Do US silver coins ever weigh over their standard?

[slickeast]

A lot of Franklins I have weighed were over 12.5. Kennedys were dead on. WL were all over the place due to wear but never over. I think Ray bought the Franklins. If he still has some maybe he could weigh 40 to see if they are over 500grams

dude... those were flipped within a week. I can't keep halves in stock, everyone wants them.

I know ,i know. The only think you stack is blocks of gold the size of VW's

[68Camaro]

Ed - your data looks "normal"

[silver]

68camaro,
Thank you very much for your time.
ED

[Engineer]

If you think of it from a manufacturing standpoint, there will always be variances in weight caused by variances in planchet thickness. Planchets rolled first thing in the morning should be slightly thicker than planchets rolled after the rollers heat up and expand. Even if it's just half a thousandth of an inch (1/6 the thickness of a sheet of paper), it still adds weight to the finished coin.

I could do the math to show examples, but I'm too lazy at the moment.

[twoten01]

I weigh a ton of pennies( hand sorter who does around 4 boxes a day), I see them weigh anywhere from 3.01 all the way up to 3.22( I even have two late 70's pennies, that have no wear at all and weigh 2.55), slight varaitions will and do happen all the time, so I would assume siver coinage is a the same way.

[68Camaro]

Variation exists, of course. The question is home much. The statistical distribution. +/- .1 centrally scattered on a nominal 3.1 is twice the variation of +/-.2 on 12.5. But copper is less valuable than silver so they probably care (cared) less about keeping it tight, and at a given price you do hit a fixed threshold tolerance the smaller the coin.

[John Reich]

I have a copy of the book Fractional Money by Neil Carothers that may be relevant to this thread. In section 37 of the coinage law of Feb 12, 1873 it states: "That in adjusting the weight of silver coins the following deviations shall not be exceeded in any single piece: In the dollar, the half and quarter dollar, and in the dime, one and one-half grains; and in weighing large numbers of pieces together, when delivered by the coiner to the superintendent, and by the superintendent to the depositor, the deviations from the standard weight shall not exceed two-hundredths of an ounce in one thousand dollars, half dollars, or quarter dollars, and one-hundredth of an ounce in one thousand dimes." I figure that 1 1/2 grains is 0.097 grams, so any individual 90% half dollar could weigh between 12.4 and 12.6 grams and still meet the legal requirement. The act of 1873 determined the weights of silver coins from 1873 up until 1964. I'm not sure if the tolerances described in the act applied in that same period. Hope this helps!

[Engineer]

Great info, John!

[68Camaro]

They seem to have relaxed that tolerance on individual coin by the end of the silver era, based on the experimental evidence. The population average was still maintained though.

[68Camaro]

I just skimmed the act of 1873 and it says that the tolerance limit is 0.5% for wear (and other errors implied). Anything within 0.5% of nominal was considered nominal. Anything below that was considered legal tender in proportion to the actual weight. Any off-weight coins that failed that would be recoined.

It takes awhile to wade thought that, but looks like the BU mint versions are expected to be within 0.2%, so there is some wear allowance, but not a lot.

I haven't fully rationalized all this, and have to go to a meeting. Maybe more later.