Cheers, RickO
There aren't many 1977 coins in a box in the first place and I said that I would weigh the ones that are off color which leaves maybe 3-4 coins to be weighed per box, it does not take long to weigh a coin. Even if I weigh the all the 1977 coins in a box the total will not be that high. You are leaving the goodies for me if you don't weigh them. For some reason 1977 halves are not nearly as plentiful as the 1971-1976 issues. The 1977-D half does have known 40% silver planchets. Don't weigh them, leave them for me. The weight difference is not that much a 40% silver planchet should weigh 11.50g and a regular clad planchet 11.34- which is not even out of the tolerance range for a clad coin.
you can't judge how much circulation a coin has with the edge color.
search enough boxes and you'll see.
40% can be spotted by the edge without looking at the date.
Of course, but in general the edge wear is equal to the coin wear. I don't remember stating that you could judge circulation of a coin by edge color. You are twisting things out of meanings.> @JBK said:
Sometimes. Perhaps by younger eyes.
I can spot silver by the edge, the color of the obverse/reverse, the sound, and unless there are contaminants present, by the smell (silver does smell different than clad).
And my eyes aren't exactly young.
Unfortunately, I don't have the chance to exercise my silver super powers often enough.