We Have Not Discussed MS State Quarters Lately

wondercoin · February 9, 2004 12:34AM

I POSTED THIS ON A THREAD ON THE US COIN FORUM AND THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE INTERESTING TO DISCUSS HERE AS WELL:

"I've been told over and over that Statehood quarters will never be
worth much more than 25cents in my lifetime."

THIS IS A DISCUSSION OF MINT STATE COINS ONLY (IMHO)

For some reason the US Mint (both Denver and Phila) essentially forgot how to strike high end MS state quarters in 2003. Collectors and dealers witnessed pops going from multi-thousands of MS68's and 100-200 MS69's in 2002 to several dozen MS68's and -0- MS69 in 2003! Additional collectors (possibly some who thought they could "cash in" on selling slabbed high end state quarters they could pluck from 2003 mint sets which they purchased for $14.95/set from the mint in mass quantity) then went back and took a look at many of the difficult 1999-2001 states (mostly Denver) and began to appreciate the rarity of the finest, high end examples of the earlier years.

The result is high grade MS state quarter collecting is possibly at the strongest level today as it has ever been at. IMHO, possibly only MS Lincoln cents have a stronger collector base at this time as measured from the standpoint of collectors desiring to build a PCGS Registry set at this time and willing to search rolls, bags, mint sets, etc., as well as purchase coins at auction. Again, just my opinion at this time.

Finally, what is so neat about the MS state quarters is one can elect to go "one or two grades under pop top" and build a beautiful collection of coins for "a song". For example, I have been wholesaling out PCGS-MS66 Delaware, Pennsylvania, etc. for less than $10/coin (although I am just about sold out)! It is a collection one can truly have pure FUN with if they chose to.

Wondercoin

Dabigkahuna · February 9, 2004 1:59AM

Mitch,

Im just wondering if less people are breaking up mint sets for 2003 because of the Jefferson nickel change and that this may have something to do with the lower number of high grade quarters submitted for 2003?

Larry
Dabigkahuna

wondercoin · February 9, 2004 2:04AM

Larry: I bought -0- 2003 Mint sets personally, so I can not provide you a first hand answer to your question. But, from the sources I speak with and deal with, my opinion is the sets were heavily broken up and simply yielded next to nothing for the effort (if anything at all). Perhaps some "set breakers" can comment as well.

Wondercoin

eye · February 9, 2004 8:19AM

The 2003 mint sets had tremendous problems for some reason. Terrible quality of available State Quarters in mint sets explains the population numbers of high grades for 2003. As an example, this is the only year I know of since the State Quarter program started that a high grade quarter (MS68 or higher) has yet to be made from a mint set. All 3 MS68 Illinois Ds came from bank rolls. Not another one has been made since February 2003 and the 2003 mint sets had not become available for purchase until after that time. Unless trends do a 180 degree turn, 2003 will be one of the lowest submitted years of the entire program because of poor quality and the fact that the mint stopped selling mint sets in early January 2004. 1999 through 2002 have from 14,000 to 17,000 submitted coins so far for each year. I doubt if 2003 will surpass 6,500 at the programs conclusion. High grade State Quarters are much more difficult to find than collectors, not familure with the searies, assume.

Donn Murphy

mhnies · February 9, 2004 10:42PM

I ditto wondercoin's comments on the 2003s.

I bought (100) 2003 mint sets and ended up with very few 67s.

pontiacinf · February 9, 2004 10:50PM

you guys have ignored the one source of very very nice ms statehoods...

and ya know what, Im not even gonna bother telling you. First its cost prohibitive (doubt it) and you guys wouldnt wanna take the time. But ive aquired alot and opened very few, but baby those ms68s are there, and in quanity.

Now someone just needs ta figure out what im talking about.

mhnies · February 9, 2004 11:04PM

Give it up.....PLEASE???

wondercoin · February 10, 2004 3:32AM

A treasure hunt for MS68 state quarters - how fun

Wondercoin

cladking · February 10, 2004 8:03AM

The typical jumbo bag probably won't contain any MS-68's or there would be higher pops.
But if these were treated as an archeological dig and opened from the top then it would
be a simple matter of just chasing the coins down. If they exist then they'll likely have
gone to just one or a few areas and they merely need to be found.

