Remember when clad coinage appeared??
majorbigtime
Posts: 2,937 ✭
I saw my first clad dime in a poker joint in Ocean Beach (near San Diego) circa March 1965, and remember having a bartender at the Nelson Bar in Tijuana Mexico reject a clad quarter beacuse he didn't think it was "real".
My parents lived next door to a couple who ran a liquor store in LA and they began saving silver coins when the clads appeared. I believe they amassed hunderds of dollars worth and sold during the great silver run-up in the late '80s.
My oh my, how time passes.
My parents lived next door to a couple who ran a liquor store in LA and they began saving silver coins when the clads appeared. I believe they amassed hunderds of dollars worth and sold during the great silver run-up in the late '80s.
My oh my, how time passes.
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When the dimes came out, I remember a letter the editor in one of my coin magazines commenting that the dime was an even more pathetic "hamburger coin" than the quarter.
a draconian solution to an hardly existing problem would even be considered.
The government had some 1.3 billion ounces of silver in stockpile and wouldn't
need more for many years even if they never bought any more. It would certain-
ly mark the end of a glorious era if it came to pass. By mid-1964 mintages had
sky rocketed and the country was experiencing a severe coin shortage in an era
that most small purchases were made in coin. Not having sufficient coin was not
an option because it would cause dislocations and even a recession. The stock-
pile was dwindling and it looked as though the government was about to remove
silver. The coinage act of 1965 created a date freeze for the new coinage and es-
tablised its composition as cu/ ni bonded to a pure copper core. A date freeze
was already in effect for the silver coins and 1964 dated cents and nickels. The
new coins were to lack mint marks, appear in neither mint nor proof sets, and be
minted with a 1965 date into the foreseeable future. All this was bad enough but
then there were the coins themselves. The quarters were the first into production
in August 1965. When I saw my first one in mid-November it was simply awful. Not
only did it contain no silver but it obviously was intended to fool the casual observer
into believing there was no change. Indeed, in the hearing to determine a suitable
substitute one witness for the vending industry stated the very worst possible mat-
erial would be a cu/ ni clad piece because these could fool machines into accepting
them as good silver. This was likely the source of the idea to use this material.
As bad as it was to contemplate losing silver coinage and looking at debased junk
of the same date for all time the actual coins were even worse. The mint hadn't
worked all the bugs out of the clad composition or making nice coins. These first
coins tended toward the horrific. They were barely even kissed by heavily worn
dies. Despite being harder than silver they seemed to usually be marked up more
as well and this problem would only increase over the years.
I, like many early clad users, tried to take my first one apart. I tried pliers, heat,
cold and about anything else I could think of. Unsurprisingly most of us were very
unsuccessful. Today this bonding is so good that split or splittable layers are quite
scarce and sometimes rare. In those days the sheets of copper were pressed a-
gainst the cladding material and dynamite exploded above them to finish the bond-
ing. It usually worked but the surfaces had to be extremely clean or the layers
would separate after blanking.
Sure I remember them, and remember the date freeze being lifted and then the res-
toration of mintmarks. The coins were still boring to me because of large mintages,
lack of variety, and poor quality. Also the mint didn't rotate their stock in those days.
Just when you thought there was a better date like the '68-D there would be a few
dozen pallets from the back of the warehouse to hit circulation.
In '72 they started rotating stocks and closer inspection proved there was a lot more
variety than a casual look would show. In fact if you looked hard enough you could
even find some nicely made and nicely preserved pieces.
...And then there were the mint sets.
<< <i>I can remember he was sitting in the dining room when he announced that the country was going to hell. >>
And he was right.
That was a great story. I would never have thought to try to separate the layers, but I must admit that if I'd been accustomed to seeing silver coins during my life prior to then, I would have done the same.
Clad coins certainly lack the charm that silver coins have.
<< <i>When they talked aboyut removing silver back in '62 I was appalled that such
a draconian solution to an hardly existing problem would even be considered.
The government had some 1.3 billion ounces of silver in stockpile and wouldn't
need more for many years even if they never bought any more. It would certain-
ly mark the end of a glorious era if it came to pass. By mid-1964 mintages had
sky rocketed and the country was experiencing a severe coin shortage in an era
that most small purchases were made in coin. Not having sufficient coin was not
an option because it would cause dislocations and even a recession. The stock-
pile was dwindling and it looked as though the government was about to remove
silver. The coinage act of 1965 created a date freeze for the new coinage and es-
tablised its composition as cu/ ni bonded to a pure copper core. A date freeze
was already in effect for the silver coins and 1964 dated cents and nickels. The
new coins were to lack mint marks, appear in neither mint nor proof sets, and be
minted with a 1965 date into the foreseeable future. All this was bad enough but
then there were the coins themselves. The quarters were the first into production
in August 1965. When I saw my first one in mid-November it was simply awful. Not
only did it contain no silver but it obviously was intended to fool the casual observer
into believing there was no change. Indeed, in the hearing to determine a suitable
substitute one witness for the vending industry stated the very worst possible mat-
erial would be a cu/ ni clad piece because these could fool machines into accepting
them as good silver. This was likely the source of the idea to use this material.
As bad as it was to contemplate losing silver coinage and looking at debased junk
of the same date for all time the actual coins were even worse. The mint hadn't
worked all the bugs out of the clad composition or making nice coins. These first
coins tended toward the horrific. They were barely even kissed by heavily worn
dies. Despite being harder than silver they seemed to usually be marked up more
as well and this problem would only increase over the years.
I, like many early clad users, tried to take my first one apart. I tried pliers, heat,
cold and about anything else I could think of. Unsurprisingly most of us were very
unsuccessful. Today this bonding is so good that split or splittable layers are quite
scarce and sometimes rare. In those days the sheets of copper were pressed a-
gainst the cladding material and dynamite exploded above them to finish the bond-
ing. It usually worked but the surfaces had to be extremely clean or the layers
would separate after blanking.
Sure I remember them, and remember the date freeze being lifted and then the res-
toration of mintmarks. The coins were still boring to me because of large mintages,
lack of variety, and poor quality. Also the mint didn't rotate their stock in those days.
Just when you thought there was a better date like the '68-D there would be a few
dozen pallets from the back of the warehouse to hit circulation.
In '72 they started rotating stocks and closer inspection proved there was a lot more
variety than a casual look would show. In fact if you looked hard enough you could
even find some nicely made and nicely preserved pieces.
...And then there were the mint sets. >>
Cladking....you rule as always!! Thanks for your input. Your info is always very interesting and informative.
and it sets us apart from practitioners and consultants. Gregor
A lot of the dated cladding layers are from '65, '66, and '67.
<< <i>I saw my first clad dime in a poker joint in Ocean Beach (near San Diego) circa March 1965, and remember having a bartender at the Nelson Bar in Tijuana Mexico reject a clad quarter beacuse he didn't think it was "real".
My parents lived next door to a couple who ran a liquor store in LA and they began saving silver coins when the clads appeared. I believe they amassed hunderds of dollars worth and sold during the great silver run-up in the late '80s.
My oh my, how time passes. >>
Mister... You're old.