¼ Dollar "Washington Quarter" · “Washington Quarter”

The Washington Quarter: The Coin That Quietly Lost Its Silver

Stand a quarter on its side and look at the rim. That thin orange-copper stripe is the fingerprint of a national emergency: in 1965 the United States ran out of cheap silver and had to rebuild its small change from the inside out. The Washington quarter is where the swap happened — and it kept George Washington's face the whole time, so almost nobody noticed.