Change in Coins

To combat the flight of silver from the national stockpile at West Point, I.Y., I resident Johnson last week pro posed the first basic change in U.S. coin age since Alexander Hamilton adopted silver in 1792. If Congress approves, as it is expected to do, the U.S. next year will eliminate silver altogether from dimes and quarters, will reduce the silver content of half-dollars from 90% to 40%, and defer indefinitely the minting of any new silver dollars.

That proposal, which will cut the mint's annual silver needs from 300 million ounces to 15 million ounces, offers something for everyone. It some what placates the big industrial silver users, notably manufacturers of silver ware and photo film, who have been complaining that the mint has crimped supplies and lifted prices by gobbling up much more silver than U.S. mines produce. It comforts the potent West ern mining bloc in Congress by setting a $1.25-an-ounce floor under silver and maintaining some silver coinage. And for the vending-machine industry it guarantees that the new coins will be made of metals requiring no costly changes in the machines' sensitive reject mechanisms, which separate legitimate coins from clever slugs by testing their electrical and magnetic properties.

The new dimes and quarters will be a "sandwich" of two layers of copper-nickel alloy (already used in the coinage of nickels) laminated to a center layer of copper. Because the copper center will show a reddish-brown ring on the outside, the U.S. will have the world's only two-colored coins. They may be unesthetic, but, since they are difficult to manufacture, they will be virtually impossible to counterfeit.

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