Whats up with washington quarters?

Stigmata

Out of my whole time of collecting coins or even that I could remember, I have never found a coin older then 1965 in circulation. I look at all the change I get everytime I purchase something and I never see them. Are they just all sucked outta circulation or somethin? heh

KlectorKid

For the most part yes they have been sucked out of circulation, I found a really beat up 1, once. But that is all I have seen in silver quarters in circ..

Geoman

Stigmata,

Welcome to the forum.

I search through 100's of rolls of quarters, and have never found a quarter older than 1965. So after doing that for a year, I finally gave up. It isn't worth the time or effort. The reason being is that 1964 and older they are silver, and not copper-clad. Everyone grabbed those up, and probably melted them in the 80's during the silver spike. Just my opinion.

StillLurking

If, while going thru rolls of quarters, you come across Canadian 25 Cent coins check the dates. Silver was used until 1968! .800 until 1967 and then reduced to .500 in 1968. There is an overlap in 1968 with both silver and nickel coins being minted.
What grade are the U.S. 1965's you're finding? I pull them from change for something to do. Most grade VG-F but I've found a few AU's.

kaleidoscopic

I find a pre 65, about once every 18 months. Kscope

Crashtestfixer

G... rember goin ta da coin stores(galleries) as a kid. Early 60s, silver everwhere. Then," talk of no mo silver", just a kid grabbin used 1c pieces(who could have guessed)?who killed Kennedy?dont know! But kennedy killed Franklin! that we know, so went the end of silver & the ok ta gold............belive it was Castro,"so my granny said". Banks-Casinos-backwoodswhatever, am not seein da silver. Really,,how many years since gone"64", add up the decades , + years. Happens, but so does a blue moon that rises & sets from the same place.
Alan " OOPS was that my 3c we just backed over?"

JamminJ

Hi Stigmata,

Welcome to the forum!

Silver coins in circulation are tough to find, Tough, but possible. My in-laws own a video store and I've volunteered to roll their coins. Here are my recent finds:

Lincolns will have one wheat back per every $5.00 or so, but occasionally there will be a bunch together. Heavy on dates in the 50's but the oldest was a 1917. Found a 1909 when I was a kid.

Jeffersons will have about 1 silver war nickel and 3 others from the 30's or 40's per $40. Found a well worn Buffalo from 1927 (I think - could be 1937) in a slot machine over Christmas.

I'll usually find about 1 silver Roosevelt dime in every $120 of dimes. Recently I found a Mercury - the only one ever!

Never get to check Washingtons, they're given out in change.

Get very few halves, but 40% or 90% silver Kennedies are not uncommon (not enough to estimate).

Never a silver dollar, very rarely a clad Ike.

If you enjoy searching don't give up there's still good stuff to be found. If you want to make a killing, there are better ways!

Hope this helps,
-JamminJ

mr3holesinone

You'll look a long time thru rolls before finding one. I find one about every year in change, about half of the time you'll HEAR it before you notice it. Don't be afraid to ask someone if you can have it if it's not in your possession either when you do hear that silver clink...95% of people don't know it's silver and it won't be worth a whole lot anyway.....what 80 cents tops?

The ones I've been lucky to get have been mostly VF/XF. Dimes 1964 and earlier were also silver and are pretty elusive to find in circulation although you'll find more of them than the quarters. Even wheat pennies are no longer common to find...I'm only getting a few in circulation a year now and I always look thru my change before wrapping it up and turning it in for cash.

The best way to accumulate some silver quarters/dimes is to visit your neighborhood coin dealer and rummage thru his junk silver. I was able to buy a bunch of Mercury dimes in AU/BU for 90 cents or a buck each. Plus there were many mintmarked dimes from the 1920-30s too in F-XF.

cladking

I find a silver quarter in change about every 18 months also. it will be picked
out of 7 or $800 worth of quarters. Nine times out of ten it will be a Washington
and the rest of the time a dateless SL. In addition I pick one up occasionally when
I swap a quarter to someone having trouble getting a machine to take a coin. It's
often just a silver quarter but I've gotten some really good moderns including some
70-D quarters struck on dime stock. Generally there are dozens of good and potentially
valuable clads that are found for each silver Washington found. The only significant
silver quarter I've EVER found was an AU 40-D in 1961.