Posted 6 years ago
MrDusty
(2 items)
This is my prized Experimental Planchet quarter. I was lucky enough to have stumbled onto this while working as a grill cook in CVG Airport in 2005. While in the middle of a lunch rush my manager dumped out two factory sealed coin rolls (I believe Brinks but can't recall) and I saw a golden colored coin shoot into the air a touch before landing in the register. Sadly this did cause a touch of "bag-marking" on the coin but, other than that and some slight handling tarnish, it is uncirculated and has been in my possession since.
I also have a couple videos up on Youtube to help people to figure out whether or not they likely have one of these types of coins (New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts). ALL of them are Philadelphia mint ONLY, and are 1999 year aside from the Massachusetts which is 2000. They were almost definitely a test for the new Sacagawea Dollar as the metallurgy of the coins is very similar, and there is an accompanying "Mule" which has the face of a circa 99 Philadelphia quarter, and the back of a Sac Dollar. ALTHOUGH MOST OF THEM ARE OVERWEIGHT THERE IS A WIDE ENOUGH WEIGHT RANGE THAT WEIGHT IS NOT A DETERMINING FACTOR ALONE! Color is also not a determining factor because, as you can see between the two sets of pictures, lighting and the time of day can greatly change the way these look to a camera, especially a digital one.
Hopefully my resources can help you out as, unfortunately, there are a great deal of coin dealers who will try to rip you off for these coins. I have had several "reputable coin experts" tell me about an experimental rinse from the same year; but, when I ask for a picture of this supposedly rare but "less valuable coin" , they can't seem to produce any evidence. Yet there are dozens of the valuable manganese brass coins. Between that and the likelihood of a regular person easily mistaking gold-plated coins for these; it's VERY likely that professional dealers will try to take advantage of you if you have one of these beauties.