'70's Quarters and an Attempt at Their Pricing.
cladking
Posts: 28,701 ✭✭✭✭✭
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This is the first attempt I've seen at pricing quarters from the '70's. It has some flaws in that some very common issues are priced higher than much scarcer issues. The problem is the extreme thinness of the market. There is very little supply but demand is very weak. You can't even find BU rolls to search since they were never set aside and if you do find one it is almost certainly a mint set roll.
And this is where things get very complex. Mint set coins were made to a far higher standard than roll coins. For instance the 1970 quarter virtually doesn't appear at all in rolls as a well struck Gem. Most coins are struck from worn dies and full strikes from good dies are very unusual. This is why these weren't set aside; they looked terrible. In mint sets they are much nicer with most being good strikes from new dies. Gems were fairly "common" in the set with about 5% being MS-65 or better. Only about 75% of these would go as chBU but Gems weren't that tough. Now days most of the mint sets are gone and most of the coins still in mint set packaging are tarnished so even nice chBU are not so easy as most people think. The Gems are out there but many many of the mint set Gems were just spent or are now degraded. So the available supply of Gem '70 is very low and the total supply is indeterminant because the longer these coins sit in mint set packaging the fewer that can be saved from the tarnish. More than half the Gems are still in the packaging because most rolls are composed of nice attractive MS-63 and MS-64 coins with low end specimens removed.
WYSIWYG. The sets are hard to find, the sets that are seen have tarnished '70 quarters, few dealers stock any modern but especially not Gem clad.
The best (scarcest) Gem quarter of the decade is easily the '71. These are nearly as tarnished as the '70 and fewer than 1% were Gem as issued. There are more near misses than with the '70 though so MS-64's are easier. There are several good dates but the dark horse of the decade is the '78-D. These had a low mintage, low savings rate from mint sets, and they are less likely to be OK after an acetone bath. "70 sets were cut up in enormous batches 1000's at a time but the Ikes are cut out in much smaller batches so quarters are more likely to be spent.
Until there's more demand these price lists have some degree of speculation. But this demand is likely to soar once collectors realize how few of the coins and mint sets survive. The mint sets are nearly gone and they are (were) the only source for Gems and the primary source for chBU specimens. Even the '70's quarters in circulation are getting few and far between. As they get longer in the tooth they also acquire more marking and severe problems. These were made to last only 30 years and the '70 is already 52 years old. If you can find a 1970 quarter in circulation there is a 50: 50 chance it's a cull and a virtual certainty it's below VG+. Just finding one is getting to be difficult enough.
The perception is these coins are so common that they aren't worth collecting but the reality is that if you want to collect them you can't find a source. Then there is the problem with the price guides that usually list all the coins at too low (or too high) a price making a trade very difficult.
All these things are changing now and the rosy future for clad predicted by the likes of RS Yeoman, Herb Hicks (proofartworkoncircs) , John J Pittman, et al may yet come to pass.
Better price guides are creating increasing demand leading to price discovery and even better guides.
Comments
ttt
Thank you for the link and the thread.
I don't have a deep supply of clad coinage, but over the years I managed to save perhaps ten rolls of choice to gem eagle reverse clad WQs. They are simply in paper rolls and are not in sets, but perhaps I'll go through and tabulate what is in there just to get a sense of what I was finding when they came across my path.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Many of the prices are ridiculous. Ok first draft- now someone needs to fix all the prices. Who prepared these prices?
Wondercoin
I don't know,a good deal is hard to find
@cladking ... Thanks for the excellent information. I have paid scant attention to coins of this period. I do have a large jar of quarters that have accumulated over the years. Perhaps I may have a quality coin from the '70's in there. Cheers, RickO
ttt> @TomB said:
I see so very few BU eagle reverse clad rolls I'm most curious what era or dates you have.
I did see some very nice gemmy rolls over the years and should have set more aside but tended to save only the nicest ones.
I agree. It's little better than Redbook and lists low grade proofs far too high but it's a start. I believe a few coins will actually trade at these levels. Sellers will be wiped out of the most grossly underpriced coins quickly (like the '71) and will adjust subsequent prices.
There are a few dealers actually offering "Gems" at prices around these level but their grading may be somewhat optimistic. It will take some time for these markets to shake out and by that time the prices are likely to be significantly higher and the grading more consistent.
Every date of clad quarter comes in Gem but some are very elusive. Just because you have difficulty finding a specific date hardly means that lower grades should be "promoted". Some quarters like the '82-P might not exist with a full strike but it can be found very well struck from good dies. Each collector defines "Gem" for themselves so every coin can find a home.
I love going through such accumulations. Every coin has its own unique story to tell. They each begin their lives as individuals and each has a vastly different path that can take it to the ends of the earth. A great deal of information about myriad subjects can be gleaned by considering even one of them.
As a very young boy I found it fascinating that just any quarter could be tendered in payment. The implications of this seemed staggering. Most coins throughout history have had very productive lives and came to a poor end but every once in a while one ends up in a collection.
I should have been more clear that these are not solid date rolls. Rather, when a choice or gem appearing eagle reverse clad WQ came across my way I tended to save the individual coin and then rolled them into these rolls. So, over the course of two or three decades I might have put away a few hundred (at most) of these pieces at a rate of one or two at a time.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I see. You're better off with the Gems than with solid date rolls for almost every date. There were just so few gemmy rolls of any date the odds would suggest they weren't too nice. '85 and '86 rolls might be the exception. I've seen some real nice rolls of these. I saw an original '86 roll that was as nice as a mint set roll. I saved very few rolls because the quality just wasn't there and on the rare occasion it was $10 was a lot of money to set aside so I'd just pull out the nicest ones.
I've gone through entire bags and boxes of moderns without finding a single coin that even approached being Gem.
This is the primary problem with the supply now days; the coins were usually so ugly no one would even think of saving them and most people didn't consider looking through large numbers to find nice ones. So now the lower grade Uncs are little more common than the mid grade and Gems are tough. There are no longer XF's or even VF's because they weren't saved either and now the few survivors are beaten up in circulation. Gem sets are attractive, scarce, and fun to put together but the market remains thin, largely because of pricing. Redbook has nonsensical pricing. Where older coins are listed at far over retail modern prices are usually well under wholesale.
I set aside 5 or 10 coins every year from pocket change and circulated rolls as well. I only saved Gems but many times I'd get a few back in change at the gas station or grocery. If they were really nice I'd ask for a few dollars in quarters and if they were even nicer I'd ask what bank they used.