First Silver!

[usernameerror]

My second day of CRH for halves and I finally struck gold...erm...silver!

I went to three banks today. One bank had $20 of CWR halves ready for searching. I went back to my car with my finds. Searched the first roll...skunk. I thought to myself, "Another wasted lunch". Opened the second roll and....SILVER! What a great feeling! I've never found silver before so my eye wasn't trained to see it but I did notice that one coin was darker than the others at the rim. I checked and it was a 1966!

I then checked the other coins and....my first proof! Glistening amongst it's clad brethren was a Bicenntenial Half Dollar Proof. Being as this is my first ever proof, I am astonished at how someone could spend such a beautiful coin. It's almost a shame that this coin was included in a roll. It has some fingerprints and some light scratches so it's no where near un-circulated but it sure does look beautiful.

With that being said, how would one clean these coins. I know its sacrilegious to clean any coins but I'm sure I'm going to hold on to these two "first finds".

 

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[Eldar11]

Where do the 40% halves get their two-tone characteristics? I just started as well, and all of the 40% that I found had solid-colored edges.

 

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[usernameerror]

The "two-toning" seems to be from tarnish. I'm going to clean this one up and see if that's the case.

 

[BillyOceansEleven]

Where do the 40% halves get their two-tone characteristics? I just started as well, and all of the 40% that I found had solid-colored edges.

The 40% halves are a silver clad sandwich. They have an inner layer that is 21% silver and 79% copper with outer layers on each side of 80% silver and 20% copper. That is why they are two-toned.

 

[Eldar11]

Ah, I figured. It was confusing to hear people talk about the "40% clad." I guess the ones that I found weren't worn too much.

 

[usernameerror]

I cleaned the coin. Here's a before/after pic.