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Clad won't last!!!

R

rja2008

New member
I am sure most of you know the coins today are not constructed with the same quality in mind as older coins. However, I have some thoughts and questions about the purpose coinage and the entities that produce them have for doing this. I find clad on a daily basis that is so corroded or degraded from being in the ground just a couple of years. These coins are, at times, barely recognizable and could never be used to display hundreds of years from now. On the same hand, there is an older coin right next to it that cleans up with no corrosion and just a slight patina on them. What, if any, could be the reason that coinage is produced that degrade so fast? Is this intentional? Is there an underlying reason or motive for coins, possibly intentionally designed to degrade quickly? Could it be that the producers of the coins view the recovery of coins from the ground as a bad thing? Is there an industry that benefits from coins today degrading so quickly? I'm not sure but would love to hear some opinions on this topic.
Thanks for reading,
Jasin
 
The reason they don't make coins out of silver, gold or copper any longer is because the material cost far outweighs the denomination it would represent. When they were making Morgan silver dollars, silver was worth about a dollar an ounce. Silver is worth over $28 an ounce today. When the US Govt. confiscated the gold coins in 1933, they paid $20 an ounce. Currently, gold is at just short of $1400 an ounce. HH Randy
 
Yes, I understand and accept that the the cost overrun does not support producing true silver and gold coins. However, I'm sure with the advancement in metallurgy coins could be produced that deteriorate less. It seems to me to be an intentional failure to produce quality coins.
Thanks for responding Digger,
Jasin
 
Yip I think Digger hit the nail on the head,just a sign of the times even way down here the quality is not designed to last
like most things build em to look good but do it as cheap as possible.
 
Even with the current clad the Feds have issues. The cost of making a penny are more than a penny is worth, same for a nickle. IMHO I just wish the US would do away with the cent/penny? But what do I know? Beale.
 
Yes ... clad coins will breakdown in the ground.

Coins made with a metal that has value ... even copper ... will get melted down and sold as scrap metal as soon as the metal price exceeds their face value.
How could the government keep making silver dollars that contain an ounce of silver if everyone melted them down to sell the silver for $20 per ounce?
I bet that a lot of common date gold and silver coins have recently been melted for sale as scrap.

I know some of the government programs waste money on a grand scale but this metal thing even the government can figure out to be an impossible deal.

The US does mint a $1 coin but the public dont like them and wont carry them in their pockets.
If you want some they are not hard to get from any bank.
 
In Australia we've seen quite significant changes to the state of our money, and what it is made from. In 1966 we changed from silver and copper coins to some composite (copper and nickel), and copper coins (1c and 2c). The composite metal coins rant from 5c to 50c. In 1984, our $1 note was replace by a coin (92% cupro nickel, 6% aluminium and 2%nickel) and in 1988 our $2 note was replace by a coins of the same composition. Our last general mintage of the 1c and 2c copper coins was 1990, and these coins were discontinued (due to the value of copper being more than the face value of the coins). Our coins are not clad, like the US coins, and although they become discoloured in the ground and need cleaning before they go back into circulation, they dont deteriorate too much, unless lost at a saltwater beach, then their deterioration is more rapid.

Why some governments go one way and some another way in the production of coins, I dont know. The face value of the metal situation is a fairly obvious reason, and that is recurring over time. e.g. From 1949 the silver content of our coins was reduced from 92.5% to 50%, due, I presume to the rise in value of silver.

Yours is an interesting question rja2008. Maybe the soil where you live is more acidic than some other areas, and so your coins deteriorate more rapidly. The aspect of intentional deterioration is unlikely, in my view, because governments can only benefit from the return of minted or printed currency to the economy...it is not the same as counterfeiting, because we are only returning to the economy what was intentionally introduced by the government.

Unfortunately, I cant give you the answers to your question, and this response may have raised more questions for you...but.....that's life. HH
 
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