By CoinWeek
We continue our guide to the Ultimate 20th-Century Type Set by taking a look at the 20th century’s workhorse denomination, the quarter.
In this installment, we hope to illuminate some of the tough buying choices a demanding collector will have in assembling the ultimate type set. Even if you aren’t in the market for top-end material or conditional rarity, you might learn something of value in building the type of collection that suits your needs.
If you haven’t done it yet, be sure to check out Part One on cents – Part Two on Nickels and Dimes – Part Three on Quarters and Part Four is on Half Dollars. Our guide selections may surprise you.
So let’s proceed and see how 20th Century quarter dollars shape up.
Barber Quarter (1901-1916)
The Scenario: For the first sixteen years of the 20th century, Charles Barber and his designs dominated America’s silver coinage. The Barber dime, quarter, and half dollar all met their demise, however, when Congress approved a change in the design of each of these denominations in 1916. The series has experienced its share of ebbs and flows in the marketplace, but it’s remarkably stable and getting more expensive as the years go by.
For the Ultimate Set, the 20th-century Barber quarter offers two show-stopping choices.
Guidance: Were one to consider mintage numbers only, the 1913-S (40,000 struck) would far and away prove to be the most elusive of the Barber quarters. However, the inexplicable first-year issue 1916 Standing Liberty quarter has a mintage of just 12,000 more, but the 1901-S Barber, and its initial mintage of 72,664, has almost entirely been lost to time. PCGS estimates 2,000 remain. In terms of gradable material, that number may prove to be generous.
The best-known example, a beautifully-preserved toned specimen now graded MS-68+ by PCGS, fetched $327,750 at a March 2010 auction as a mere MS-68. PCGS and NGC population reports for the issue are likely grossly overstated due to resubmissions. What would an Ultimate 20th-Century Set be without the ultimate 20th-century rarity? An MS-65 example now trades between $65,000 and $90,000, easily making it one of the costliest coins in the entire type set.
Standing Liberty Quarter Type 1 (1916-1917)
The Scenario: Owning the distinction of being arguably the most beautiful quarter dollar ever struck, Massachusetts-born Hermon Atkins MacNeil’s Standing Liberty Quarter debuted at the height of Theodore Roosevelt’s artistically infused golden age of American coin design. The subject of the coin, borrowed from the Beaux-Arts movement, is a bare-breasted personification of Liberty. The reverse features an elegant depiction of an eagle in flight.
52,000 pieces (the result of a few days’ work) were struck in late December 1916. These, like the 1856 Flying Eagle cent struck 60 years earlier, were quietly entered into circulation, where they became highly sought after by collectors, dealers, and speculators. It’s estimated that 20% of the total mintage survives, but fewer than 1,500 likely exist in Mint State. The combination of its scarcity, the fact that it’s a first-year issue, and the amusingly controversial appearance of a bare breast add to the coin’s lasting appeal.
Guidance: All of these reasons make the 1916 quarter the must-have Type Coin for our Ultimate Set. A modest premium exists for Full Head (FH) examples. We find the head detail important, but would add—and not in a tongue-in-cheek fashion—that finding fully struck breasts with full detail is actually harder than finding a coin with a well-struck head. Be that as it may, a premium fully-struck example in MS-65 will set you back $25,000 to $45,000+. In MS-63 FH? About $15,000 to $25,000. By way of comparison, the much more common 1917 Type 1 costs roughly $800 to $1,100 in MS-65.
Standing Liberty Quarter Type 2a (1917-1924)
The Scenario: Liberty’s bare breasts were covered in chain mail, supposedly having something to do with a ginned-up controversy on the part of religious fundamentalists. The design lost much of its grandeur in the needless revision and certainly suffered technically as the new version struck up considerably worse than the original.
Guidance: As with the Type 1, the Type 2a (a slight revision to the obverse in 1925 gets the moniker Type 2b) includes an issue that serves as a stopper for most collectors. That release is the ultra-rare 1918/7-S overdate.
With but a handful of Full Head examples (top pop PCGS MS-64+) and fewer than 200 known examples in Mint State, the release is one of the 20th century’s most coveted silver issues. The 8/7 overdate wasn’t discovered until some twenty years after the coin’s production, which meant that the overwhelming majority of them had already entered into circulation. Mere luck accounts for the few Mint State survivors that remain.
