Possible state quarter error- opinions needed

rhedden

My friend who owns a coin& stamp shop had a customer bring this interesting quarter into his shop last week. It's an ordinary Louisiana quarter in circulated condition, but when turned on edge, there is no trace of copper whatsoever. It looks like it was struck in pure nickel. Upon examining the edge with a 30X loupe, there are circulation nicks, and they do not show any trace of copper underneath. Now the odd thing is that the coin weighs 5.7 grams, just like an ordinary quarter. It is definitely not struck in silver. We weighed a Canadian quarter, and it weighs significantly less. My question to you- is this a known mint error (wrong metal), where other examples have shown up? Also, note the suspicious white circle of crud on the obverse.

I have a theory about what happened to this quarter. However, I will not say what I think was done to it. If you think it's a fake, please explain your theory of how it got this way!

rhedden

Anyone want to comment on this?

slipgate

plated?

sumnom

This is interesting. I don't know enough to say but I do want to ttt this.

harvey85422458

hmm weird

Blackhawk

Are there any other coins currently being struck by the US mint that weigh the same as a quarter?

sanitarium1inmate

I have a new hampshire one, and another member has a new york one. I believe Mr. Fred Weinberg said these were from special mint sets that were plated coins. Some were gold plated and some were platinum plated. What you have there looks exactly like mine, I bet it even has a rough looking surfave in the fields also. I don't think it is worth much more than a buck or two, but it is a nice coin to find in change like I did. I hope this helped you. Kris

19Lyds

Plated.

rhedden

OK, thanks for the opinions. Here are my thoughts. I originally thought it was an authentic mint error, but I later realized that one could produce a coin like this using something called "electroless nickel." This is a greenish plating solution in water that can be purchased for home use or from a scientific supply company. It contains a nickel salt and some reducing agents that will cause Ni metal to plate out onto any metal object placed in the bath. Usually the solution requires heating on a hot plate. The plating is so thin that it might not register on a scale. In addition, since the front & back of the quarter are already made of nickel, you would not notice any change in the color of the coin. I believe that someone plated this coin briefly in electroless nickel and then put it back into circulation. A few months later, it showed up in the coin shop.

rgCoinGuy

It seems like about once a month these show up on here, most people usually say plated (and I agree they probably are) but we usually don't hear a final result. How about scraping the edging to see if there is a copper band underneath?

coinman420

i work in an electroplating shop. any nickel bath will give you this result. it does not have to be electroless nickel.

i have done this with pocket change countless times out of boredom maybe its one of mine???

you would see no drastic change in weight doing this.

commoncents05

Definitely plated. The TV coin sellers had gold, silver, and platinum plated SHQs for sale. We get them sometimes at our shop. We pay face, break them out of the holders, and take them to the bank.

-Paul

coinman420

<< <i>OK, thanks for the opinions. Here are my thoughts. I originally thought it was an authentic mint error, but I later realized that one could produce a coin like this using something called "electroless nickel." This is a greenish plating solution in water that can be purchased for home use or from a scientific supply company. It contains a nickel salt and some reducing agents that will cause Ni metal to plate out onto any metal object placed in the bath. Usually the solution requires heating on a hot plate. The plating is so thin that it might not register on a scale. In addition, since the front & back of the quarter are already made of nickel, you would not notice any change in the color of the coin. I believe that someone plated this coin briefly in electroless nickel and then put it back into circulation. A few months later, it showed up in the coin shop. >>





where would one buy this do it yourself home electroless nickel solution? i`ve not heard of this.

rhedden

My student actually bought some electroless nickel from a website for our research laboratory. It cost about $200 for a kit. Most of the commercial sources want to sell 50 gallon drums of the stuff, which is not economical for small projects. I can't remember the name of the site that sold it to us, but it is simple to use- basically heat the solution up close to the boiling point, and then dunk your metal object in there to plate within a couple of minutes. We plated a penny just to test it out, so maybe someone will find that in circulation next month!