NGC-MS68 Common Date Quarter: $19,250

wondercoin

I paid some strong money for nice Wash quarters in the past Long Beach sale, but, to my shock the market got even stronger tonight!! A collector tonight just bid $19,250 to win a 1948(s) Wash Quarter in NGC-MS68 in the Teletrade sale tonight!!! This has got to be a world record for an NGC-MS68 Wash quarter thus far!! This was a colorful coin that even a dealer I know had bid over $13,000 in the sale to buy for inventory. This shows me that:

1. The color coin monster prices we have seen for Commems and Morgans has certainly made its way into the Wash Quarter series.

2. Serious collectors are paying ULTRA STRONG money for nice NGC coins.

I have "stepped up" on Wash quarters this past year to buy some neat coins. I guess I am going to have to "step it up" another notch to compete from here!!! Wondercoin

EVillageProwler

Geez! I could never bring myself to pay that kind of money for a common coin in an uncommon grade when I can't tell the difference between that grade and one that is a point lower.

I guess since you posted this in the registry forum, I'm assuming that you feel the motivation to buy the coin is for the top-pop nature of it.

(I'm sure the coin is nice too!)

EVP

oldcameoproofsguy

I hope that the exceptionally toned pop top Franklins see this kind of surge in price since I do own a coin or two. That would be really nice!

wondercoin

Baseball: I do try to not attack the purchasing decisions of fellow collectors, but maybe you missed my description of the events as "shocked". Wondercoin

Bcsican

I`ve been gone for awhile..... but those prices scare me for that coin!!! and im use to scary stuff, how you doing Mitch...?

Typetone

Baseball:

Look at it in reverse. Instead of the car, house, or college education, you could have bought a 48S Washington in NGC 68. Who is to say which is ultimately worth more? Someone thought the Washington to be the better choice. Sounds silly, but look at all the money lovers pay for diamonds. 20K diamonds, while not for everyone, are certainly purchased by those with the funds. And after all, 20K diamonds are really quite common. There must be thousands of them around. The Washington was one of a kind.

Greg

andy007

Does anyone have a link to the TT auction? It must be a monster in person. Now, does anyone have a chance to view the coin in person prior to viewing and bidding online? Or are people just bidding this amount of money hoping the coin looks as nice as the digital image, not worried about the outrageous return fees associated with teletrade?

baseball,

What 4 year university are you referring where you can get 1 person, much less 2 in for a complete 4 years with books? I am asking because I went to an average, academic and cost-wise university, and am paying more than $20,000 back that is still on my loan and I have been paying for a year and a half now. And that does not include books.

RooseyFan

Mitch,

I was watching that coin too. Can't believe the price!!!!! Hope Roosevelts don't go this crazy.

Butch

Here is the link.


MS-68 Washington Quarter

wondercoin

Matt: Great to have you back! Kennedys are selling at fair prices - time to get back in?

Butch: I hope your right as well. It is still neat to be able to buy a nice toned Roosie at a coin show for $5!!

Andy: I believe Teletrade exhibited that auction at the Baltimore show, which is why that particular dealer decided to place a max bid at $12k, plus commish. He actually got a "tip" on the coin from Washvarieties from our boards here to "check it out". I hear it was very nice. That dealer figured he could win the coin (for FAR LESS THAN HIS MAX BID) and sell it to me as a PCGS-MS68 after he crossed it. But, when the coin broke through his max bid of $12k, at first he thought I had lost my mind and outbid him! Then, he concluded even I couldn't be more crazy than he was placing that bid in the firstplace!! After the auction, a customer of this dealer called him on the phone telling the dealer he had placed a max bid of $17,500 plus commish ($19,250) and he won it at $17,500 plus commish!!!! Hence, a second interested collector who bid it up to $17,000?? This is when the dealer called me just to make sure I had not gone completely "wild".

Hey, as I said, I really do not try to attack other collectors' buying decisions - why should we? This coin may have been very special to someone, perhaps born or married in 1948? And, by the way, if that is the case and you are reading this, I might be able to sell you my 1948(p) quarter in PCGS-MS68 to go with it - today only!! Just PM me (coin subject to prior sale (Matt- inside joke).

Wondercoin

CarlWohlforth

Nice toning!

