United States quarters, initially composed of 90% silver and 10% copper, circulated as a valuable form of currency. However, due to increasing silver prices, the composition of these coins underwent a significant alteration. The traditional silver content was eliminated to control costs and prevent the coins from being worth more than their face value in silver.
The change in composition was primarily driven by economic factors. The rising cost of silver made it increasingly expensive to mint quarters with their original silver content. Maintaining the original composition would have resulted in the silver value of the quarter exceeding its 25-cent face value, incentivizing people to melt the coins down for their silver content, leading to a coin shortage. The shift to a clad composition was a pragmatic solution to preserve the availability of circulating coinage.