Today's circulation finds (which may be of interest to Clad King).
SanctionII
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Stopped by a coffee shop this morning with the family before dropping the kids off at school. I received clad quarters in change and took a look at them.
To my surprise two of the quarters were a 1969-D and a 1982-D. At first glance both looked MS. However, after looking at them with a loupe, it appears that both would be AU. Both are keepers.
The 1969 shows rub and a couple of small marks on Washington's jaw. The obverse field is essentially mark free and has original skin. The strike on the obverse is strong. The reverse strike is also strong. The eagle shows some horizontal marks on head and both ends of the bunch of arrows. Some reverse chatter and rub also is present. Overall, the 1969 has very pleasing eye appeal. By far and away the best 1969-D I have found in circulation in years.
The 1982 shows multiple marks and chatter on the obverse but has remnents of original skin and luster in multiple locations. The reverse looks better than the obverse primarily due to less marks and chatter. It also has nice eye appeal and is the best 1982-D I have found in circulation in years.
Not a major find, but both coins are far superior to any older clad quarters I have seen in cirulation.
To my surprise two of the quarters were a 1969-D and a 1982-D. At first glance both looked MS. However, after looking at them with a loupe, it appears that both would be AU. Both are keepers.
The 1969 shows rub and a couple of small marks on Washington's jaw. The obverse field is essentially mark free and has original skin. The strike on the obverse is strong. The reverse strike is also strong. The eagle shows some horizontal marks on head and both ends of the bunch of arrows. Some reverse chatter and rub also is present. Overall, the 1969 has very pleasing eye appeal. By far and away the best 1969-D I have found in circulation in years.
The 1982 shows multiple marks and chatter on the obverse but has remnents of original skin and luster in multiple locations. The reverse looks better than the obverse primarily due to less marks and chatter. It also has nice eye appeal and is the best 1982-D I have found in circulation in years.
Not a major find, but both coins are far superior to any older clad quarters I have seen in cirulation.
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<< <i>Stopped by a coffee shop this morning with the family before dropping the kids off at school. I received clad quarters in change and took a look at them.
To my surprise two of the quarters were a 1969-D and a 1982-D. At first glance both looked MS. However, after looking at them with a loupe, it appears that both would be AU. Both are keepers.
The 1969 shows rub and a couple of small marks on Washington's jaw. The obverse field is essentially mark free and has original skin. The strike on the obverse is strong. The reverse strike is also strong. The eagle shows some horizontal marks on head and both ends of the bunch of arrows. Some reverse chatter and rub also is present. Overall, the 1969 has very pleasing eye appeal. By far and away the best 1969-D I have found in circulation in years.
The 1982 shows multiple marks and chatter on the obverse but has remnents of original skin and luster in multiple locations. The reverse looks better than the obverse primarily due to less marks and chatter. It also has nice eye appeal and is the best 1982-D I have found in circulation in years.
Not a major find, but both coins are far superior to any older clad quarters I have seen in cirulation. >>
The '82-D is a little unusual. A lot of the '82 and '83 issues were pulled out of
circulation in the mid to late '80's when it was discovered that uncs were very
tough to locate. Some of these have been filtering back into circulation over the
years so that now they are the easiest of all the pre-1989 quarters to find in AU.
(except, of course, the '76 issues).
The '69-D is very very unusual. While it's one of the easiest of the "low mintage"
clads to find in high grade, typically that will mean VF or XF, not slider unc. In all
probability it was a mint set coin. A strong strike alone would lead one to believe
this even though this date was far more common in circulation with nice full strikes
than other dates of the era. It was probably saved in somewhat more substantial
numbers because of the low mintage and the often nice strikes and luster, but af-
ter all these years it's highly improbable that any survived in this grade from cir-
culation.
High grade quarters in circulation are far more likely to be varieties than the lower
grade specimens. This may be because someone noticed the difference and saved
it for years. '69-D varieties are all scarce but there's a common '82-D variety; it's the
type "d" reverse. Look for a greater difference between the right side of the "N" in
"UNUM" and the eagle's head. These accounted for nearly 15% of production and
nice examples are definitely keepers, though this coin may be a keeper in any case.
One other thing that is evident from an inspection of the coins is that on the 1969 the relief seems much deeper than that on the 1982. The fields (particularly the obverse field) appear to be more concave than the fields on the 1982. The fields on the 1969 drop from the rim more steeply than the fileds on the 1982. It makes Washington's bust appear more prominent.
I know that relief on the quarters were changed at some time, however I do not know when. As for the why, I suspect it was done to allow the mint to keep up with production demand without having to increase the amount of production machinery required. Do you have this information?
of the changes were quite dramatic and usually occured to both the obverse and reverse.
This resulted in several "mules" where old reverses were used with new obverses. Most
of the changes were to lower the relief but it was "two steps back and one step forward"
throughout. The biggest changes were '77, '86, and '96. It was the '96 change which of-
fended the most collectors apparently since this one also reversed the concavity of the coin.
This caused the coin to have a new look and feel to it. The "spaghetti hair" didn't start until
'94 and it became much more pronounced in '96 also.
Multiple reverses exist for most issues through 1985 and in some cases are scarce or rare.