1964 Quarter Pattern - RB-2220, INCO

Coin Details

Description

Test strike cataloged as RB-2220 in the Reed-Brenner system, produced by the International Nickel Company on Washington Quarter dies during the 1964 experimental clad coinage program. This piece represents yet another formulation in INCO's methodical progression through the copper-nickel alloy space. The company's approach to the coinage problem was engineering-driven rather than artistic: where earlier Mint pattern programs had explored new designs on familiar metals, the 1964 INCO program used a familiar design — John Flanagan's Washington portrait, in production since 1932 — on unfamiliar metals. This reversal of the traditional pattern paradigm makes the INCO experimental quarters a unique category in American numismatics. RB-2220 would have undergone standardized testing protocols including hardness measurements, accelerated wear simulation, salt spray corrosion testing, and electromagnetic signature analysis. The electromagnetic properties were particularly critical because the nation's rapidly expanding vending machine industry — representing hundreds of millions of dollars in installed equipment — relied on the specific conductivity of silver coins to authenticate them. Any replacement alloy that failed to match silver's electromagnetic fingerprint closely enough would have required an enormously expensive nationwide retrofit of vending equipment, a cost that threatened to dwarf the savings from eliminating silver.

Rarity Notes

Extremely rare. Fewer than 5 specimens survive. INCO experimental compositions in the RB-22xx range are particularly scarce.

Cross References

RB-2220 (Reed-Brenner), NGC ID: 50348