Anyone ever hear of a 1988 quarter struck on a silver planchet?

PreTurb

One of my friends at work (lucky bugger) just found a 1988-P Washington quarter in change - clearly struck on a 90% silver planchet. Beautiful condition, I would guess AU-58. Not a proof, just a regular business strike.

I would think that this is a pretty tough error to obtain... is there anyone out there with experience with a coin like this???

Any comments / info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Russ

I'm having a hard time figuring out how an error of this type could happen in 1988. The mint wasn't producing any silver quarter sized coins during that period. Where would the planchet have come from?

Russ, NCNE

kieferscoins

How do you know it is silver?

Cameron Kiefer

LanLord

PreTurb

Besides the solid edge (no clad), the coin has the typical silver look, light toning on perimeter, and distinctive ring when tapped. It doesn't look plated.

PreTurb

Ya know, if the thing turned out to be silver plated, that would be pretty funny. I suppose that is within the realm of possibility here. As you said Russ, 1988 was many years from silver planchet production, in both directions.

Sphinx357

My guess is someone tried to be funny and silver plated it. I see zero ways that a silver planchet could randomly come into the mint like that.

cdwegner

is there a pic?

Rob790

It's not an impossibility, a quarter from it believe 1970 was struck on a silver barber quarter (obviously not a mistake) and a 1981 cent is known to have been struck on a silver planchet (in unc condition) and sold for about $30k. I still think yours being genuine is unlikely since yours is circulated, most likely a plated piece or an outright fake. Something like that would not likely be made by mistake and would probably escape the mint in unc condition to be sold by the mint employee.

MacCoin

I don't believe its 90% silver

errormaven

Before getting too excited, you need to find its weight. If it deviates significantly from 5.67 grams, then you may have something. You also should calculate its specific gravity, but you need the right equipment to do this.

There are all sorts of possibilities -- silver planchet (unlikely), foreign Cu-Ni planchet (possible), struck counterfeit (more common than you'd think), plated, etc.