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How to Verify a Two-Headed Quarter

Two-headed quarters -- quarters with heads on both sides -- are often found in novelty catalogs, sold as gag or trick items. A "real" two-headed quarter -- one created by the U.S. Mint -- does not exist. Double-headed quarters are made by shaving, carving and merging two real quarters. With careful inspection you can see the seam where one coin is fit to another.

Things You'll Need

Magnifying glass
Pencil
Postal or other small scale

Instructions

- 1
  Inspect the ridges of the quarter with a magnifying glass. Look for any irregularities or mismatched ridges -- ridges that don't seem to be straight from top to bottom. Look for a seam that may appear as if two coins were sliced in half and merged together.
- 2
  Look closely at either face of the coin, near the outer ridge. A very thin line may be visible where one coin was shaved down and wedged into the other coin which was hollowed out. If you don't see anything unusual, flip the coin over and carefully inspect that side in the same way.
- 3
  Balance a regular quarter on the tip of your finger. Gently tap the coin with a pencil. You should hear a metallic clinking sound. Remove the regular quarter and test your two-headed quarter the same way. It should sound different because it is not made from one solid piece of metal.
- 4
  Weigh your quarter on a postal scale. Remove it and then weigh the regular quarter. The weights will be different because the two-headed quarter is made from two pieces and doesn't contain the same amount of metal as your regular quarter.

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