Only the Full Head 1927-S approaches the price and scarcity of the 1918/7-S. An MS-63 example of the 1918/7-S will cost well over $30,000 to $40,000+, with only a handful ever certified in that grade. For a budget-conscious buyer looking for the rarity, even a low-grade circulated piece (e.g., F-12) still demands $3,500 to $5,000.
Standing Liberty Quarter Type 2b (1925-1930)
The Scenario: To better protect the date from the wear it was susceptible to in circulation, the Mint changed the obverse design in 1925. For the final six years of production, Standing Liberty quarters were struck with slightly recessed dates, which did protect the feature from wear but didn’t totally alleviate the problem.
And while this later period of Standing Liberty quarter production yielded some of the series’ more common issues, it also produced a handful of scarcities.
Guidance: The holy grail of Standing Liberty quarter rarities is the Full Head (FH) 1927-S. It’s open to debate which one truly is rarer: the 52,000 struck 1916 Type 1 or the 396,000 struck 1927-S. We cautiously believe fewer FH examples of the latter remain. Because of this, the coin is remarkably expensive.
Grades MS-65 FH and above will set you back the price of a luxury sports car. A choice MS-63 FH example trades for a mere fraction, but still demands a serious premium of $13,500 to $16,000+. With fewer than 20 possible examples certified by PCGS, this is clearly a 20th-century rarity that comes around only once every couple of years.
The second reason we like this issue is its combination of low mintage and ultimate scarcity. The Standing Liberty quarter is a difficult, expensive, and underrated series that has a finite number of extant quality pieces in several issues and an equally finite number of collectors that can afford them. Cherry-pick the best date and the best coin, and you will have your ultimate type set piece. For us there’s no question, a quality 1927-S is the way to go.
Washington Quarter – Silver (1932-1964)
The Scenario: What was intended to be a one-year circulating commemorative became one of many long-running presidential portrait issues that capped the Modern Era of United States coinage. Flanagan’s Washington quarter, despite its many famous detractors, evokes a timelessness that perfectly suits our nation’s first and most important President. The quarter denomination lay dormant the year before and the year after the coin’s debut in 1932. Production resumed in 1934, while the Mint undertook a handful of minor design changes. Though there are presumed to be no absolute rarities in the series, the silver period does contain a number of interesting and expensive numismatic delicacies.
Guidance: It almost goes without saying that the 1932-D is the king of the Washington quarter series.
For a short period of time, the ’32-D ran a close second to the ‘32-S. The latter had a slightly lower mintage, and based on this it was first believed to be the scarcer of the two issues. However, when the dust settled, it was apparent that the ’32-D, in mint state, was considerably more difficult to acquire than the lower mintage ’32-S.
At the top end of the grading spectrum, the sole MS-66 1932-D sold at auction in 2008 for $143,750. While subsequent auctions have seen prices soften for that particular coin, its record and historical importance remain. Four 1932-S quarters have been certified MS-66 by PCGS, the most recent to sell at auction being a beautiful pale gold and lavender CAC-certified example that brought $35,250 in 2013. Today, an MS-65 1932-D trades for approximately $8,000 to $12,000, while an MS-65 1932-S trades for $3,000 to $5,000.
In the silver Washington quarter period, no coin competes with the 1932-D at MS-66, but a few options exist for the adventurous collector at MS-65:
- 1943 Doubled Die Obverse (FS-103): This coin shows significant doubling in LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. PCGS reports a population of 25 in Mint State. An MS-65 is currently estimated at $12,000 to $15,000, and a top-pop MS-67 is a potential $50,000+ coin.
- 1937 Doubled Die Obverse (FS-101): This is a naked-eye visible, dramatically doubled coin that actually has fewer Mint State examples reported than the 1943 but is generally believed to be slightly less scarce. A CAC-certified PCGS MS-66 with a pale silvery-gold patina sold for $21,150 in 2013. Its value remains in that range today.
In our opinion, the Ultimate Type Set collector would choose among one of these four options to fill the silver Washington quarter hole. We like the ultimate scarcity concept and would take one of the high-end doubled dies over the 1932-D, but an eye-popping example of any of the four will always impress a collector and bring an impressive sum in the marketplace.