Where did Pontiacinf say he was from? S. CA?

pontiacinf · February 11, 2004 2:38AM

ok...i waited long enough...but im serious when I say this:

FDC's

And I am far from joking.

cladking · February 11, 2004 2:50AM

<< <i>ok...i waited long enough...but im serious when I say this:

FDC's

And I am far from joking. >>

I've heard this before. I've also heard that the coins they give out at the
opening day ceremonies are superb gems but can't get independent con-
firmation of it. At the launch of the DE quarter they actually had a press
on the grounds striking them.

mhnies · February 11, 2004 3:34AM

I have been told that there are no stupid questions.......
so here goes.......what the heck is FDC?

pontiacinf · February 11, 2004 6:56AM

FDC= First Day Cover

wondercoin · February 11, 2004 9:37AM

Bill: I have only had -1- experience with FDC's and it was a miserable experience. One of the board members dropped off a large pile of fresh, sealed FDC's and we agreed to split whatever great coins came of it. There were maybe 50+ FDC's in all. I pulled out -1- coin that graded MS66!

So, if this is a secret source, perhaps the (50) or so specimens I looked at were simply out of the ordinary (on the horrible side).

Wondercoin

cladking · February 11, 2004 9:47AM

Wondercoin: I've heard both that these coins are superb and that they're barely better than typical.

Perhaps they vary by year or state?

wondercoin · February 11, 2004 10:02AM

CK: The pile I looked at spanned 1999-2002 across the board. Again, perhaps just a bad lot. It only takes one MS68 coin from 1999 to make 100 sets look great, if you know what I mean

Wondercoin

Datentype · February 11, 2004 10:21AM

ttt

jbsteven · February 11, 2004 10:53AM

holy ms68 batman!

wondercoin · February 11, 2004 11:57AM

"I ditto wondercoin's comments on the 2003s.
I bought (100) 2003 mint sets and ended up with very few 67s."

I believe prices on 2003 state quarters (especially MS68 coins) have remained relatively low (based upon pops and prior historical information on previous years) in part because the jury is still out on whether the Mint may have produced spectacular coins in the 2nd half of the year which have not filtered through the system as of yet. Logic suggests that the Mint should be able to produce 2003 quarters to the standard of 2002. Obviously, thus far that has proven not to be the case. We'll see.

Wondercoin

oreville · February 12, 2004 12:26PM

I think wondercoin is hinting that he wants a birthday present of a 2003 mint set!

eye · February 13, 2004 2:16AM

I looked through several hundred mint sets I received as late as December 12, 2003 and found no difference in the quality from the mint sets I ordered when they were first available. If the jury "is out" on the 2003 quarters, I don't think they are coming back. I believe the MS67s and MS68s for 2003 will prove to be winners by the end of the series.

wondercoin · February 13, 2004 2:29AM

Eye: Thanks for the report on the late season sets.

One thing I think we will agree on - there are plenty of surprises to come in this series. I have a NH(d) up on ebay right now at $795 opening bid. This is a coin which I always felt was one of the tougher dates in the entire state quarter series in MS68. But, aggressive "producers" of MS state quarters have recently run this pop up to 18! Of course, that coin is now approaching 4 years old as well. Meanwhile, you may be correct regarding the 2003 state quarters, but, even as super low pops 4 and 5 today, these 2003 MS68 state quarters are commanding close to what some of those neat MS68 coins from 2000 are bringing. One question then becomes whether over the next 3 years, the entire universe of collectors/dealers/producers/speculators, etc. might be able to come up with another dozen or so of these 2003 dated MS68 coins? In deciding whether I want to stock MS68 2000 coins or MS68 2003 coins for around the same prices (either, both or neither for that matter), I need to predict how this will "shake out". When I have to make the super hard decisions, I just get out my lucky coin and flip it - it is right around 50% of the time anyway

Wondercoin

pontiacinf · February 13, 2004 3:58AM

Stooge · February 13, 2004 4:12AM

You would think that the coins would be getting better and better with each passing year, but that just isn't the case with the Mint State coins. The top pop 70 proofs went throught the roof on the Statehood Quarters. I wonder why the turnaround at the mint?

Later,
Paul B. Gunsallus

wondercoin · February 14, 2004 2:20AM

Yes, they must have directed all their energies in 2003 at getting the proofs right (and the Lincoln cents!) but the quality on the MS state quarters really took a hit.

But, I have always been a fan of some of the earlier state quarters in spectacular high grade and they continue to get harder and harder to come by.

Wondercoin

cladking · February 14, 2004 3:53AM

There have long been large fluctuations in quality from one year to the next. Curiously
these changes tend to take place right on January first each year like they wait to change
processes until the new coins go into production. There also is something of a tendency for
new coins to have a lot of striking problems and this may be much of the problem with the
states issues. Just when they start getting the specific bugs worked out in the coining
of a new design it is time to move on to the next.

