AboutMyCoinWashington Quarter Cheat Sheet
Notes
- Quarters dated 1964 and earlier are 90 per cent silver. From 1965 they are copper-nickel clad.
- Stand a quarter on its edge: a clad one shows a copper stripe the whole way round and a silver one does not.
- There is no quarter dated 1975. Everything struck in 1975 and 1976 carries the double date 1776-1976.
Condition
As always, condition matters when it comes to Washington quarters. Washington quarters with all of their features, or with nice original lustre, should be set aside.
Dates
Dates and mint marks to be on the look out for.
| Date | Mintage | Rank | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1932-S | |||
| 1932-D | |||
| 1937-S | |||
| 2019-W | |||
| 2020-W | |||
| 1939-S | |||
| 1940-D | |||
| 1938-S | |||
| 1955-D | |||
| 1934-D | |||
| 1936-S | |||
| 1946-S | |||
| 1936-D | |||
| 1932 | |||
| 1947-S | |||
| 1935-S | |||
| 1935-D | |||
| 1958 | |||
| 1939-D | |||
| 1937-D | |||
| 1940-S | |||
| 1951-S | |||
| 1946-D | |||
| 1949 | |||
| 1938 | |||
| 1949-D | |||
| 1950-S | |||
| 1954-S |
Common Washington Quarter Errors
| Error | What settles it |
|---|---|
| 1950 over-punched mint mark | On some 1950-D quarters the curve of an S shows inside the D, and on some 1950-S quarters a D shows underneath the S. Both letters are raised.A repunched or grease-filled mint mark mimics both and is commoner. The under-letter has to be a readable shape in the right place rather than a blob, and machine doubling looks flat and shelf-like. |
| 2004-D Wisconsin extra leaf | An extra leaf on the ear of corn on a 2004 Denver Wisconsin quarter, either curving up or pointing down. It is raised, bold and carries the same lustre as the design around it.A scratch or a scrape is cut into the surface and looks rough at its edges. Only 2004 Denver Wisconsin quarters qualify, so check the year, the mint mark and the design before anything else. |
| Off-centre strike | Part of the design is missing and a plain crescent of blank metal is left in its place. The struck part stays fully sharp right up to where it stops.A coin ground, filed or mangled by machinery after it left the mint loses detail gradually and leaves burred metal. A genuine off-centre strike has a clean, sharp boundary and an untouched blank beside it. |
| Clipped planchet | A smooth curved bite out of the rim, with the rim flattened or the design weak directly opposite it.A coin cut or snapped after striking has a rough edge and a burr. That weakness opposite the clip is the part that is hard to fake, so if the rest of the rim is perfectly normal, be sceptical. |
| Die crack or cud | A raised irregular line wandering across the flat field, or a raised blob of blank metal over the rim where a piece of the die broke away.Raised is the die; cut into the surface is damage. If a fingernail catches in it, it is a scratch. Worth very little unless the cud is large. |
| Repunched mint mark | The mint mark shows a second, offset outline of itself, both impressions rounded and equally raised.Machine doubling is far more common and looks flat, shelf-like and shiny along its doubled edge rather than rounded. If the second image reads as a smear rather than a second letter, it is machine doubling and is worth nothing. |
| Lamination flake | A thin layer of metal peeling away or already missing, in a flat irregular patch, caused by impurities in the strip the blank was cut from.Corrosion and environmental damage look similar and are very common on coins that sat in the ground or in a damp jar. A lamination has a clean step down to the layer beneath; corrosion is pitted and rough. |
Rare Washington Quarter Errors
| Error | What settles it |
|---|---|
| 1937 doubled die obverse | Doubling on IN GOD WE TRUST on a 1937 Philadelphia quarter, both images rounded and fully separated.Machine doubling leaves a flat shelf along one edge of a letter and is far commoner. Doubled dies are also recorded for 1934, 1942-D, 1943 and 1943-S, and every one of them is settled the same way. |
More on the series: Washington quarter.