United States quarters, as soon as composed of 90% silver and 10% copper, underwent a big change of their composition. This alteration concerned changing the valuable metallic content material with a clad composition, primarily copper-nickel. The important thing inquiry revolves across the particular time this transition occurred.
The shift from silver to clad coinage was primarily pushed by rising silver costs within the early Nineteen Sixties. The intrinsic worth of the silver within the cash started to exceed their face worth, resulting in widespread hoarding and a possible drain on the nation’s silver reserves. Retaining a steady coinage system necessitated a change in metallic content material.