Washington Quarter – Clad (1965-1998)
The Scenario: The line of demarcation for many collectors, who are adverse to pursuing modern and post-modern coinage, is 1964, the year of the date freeze and composition change. Saying that differences between the old and new coining metals created a host of technical challenges for the Mint’s engraving and die shops is an understatement. While we’ve all seen more than our share of 1965 and later clad quarters, few recall many examples, especially in the early years, that evoke numismatic majesty. Several do exist, and the market for them, while nowhere approaching red hot, is developing and should continue to prove profitable for those who know where to look and how to trade in this material.
Guidance: We’ve written about clad Washington quarters before. And our guidance then was that the 1969 quarter, more than any other clad-period quarter struck since 1965, is the true collector coin of the series. Not only has the overwhelming majority of the issue been put into circulation, but the numbers of pristine 1969 mint sets are dwindling. The Philadelphia Mint’s production quality in the late ‘60s through the end of the ‘70s was demonstrably poorer than that of the Denver Mint, and practically everything that could go wrong with the 1969 quarter did.
In MS-66, the coin is undervalued at about $300 to $450. In MS-66+, the coin brings between $500 and $750, while a true MS-67 should bring $4,000 and above for a premium example. Personally, we’d hoard this issue in high grades.
Washington Quarter – State Quarter Series (1999-2008)
The Scenario: Finally, we come to the State Quarter series (1999-2008; 2009 if you grandfather the Territory and District of Columbia quarters into the series). The market today for conditionally rare State Quarters is surprisingly thin. So much so that there’s very little money to be made by searching for premium quality pieces in the raw and submitting them for grading (even in bulk).
Guidance: We like the idea of cherry-picking and storing PQ examples in 2×2 flips. The coins can be found on the cheap—mostly at or slightly above face value—and while there’s no shortage of nice coins, truly stunning examples for many issues aren’t as prevalent as one might assume. Still, unless you are looking at a surefire MS-68 or better, you’re better off keeping your coins tucked away in the raw.
While we are by no means bullish on State quarters as a series, we do feel that a strong exception needs to be made for attractive, naturally toned coins in the series. Clad coinage generally tones up in a range of mostly yellow hues. When you get pieces that display vibrant and attractive multi-colored toning, you’ve got something that will find a willing buyer at a significant premium. The price per piece is and will be highly variable and largely dependent on eye appeal and grade. But still, you might get lucky and get a $100+ offer on an MS-65 Connecticut that would have lingered on eBay for months were it not for the added color.
So, while State quarters might not be your thing, a complete set of colorful natural toners will certainly appeal to a growing number of collectors. Keep that in mind when you’re perusing the wares on the bourse floor.
Flip of a Coin:
- Sometimes, collecting coin ephemera is almost as cool as the coin itself. Charles recently had the good fortune of picking up a Norweb 14 (a common variety) of the 1856 Slanted 5 large cent in MS-63 from a reputable national dealer. The coin was exceptionally nice for the grade and reasonably priced, but what really made it stand out was the inclusion of a small brown envelope that read, in part: “Lot 350” A. Kosoff. P.O. Box 456 – Encino, California. Abe Kosoff was a leading national dealer, who got his start in 1929. That this piece retains that personal touch is one of the quintessential pleasures this hobby has to offer.
- MacNeil’s original design for the Standing Liberty quarter featured dolphins at Liberty’s feet. Interestingly, the design was completed at the time of the completion of the Panama Canal. The dolphin motif did end up on another United States coin: the highly coveted 1915 Pan-Pac commemorative $50 slug.
- We like to keep abreast of new coin legislation in Congress, especially proposals for new commemorative coins. The 112th Congress had commemorative fever…and the 113th looks to be closing the gap. Three new bills have been introduced recently: H.R. 3680 (the Breast Cancer Awareness Commemorative Coin Act), H.R. 3729 (the Korean Immigration Commemorative Coin Act…again), and H.R. 3867 (the Purple Heart Hall of Honor Commemorative Coin Act).
Our guide through the Ultimate 20th-Century Type Set continues next month. Would you like me to find and update the next section focusing on halves and silver dollars?
The post Coin Collecting Strategies: Building the Ultimate 20th Century Type Set, Part 3: Quarters appeared first on CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors.
