Do you know what these pieces are?

Noted numismatic researcher Roger W. Burdette needs help with his latest project.

Can you provide it?

He says he “is currently examining the private pattern coins and related pieces made by International Nickel Company (Inco) in 1964-65.”

These were created as test pieces in the race by America to find a substitute for the 90 percent silver dimes, quarters and half dollars that were being hoarded.

Commerce was being choked for lack of coins to make change.

Finding an alternative composition was an urgent matter.

Since Burdette knows most of us are not particularly familiar with what might be out there, he has helpfully provided images of known pieces.

Are there others?

Are there pieces of entirely different designs made for the same reason?

Burdette has many questions.

Readers perhaps can help answer them.

Burdette describes what he is interested in:

“Metal discs approximately the diameter and thickness of a U.S. quarter having engraved numbers and letters similar to the 18% Nickel Silver piece illustrated.”

An indicator of the importance Burdette puts on this information, he says “arrangements can be made to travel to examine significant collections.”

This is serious research.

Those who can offer him help are asked to email him at accurateye@aol.com.

While I am personally unable to provide information, I can help Burette spread the word.

My memory barely reaches back to that period of time.

I was a kid collector.

I was aware of the growing coin shortage.

I was happily putting cents in Whitman albums and standing in line at the bank to get the new Kennedy half dollar the day it was released.

But I was not reading Numismatic News, so I knew nothing of the research going on.

But when the Coinage Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, I became very much aware.

Clad coins have been a part of all our lives ever since.

I hope readers can help Burdette tell us how they came to be.

It will be a story worth reading.

I will line up to get the book when it is ready.

I can't wait to learn what I missed the first time around.

Good Luck, Roger.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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