I've Never Seen Bus. Strike 1965, 66, and 67 Quarters in MS65+

ChuckC · January 30, 2005 3:38PM

Of the billions that were minted, the best I've ever found in these three dates is XF at best. I mean, who wanted to hoard rolls of gem CLAD quarters when during this time, the masses were draining banks of their silver money supply?

Does anyone have pictures? How much do MS business strike (non-SMS) specimens go for these days?

Sequitur · January 30, 2005 4:08PM

Search for Cladking's posts on MS quarters from the 60s and 70s. Very informative.

cladking · January 30, 2005 10:46PM

The roll and bag markets were still collapsing as the clad coins were introduced in
November of 1965. Many of the later coins were simply being dumped into circulation
and prices on the "old" coins from the mid and late '50's were still falling. Given this
fact and that the new coins were no longer to contain silver there was little interest
in saving these new coins. The 1965 issue was however saved in some quantity. This
was probably less than a fourth of the savings for the earlier issues but it was still
substantial. Saving of the new coins dropped off sharply in '66 and still further after
this though because there was simply no resale market and no buyers for the coins at
any price.

The fed and mint paid no attention to the age of coins they shipped from their warehouses
in those days. Nice fresh pallets of brand new 1965 quarters were stuck in storage until
this practice was changed in 1972. There were other dates too that were hung up like the
'68-D and '69-D. This further reduced interest in saving new coin since one couldn't be
certain that even if he did identify and save a scarce date that there wouldn't later be huge
releases to destroy the market. The '65 quarter can still be found in very nice condition
in circulation because of the late elease and the propensity of some people to hang onto
the oldest things for a long time.

There were very few nice coins made in those days. One could look at many bags of 1966
quarters before finding a coin which wasn't horribly struck from worn dies and then it was
likely to be marked up. This had to also discourage would-be hoarders.

There are some gems coins from these years which weren't issued as SMS's but I've not seen
all of then either. The best I've seen is a nice gem (MS-65) three step '65 nickel and a MS-66
'67 cent. All the clad I've seen would go MS-64 or perhaps a weak 65. The '67 clad is an im-
provement on the older coins.

There are still some nice coins from these dates in circulation though they are getting much
less common. There are also some nice varieties in circulation.

ChuckC · January 31, 2005 3:09AM

Interesting stuff....so who has em? Manofcoins? let's see a 1965 quarter in MS67!

keets · January 31, 2005 3:29AM

hey Chuck

i plucked a nice 1965 Quarter from my local dealer's stock about two years ago that holdered as a PCGS MS64. i had it pegged at 65-66 and was relatively sure it was a business strike, nicely toned in blue/pink. it's in my set now. as for some of the other issues in non-SMS, they can be hard to distinguish, especially the 1965 dated coins. with each of the succeeding years the Mint improved on the process until they really made some nice coins in 1967, many resembling the following year's proof releases. i downloaded an ANACS submission form just this morning for an attempt at getting some 1965 Jeffersons holdered as business strike issues. they better Cladking's three steppers!!

al h.

haletj · January 31, 2005 3:43AM

I've seen pcgs ms67 1967's for sale a few times (maybe $200-$250 I think) and that's definitely the easiest of the 3. I've bought about 5 or 6 original rolls of 1965 recently and have some at pcgs as we speak. I'm pretty hopeful on getting an ms67. We'll see. I have a really nice 1966 that probably won't quite make ms67 just due to ever so slight strike weakness. 1965-1967 I think have become my favorite years for coins. I hope to have all 15 of them in ms67 someday!

Bochiman · January 31, 2005 4:49AM

I think Russ has seen a few business strikes of Kennedys in MS65+.....but mentioned they keep getting SMSed by PCGS.
Could that be happening to some of the quarters as well?