1999 experimental quarter

[Scott Surratt]

[WoodenJefferson]

Why do you think this is 'experimental'?

Welcome to the boards!

[RWB]

The horse is galloping down hill -- and we all know that Delaware is mostly flat.

[Scott Surratt]

On 4/13/2018 at 6:18 AM, WoodenJefferson said:

Why do you think this is 'experimental'?

Welcome to the boards!

The reason why is because quite often metal detect and I know exactly what a regular quarter shows on a metal detector as nickels and dimes and pennies this quarter registered almost like a copper penny so I knew something was off looking at the size seem to be just a little smaller  and much thicker than a normal quarter it has thick grooves  that look like solid copper next to regular quarter  it was a dull and kind of green looking

[WoodenJefferson]

Cane we get a pic of the edge, say with another regular looking quarter? That may help us out a bit.

[Scott Surratt]

[RWB]

Normal variation. Spend it or save it.

[World Colonial]

The chances of any experimental State Quarter ending up as a metal detector find is essentially zero, especially for the Delaware quarter.  With no change in the design since 1932, this was a highly anticipated series.  Any pattern type SQ would have been in strong demand and almost certainly would not have been carelessly discarded for later discovery by a metal detector.

[Scott Surratt]

 well I don't know what I have here but I know my metal detector never misses and it doesn't recognize it as a quarter also why is the lettering smaller than the other quarters and the color of it ltell ll by the pic I'm going to give you

[World Colonial]

The color is probably different due to environmental damage, not a different metal composition.  The coin you found might be slightly corroded and maybe it's lost some of the metal which is why your metal detector doesn't recognize it.  You can weigh the two to test this assumption.  Another possibility is that the coin you found is a counterfeit though I don't believe anyone would bother going to the trouble to do that.  Pure speculation on my part since I have never even used a metal detector and haven't read how it works.

I'm not the best person to ask, but I have never heard of any recent test pieces with clad coinage.  Anyway, as I explained to you in my last post, if any Delaware quarter was actually struck which differs from the circulation issue there is almost no chance you or anyone else will randomly find it.

The mintage I have available to me for the "P" mint is 373MM and for the "D" mint it is 401MM.  There are going to be a lot of die varieties in this population, as in probably at least a few hundred.  This is an assumption of mine on what might be the reason for the differences in the two coins you posted.  There are differences but I wouldn't consider it anything distinctive.

[coinman1794]

The reeding is interesting, but if the coin was weakly struck, which it appears to be, then the metal may not have squeezed all the way into the reeding, and the coin would be thicker than usual, if so. The dies may have been spaced too far apart.

The green color and off reading on the detector would most likely be the result of a chemical change due to corrosion.