1965 quarter

How to read it

The Coinage Act of 1965, signed on 23 July 1965, set the new quarter at 0.955 inch across, with a cladding of 75% copper and 25% nickel over a copper core and a weight of 5.67 grams. The Philadelphia Mint began striking it on 23 August 1965, the first coins dated 1965, and they went into circulation on 1 November. The Act barred new mint marks for five years, and PCGS says the Mint stopped using them to discourage hoarding, so a 1965 quarter looks like a Philadelphia coin; PCGS says Denver struck them too, and the San Francisco Assay Office struck 2,360,000 for the 1965 Special Mint Sets. PCGS gives a mintage of 1,819,717,540, struck until the end of July 1966.

Also searched as: 1965 quarter value, clad quarter.

Why a clad coin

The Mint’s release of December 1965 says the three-layer construction gave a coin with little or no silver the electrical properties of a 90% silver coin, so old and new coins worked in the same coin-operated machines.

1964 or 1965?

The copper core shows on the edge of a clad quarter (US Mint Coin Classroom); a 1964 quarter is 90% silver. See Silver quarters (1964 and earlier). A 1965 quarter struck on a leftover 90% silver planchet is a rare transitional error, and NGC notes it weighs noticeably more than a clad one.