Spaghetti Hair

Onastone

What years were the Washington Quarters sporting "spaghetti hair" ? Did it start in 1999? And when did it end? This one from 1999

This one from 2021.

coinbuf

Started in 1999, went through 2021 with the Tuskegee Airman quarter. The Washington crossing the Delaware went back to the traditional look.

Namvet69

Do you think George put Brylcreem or vo5 in his hair?

JBK

It started much earlier. 1993 or 1994.

RickMilauskas

I think he used Vitalis.

ricko

It sure is a distinctive variation. I noticed it first in pocket change... Initially thought I had a tooled coin. Then found out it was standard .... still looks strange. I have a two quart jar of quarters, almost full, and if I grab a handful, the spaghetti hair quarters still 'jump out' visually. Cheers, RickO

coinbuf

@JBK said:
It started much earlier. 1993 or 1994.

PCGS does have some great resources available, from coin facts:

JBK

@coinbuf said:

@JBK said:
It started much earlier. 1993 or 1994.

PCGS does have some great resources available, from coin facts:

That's referring the general design, but the portrait was reworked during the 1965-1998 time-frame.

I believe that the relief was lowered and the exaggerated spaghetti hair really made an appearance in the early 1990s.

Its tough for me to differentiate from these photos of high grade examples, but it is more obvious when roll-searching.

MarkKelley

The spaghetti hair ended with the 2009 territories coins. The ATB program kicked off in 2010 with the original 1932 portrait.

JBK

.

IkesT

@Onastone said:
What years were the Washington Quarters sporting "spaghetti hair" ? Did it start in 1999? And when did it end?

It depends in part on your definition of what is full-blown "spaghetti hair" (i.e., where you place the cutoff).

In the beginning, there was a transition over a period of several years from hair that is somewhat less spaghetti-ish to distinctly more spaghetti-ish. I would point to 1987 as the beginning of this transition.

Here is the 1986 quarter:

And here is the 1987 quarter, by comparison. Not yet full-blown spaghetti hair, but still distinctly more spaghetti-ish than the previous year:

The spaghetti hair detail may have been toned down slightly in the ATB series, but they are still distinctly spaghetti-ish compared to the pre-1987 designs.

Ditto for the 2021 Washington Crossing the Delaware Quarters:

I would say that the spaghetti hair ends with what I affectionately refer to as the "drooling underbite" design of 2022:

coinbuf

@JBK said:

@coinbuf said:

@JBK said:
It started much earlier. 1993 or 1994.

PCGS does have some great resources available, from coin facts:

That's referring the general design, but the portrait was reworked during the 1965-1998 time-frame.

I believe that the relief was lowered and the exaggerated spaghetti hair really made an appearance in the early 1990s.

Its tough for me to differentiate from these photos of high grade examples, but it is more obvious when roll-searching.

Using those extreme examples is not a good way to differentiate, those super hammered coins just show what the design really should have looked like all along. You are correct that the design was tinkered with post 1965 but the design change that led to the exaggerated spaghetti hair (that is easily seen on all circulation coins) for did not start until 1999.

JBK

@coinbuf said:

@JBK said:

@coinbuf said:

@JBK said:
It started much earlier. 1993 or 1994.

PCGS does have some great resources available, from coin facts:

That's referring the general design, but the portrait was reworked during the 1965-1998 time-frame.

I believe that the relief was lowered and the exaggerated spaghetti hair really made an appearance in the early 1990s.

Its tough for me to differentiate from these photos of high grade examples, but it is more obvious when roll-searching.

Using those extreme examples is not a good way to differentiate, those super hammered coins just show what the design really should have looked like all along. You are correct that the design was tinkered with post 1965 but the design change that led to the exaggerated spaghetti hair (that is easily seen on all circulation coins) for did not start until 1999.

"Extreme" examples? 🤔 You used a proof coin to show the effect in your example.

I differentiate based on circulated coins found in roll searching. It is very obvious in that environment. Spaghetti hair and lower reliefs started much earlier than 1999, across multiple denominations.

If you feel that 1999 is more spaghetti-er than previous years then that's your opinion, but the garish hairstyles started with the lower relief strikes.

jesbroken

They should have just quit the Washington bust in 22, it is as awful a modern design as I have ever seen. JMO
Jim

IkesT

@coinbuf said:
Using those extreme examples is not a good way to differentiate, those super hammered coins just show what the design really should have looked like all along.

This is incorrect. The increased hair detail seen on these coins is by design.

You are correct that the design was tinkered with post 1965 but the design change that led to the exaggerated spaghetti hair (that is easily seen on all circulation coins) for did not start until 1999.

As I mentioned in my post above, that depends on your definition of "full-blown" spaghetti hair. There are, in reality, a whole family of spaghetti hair hub designs, with some that are distinctly more spaghetti-ish than others, but also some that are so similar to each other that they are difficult to distinguish. Rather than nit-pick about this distinction, I refer to the whole family of designs as "spaghetti hair".

You seem very sure of your cutoff of 1999, but objectively, it is difficult to say there is any significant distinction between the hair detail of 1998 and 1999 quarters:

gonzer

@Namvet69 said:
Do you think George put Brylcreem or vo5 in his hair?

A little dab'll do him.

JBK

@IkesT said:
...it is difficult to say there is any significant distinction between the hair detail of 1998 and 1999 quarters:

Personally, i always felt that the 1999 portrait was just a slightly shrunken version of the one that preceeded it.

cladking

@RickMilauskas said:
I think he used Vitalis.

Mebbe Ragu? Alfredo sauce?

cladking

I think the '96 issue was the first spaghetti hair. They also reversed the concavity of the coin this year so that the obverse detail was lower and reverse higher which made it more prominent. The '97 and '98 were only marginally better if at all.

Onastone

@JBK said:

Personally, i always felt that the 1999 portrait was just a slightly shrunken version of the one that preceeded it.

I see that now, there is more space between the lettering and the bust.

Onastone

@IkesT said:

I would say that the spaghetti hair ends with what I affectionately refer to as the "drooling underbite" design of 2022:

You are too kind!!! I've noticed this, not sure if it's a die chip, but on many of the new quarters, so far both Maya Angelou and Sally Ride, George's lip has a big bump on it...I was calling it the "cold sore" design.

Onastone

@IkesT said:

In the beginning, there was a transition over a period of several years from hair that is somewhat less spaghetti-ish to distinctly more spaghetti-ish. I would point to 1987 as the beginning of this transition.

I didn't realize there were so many hair changes....now that you bring it to my attention.... and the latest design is the smoothest hair yet...almost like dreadlocks. Did the mint hire hairstylists to assist the artists??

JBK

As the relief became shallower in the name of "coinability" they tweeked the design elements.

The 2022, being a new design, had the benefit of being designed (or adapted) to comply with the relief requirements from the beginning. It also seems that the relief might be a bit higher than the later 1990s coins.

Connecticoin

1995 thru 1998 were the “Full Spaghetti” years.