It is not only Washingtons where people pay tons of money for the finest quality coin known. Millions of IHC were minted each year and the same goes for Morgans and many other types. Face it, some people are willing to pay a lot to own the finest, be it modern, classic, diamond or art.

Personally everytime I see a $70,000+ car being driven around I think to myself I would rather buy a new pickup truck *and* several deep cameo 19'th century type coins! To each his own.

andy007

Thanks for the background Mitch. I don't have any problems with anyone bidding enormous sums of money on auctions with only a digital image, it is their money anyway right. And, since it was sight seen makes me want to really see at least a picture of the coin. I agree with you on the financial aspect though, whatever anyone likes and has the money to pay up for it with no qualms, is great IMO. Too bad I'm not in that kind of financial situation where I could come up with $19,000 plus for a monster Washington.

JY93

It must be a beautiful coin. But that kind of money! I think that if I was going to spend that much on Washingtons that I would buy a true rarity in the series. The 1932D or the 1932S. Just my opinion.
I am very happy with my 1948 s MS66 that only cost me $52.

MoneyLA

I am so HAPPY and RELIEVED that this "common date" Washington sold at such a CRAZY price, because I was afraid that I overpaid for this proof Washington on ebay. Or, did I still overpay??

cheers, alan mendelson
Link to my purchase

monsterman

mitch

i might have to bring out my 13 ( from the grading guru) on a scale of 10 ......~!!!!!!!

gregg

wondercoin

Gregg: The grading guru has tightened up in his old age. That coin of yours might only be a "12" on the 1-10 color scale today.

Can you post the scan here again for all to enjoy?

Wondercoin

kieferscoins

There has to be a point where many people won't "step it up" and the market slows down for the particular series. How much farther for the washington series?

Cameron Kiefer

Typetone

I've changed my mind on pop 1-3 common dates. I used to think they were overpriced. Now, I kind of think that buying a pop 1 common is getting the best of a huge group, while buying a low pop rare date is getting the best of a small group. A date being common means that there are many high end pieces. The best of that group must really be great. So, a common date 68 Washington probably looks much better than say the 32D in 66. A type collector will gravitate towards the low pop common. They might really be pretty good deals.

washvarieties

WOW
A great coin a master winner if only I had $20,000 to bid $$$$
a for sure 48s I sat for over 20 min looking a steal who knows great coins good Washingtons can be had#### all you hafe to do is find em

north Greg
can't find a solid 61d

Steve
I will send you a 1945 PCGS for to much BUT A BEAUTY

Brad
not a call yet????? on the 1934 MEDIUM MOTTO (Breen 4272) pcgs 65 what a great coin and one of the best of the SEVEN


W bread

David P
tough up in the top ten

Mitch
great coin the 48s

COLOR COIN
see you up north

still looking
1943 double dies AU or better
DDO-001 DDO-007 DDO-010 DDO-011 DDO-014 DDO-018 DDO-021 DDO-26 PLUS ALL DOUBLE DIE REVERSE'S 1943 I think most of the reverse dies were from 1942 the branch mints
many coins in 1943, 99,700,000 est obeverse dies (250) and reverse dies (334) DENVER 41 obeverse dies 54 reverse dies ( buy this coin in better grades) last the 1943s 55 obveerse dies 73 reverse dies The 1943d has the best RPM's in the Washington set
ALWAYS Buying great Washington's

TomB

I looked at that coin closely at the TT both in Baltimore. It was nice, but, to me, wasn't worth near that money. Of course, please remember that I won't pony up that kind of money for any relatively common coin simply because of its grade and toning. Keep in mind, too, that I am a real sucker for toning. I'm not saying this is a bad deal for the buyer, heck, it might be a great deal, I'm just saying I didn't think this piece had any chance of going anywhere near that level.

wondercoin

Tom: Thanks for the assessment.

This is one of the very reasons great collections trade hands. Prices reach a point where the seller who spent years/decades assembling a wonderful collection simply can't resist the sensational run up in prices and decides to sell into the strength. That isn't to say the coins will not go up from there, or go up from there.

I remember the hot debates on the boards over the past couple years where the question was raised whether the wild prices on color Commems or color Morgans was too much. There was a contingent that believed that virtually no price is too much, as these color coins are essentially "works of art", which will bring whatever price the market will bear.