The early issues were very bad. The Delaware quarters that were released in this area
almost universally were marked up AND lacked a solid strike. It was the marking that was
the biggest problem though. I don't believe I ever saw one that would go better than MS-
60, though admittedly there wasn't a lot of effort put into looking. There are some better
ones in mint sets, of course, but even these tend to be pretty marked up.

Stooge · February 14, 2004 10:29PM

<< <i>The early issues were very bad. The Delaware quarters that were released in this area
almost universally were marked up AND lacked a solid strike. It was the marking that was
the biggest problem though. I don't believe I ever saw one that would go better than MS-
60, though admittedly there wasn't a lot of effort put into looking. There are some better
ones in mint sets, of course, but even these tend to be pretty marked up. >>

Cladking,

When I first seen the Delaware quarters, they were all pitiful to the point that the clad layering was flaky and peeling in the middle and around the relief. They were just terrible.

Later,
Paul B. Gunsallus

mdwoods · February 15, 2004 5:21AM

I looked through a lot of 2003 mint sets. I only sent in 3 state quarters and I MS66 was the best I got. The quailty is not there like it was last year when I got over 100 PCGS MS68 state quarters and 5 PCGS MS69 quarters. Plus scads of 66s and 67s.

eisq222 · February 15, 2004 11:30PM

Interesting!! Has anyone looked through the Mint Rolls sold by the Mint?

wondercoin · February 16, 2004 2:37AM

" I don't believe I ever saw one that would go better than MS-
60, though admittedly there wasn't a lot of effort put into looking. There are some better ones in mint sets, of course, but even these tend to be pretty marked up."

CK: I hear you! it got even worse with Denver PA, NJ and of course both mints for GA! And so on.

Addressing the DEL coin you mentioned - collectors, speculators, dealers, investors, producers, etc. have now spent nearly 5 years trying to slab nice high grade Delaware coins. Thus, far, only a bakers dozen worth of "p" mint coins and -1- Denver minted Delaware coin have achieved the MS68 level at PCGS! That is not a lot of coins for the universe of collectors pursuing high grade coins.

Wondercoin

eye · February 16, 2004 8:20AM

The "expensive" mint rolls and bags are no better in quality than rolls you can get from your local bank. People that say there are thousands of high grade State Quarters waiting to be graded MS68 or MS69 have just not put in the work looking at 10s of thousands of them from different sources to speak with authority.

eisq222 · February 17, 2004 2:05AM

Since the Mint Sets are sold out,2003 is going to be a very tough year for ms67/68 IMHO

bigd349 · February 19, 2004 5:54PM

Here is one of my baby's

mhnies · February 19, 2004 9:13PM

Where did this "baby" come from??

bigd349 · February 20, 2004 4:36AM

This would be one of the 13. I picked it up and a bunch of others from a forum member a week or two ago. Now it's on of my babies.

Dave

cointime · February 22, 2004 5:20AM

Here is a link to the U.S. mint's state quarter mintage stats. It is pretty neat.

Ken

wondercoin · February 23, 2004 1:46PM

Wow - check out the top 20 MS state quarter sets - a great deal of "red" today

I believe demand is really picking up for the finest MS coins. For example, I had 2/4 Ga(p) in PCGS-MS68 in stock earlier this month and both sold over a 3 day period last week! I think the MS State quarter series is seriously giving Lincolns a run for the money right now in terms of raw Registry popularity. I can't think of a single Registry set more popular right now than Ms Lincolns and MS State quarters.

Wondercoin

bigd349 · February 29, 2004 8:18AM

Saved one last time

smokincoin · May 20, 2018 4:26PM

I was just looking at the pops for the entire MS State Quarter series. Zero 70s and only 328 69s... TOTAL. Interesting enough, to me, to add to this thread from 2004. https://pcgs.com/pop/detail/washington-50-states-quarters-1999-2008/720

davewesen · May 21, 2018 9:35PM

I wonder when the attractively toned album and aftermarket holder quarters will start getting graded. I have a new found appreciation for IKEs and SBAs when attractively toned.

mas3387 · June 5, 2018 4:22AM

a blast from the past, fun times

Relaxn · June 8, 2018 5:37PM

How do I get this conversation going again... I like the idea of putting a set of hi grade of state quarters together.. .

We Have Not Discussed MS State Quarters Lately

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