Sad State of State Quarters

1956Quarter

Although I mainly concentrate on putting together my Type Set, Franklins, and Washington Quarters, I am also involved in doing the state quarters with the kids. Yesterday I stopped into the local shop to get the Mississippi D mint quarters for the kids albums. No longer being carried..... I have several dealers in this northeast area who used to sell the quarters loose, and some let you pick a nice one out. Two are no longer carrying state quarters at all, and the others have signs up saying the Illinois will be their last. I asked why and they said sales have all but stopped, and they are no longer priofitable. Back when the first series was released these things were all the rage. You had a hard time finding a dealer with stock, and when you did, the prices were inflated. Everyone around here was jumping on the band wagon, and you had garage sale and flea market dealers selling these things everywhere. Now... nothing. One dealer will offer only full rolls at a serious premim. I don't need a roll, I need 4 quarters, and I'll not pay a premium for a whole roll I don't need, and won't pay a premium for individual coins unless the four I need are super nice which most of the rolled and bagged coins are not. It seems to me that these state quarters are going to be a regional thing. The first two years everything was HOT in the east as those were the sets with the eastern states. Then as we moved closer to the mid-west things slowed a lot, and now that we are entering the real heartland areas, sales here in the east have dropped off to almost nothing. I'd be willing to bet in the mid-west these things are getting hotter than the sun, and after things move to the west coast it will die off in the mid-west as well, leaving only the hard core collectors of these things buying in the east and mid-west.

fcloud

Have you checked with your bank or a credit union. Some banks and credit unions in my are get a rolls and you can get them at face value. (You may only wind up with one mint mark, but it could be worth a try.

Outhaul

Lots of folks in the east trade bank rolls with folks in the west and everyone's happy!

But, unfortunately, your dealer is correct. State quarters are going...

Cheers,

Bob

BAJJERFAN

Though I usually don't have any trouble getting all of the rolls I want from local banks, one gets the feeling sometimes that even the local bankers (tellers) think this state quarter thing is a pain in the butt.

meos1

1956 Quarter has provided intreseting insight that I have not heard before. If this is a reality, the current line of thinking that there will be so many people collecting these "things" they will have a deep penetration into the general populus then they will not be as highly valued is not going to come true. We will find a regional dispersement of quarters and collectors who collect the series will realize an increase premium based on geographic location.

In essence the rules of collecting will hold true for what should prove to be a short series...If you develop a nice collection you will realize a premium based on concurrency and grade. I will go so far as to say that in the near future (5-50 years) the grade bands will be very narrow. I think with time and nautural ebb and flow we will see some up lift, just not enough to make a Wall Street broker quit his day job.

Bottom line: Collect what you like and enjoy the collecting.

sumnom

Perhaps the state quarter market is tanking because the designs are so gawd-awful.

meos1

Regional appeal is logical; "I love where I live, I am getting our quarter, Oh those states we don't need them."

mdwoods

Slabbed ones are selling on ebay.

APA1709

I agree with 1956 quarter.....I have seen a huge decrease in desire for state quarters. I think the silver proof sets will remain hot, and my prediction.....the CA quarter will be very hot and may even spark renewed interest in SQ collecting....but CA isn't due out till 2005 I think. Advice concerning banks is good 1956, I get BU rolls from my local bank, all I want and of course, face value, can't go wrong there, of course, only one mint mark, but I have an Aunt in OR who can get the D's. So, I would establish that relationship with a local bank, face value, much better than 32.00 for two rolls from the mint. I enjoy collecting SQ and will continue to do so, but I don't think they'll ever brink the premium return that they did in the beginning. Heck, as one member put it, DE BU rolls were once selling for 55.00, no longer.

twodollardon

I have all the D's you need just PM me and I will send them to you.

Don

richbeat

A sure way to know that interest in the state quarters has dropped off is the fact that the home shopping channels are no longer pushing them and their various incarnations (gold and platinum layered.) Shop At Home even had a subscription service going for awhile, and now there's almost nothing.

TheNumish

I think the State Quarters are just following a natural pattern that you see in the coin business all the time. When they first came out everyone was excited about them, everyone wanted them and there was a lot of action. A lot of people made money by saving bags and then selling them so what happens next? Your brother, sister, uncle and cousin save bags and they become so common they have no premium. Then people loose interest and stop saving them. That's where we are right now. People are disgusted because they can't make easy money so they aren't saving them.

What I think will happen there will be some event like a run of major states like CA, TX and FL being issued that will spark interest again. Or maybe when the series is over they will be hot again. Who knows what will happen but it will happen. When it does hard to get quarters like KY-P will be worth good money. Wouldn't be surprised if they went over $25 a roll. Just try to find a few bags of KY-P's now and it is hard to do at less than $1,400 a bag. Just think what will happen if the market picks up. I don't think Ohio-P's will be as good as everyone thinks. Too many people saved them because everyone knew the mintage would be low. Kind of like 1955-D Quarters and 1955-S Dimes. Mark my words-- one day these dealers who have turned their backs on the State Quarter program are going to be scratching their heads wondering why they are having to pay so much for some of the ones that have been issued on the past year or two.

MastaHanky

I think part of the problem is that they're taking way too long to release all of them. If you think about the average young kid who was starting a state quarter collection, he'll be finishing high school about the time they finish releasing all of them. And we all know that 99% of high school students won't admit to having a coin collection.

If they had cut the release time to five years instead of ten, I think we'd see a lot more continued interest.