The same can be said for this Wash quarter. It is possible the coin is the nicest 1948(s) toned quarter yet discovered (I do have a PCGS-MS67 of this date that is a wonderful coin as I recall at far less than 1/10 of the price, which will have to hold me for now). To a collector who wants the very best, however, I can understand the thinking behind this purchase. I would have loved to own this coin myself, but would rather use the money to make the house payment for the better part of a year

Is the coin worth nearly $20,000? If it had sold for $30,000 would that have been a fair price? $50,000? The market decided it was worth $20,000 this past Sunday. One thing for sure, the price of my PCGS-MS67 pretty toned 1948(s) quarter went up following this auction! Wondercoin.

MoneyLA

Mitch wrote:

"The market decided it was worth $20,000 this past Sunday. One thing for sure, the price of my PCGS-MS67 pretty toned 1948(s) quarter went up following this auction!"

And that is the truth. I suspect that this auction moved the entire color/price/ratio scale up a dozen notches.

Scary. What price beauty?

Mitch, this question please: If the coin were sent to PCGS and came back in a ms67 slab, would it still be a $20,000 coin? Or a two-thousand dollar coin?

cheers, alan mendelson

oreville

Hmmm...To think that I paid top dollar at $155 for my unopened shotgun bankwrapped 1948-S roll of quarters just over four years ago. The two end coins looks to be wild colored as well.

wondercoin

"Mitch, this question please: If the coin were sent to PCGS and came back in a ms67 slab, would it still be a $20,000 coin? Or a two-thousand dollar coin?"

Alan: Excellent question. First, let's agree that in virtually every case, a coin such as this would never be sent to PCGS other than for crossover. Hence, the coin would have -0- chance to come back in a PCGS-MS67 holder, unless the seller was silly enough to break the coin from the MS68* holder, or really believed the coin was a shot MS69 and was willing to take a HUGE RISK.

Speaking of breaking these NGC-MS68 coins from the holders, let me tell you a true story involving a very interesting Wash quarter. A collector whos Registry set is now retired in the Wash quarter area (and he had a fabulous set) had a very valuable 1945(p) brilliant NGC-MS68 Wash quarter. He tried to cross it down several times to PCGS-MS67- at the time PCGS had graded very, very few 1945(p) quarters in MS67 (even today there are less than (10) known PCGS-MS67 quarters of this date and I want to say that at the time of this decision, the pop may have been a couple coins only). Every time, the coin came back uncrossed (hence, PCGS was grading it no higher than MS66)!! Finally, the collector had enough of the crossover "BS" and broke the coin from the NGC holder and submitted it raw to PCGS. It came back graded MS66, just like every time it was denied for crossover to MS67!! The coin was later placed in the NGC-MS67 holder and I can understand NGC's view that once the coin leaves their holder, they can not guarantee grade nor have 100% certainty that the coin was not dipped or messed with, etc. In any event, that NGC-MS68 1945(p) quarter (blast white) would have been worth a pretty penny today ($7,500+?) and instead now resides in a holder where coins routinely trade for well under $1000 for this date and grade. Should the coin ever cross to PCGS (which, in my opinion, it deserves), its value will obviously rise in this market.

So, how does this all tie into Alan's question? To me, it shows that prices for special high end coins are near impossible to quantify where the spreads can be 10x between grades. First, NGC's opinion on grade is vital and highly respected. That 1945(p) quarter would likely trade at $7500+ today if NGC said it was an MS68 again. As a "PQ" MS67, the coin might trade in the NGC-MS67 holder for a nice premium (say $1500-$2000, or more if a collector liked the backround?) If the coin crossed tomorrow to PCGS-MS67 blast white, the coin might command strong money in this market (say $4,000++?). So, there you have it. What is this coin worth today sitting in the NGC-MS67 holder? I guess, to me, $4,000, because I am confident the coin will crossover one day at PCGS, where it has a current value in my mind around that price. To another, maybe $1500, because that is what the current market might be on an NGC-MS67 coin. Yet, to someone else, maybe $6,000 because he might think he could convince NGC to put it back in the NGC-MS68 holder, because it is so PQ for an MS67. And, we would all be wrong when the coin went to auction and sold for some other number that no one could explain!!

Wondercoin