puzzled...

At first glance, the quarter I found today appears to be counterfeit. It feels too light to be a 1967 quarter, and appears to be two sides of a quarter (no mint mark) sandwiching some sort of fake quarter. But it could also be that it is simply very beat up. Then I looked up the quarters on a website and found that 1965-1967 quarters did not have mint marks because of the transition from silver to the copper-nickel alloy.

I am thinking about all the chemistry experiments I have observed in which a coin combined with such-and-such chemical burns a certain color because of the metal the coin is made of. I also know that to mint the coins purely, there's some sort of chemical that when electricity is passed through it, causes the metal to release any impurities or something like that.

I am wondering (because I don't know anything about chemistry) if it is possible that someone tried to extract one of the metals and leave the other. And if they did, did they profit from this stolen metal? And wouldn't that destroy the appearance of the quarter beyond recognition?

Yeah... maybe its just counterfeit.

PS... In one moment, a customer gave me a tip that nearly doubled my total for the day. That was interesting. I felt like a pole dancer. Just kidding...