Does anyone have information on the attrition rate for 1964 and later dimes, quarters and halves?
SanctionII
Posts: 12,510 ✭✭✭✭✭
I check out 1964 and later dimes, quarters and halves, both silver and clad, both those found in circulation and those found in rolls and accumulations. 1964 had very large mintages of these coins. Rolls were saved in quantity and the 1964 half was hoarded. Circulation strike clad dimes and quarters started in 1965 and the reduced silver content circulation strike halves were made from 1965-1969. Half dollars quickly went out of public favor after 1963 due to the death of JFK and hoarding of the Kennedy half; due to vending machines not accepting halves; and due to a switch over from silver to reduced silver to clad. As a result, the half dollar mostly disappeared from circulation, to the point where the mint starting in 2002 stopped making circulation strikes.
Today one can always order rolls of halves from banks and find 1964 and later coins with not much problem and I do so in a hunt for silver. Many of the 1964 and later halves found in these rolls are of high quality since they have not circulated much.
1964 and later dimes and quarters are another matter entirely. Lots of high grade 1964 dimes and quarters exist, but not in circulation since they are 90% silver. 1965 and later dimes and quarters have been and are the work horses of low budget commercial transactions and many of these coins are now hard to find in circulation, even in lower grade.
For those of you with knowledge on the subject matter, please educate us on the attrition rates of 1964 and later dimes, quarters and halves. Is there any empirical data on this topic that can be used by collectors of these coins to increase their knowledge base? With respect to Washington quarters minted prior to the State Quarters of 1999, has the closing of this series resulted in more collector interest is same and thus accelerated attrition?
Thanks, SanctionII, and have a great new year.
Today one can always order rolls of halves from banks and find 1964 and later coins with not much problem and I do so in a hunt for silver. Many of the 1964 and later halves found in these rolls are of high quality since they have not circulated much.
1964 and later dimes and quarters are another matter entirely. Lots of high grade 1964 dimes and quarters exist, but not in circulation since they are 90% silver. 1965 and later dimes and quarters have been and are the work horses of low budget commercial transactions and many of these coins are now hard to find in circulation, even in lower grade.
For those of you with knowledge on the subject matter, please educate us on the attrition rates of 1964 and later dimes, quarters and halves. Is there any empirical data on this topic that can be used by collectors of these coins to increase their knowledge base? With respect to Washington quarters minted prior to the State Quarters of 1999, has the closing of this series resulted in more collector interest is same and thus accelerated attrition?
Thanks, SanctionII, and have a great new year.
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Thought I would send it to the top once to see if anyone notices. If not, to the trash heap it will go to die, utterly and forever alone.
I can't even imagine how one would make a determination of attrition rate. It's not like there is anyone counting the coins that have been melted when silver soared. At best, I would just assume that the market is efficient and the price is based on supply and demand.
But maybe I am not defining 'attrition' the same way you are. I am assuming that 'attrition' is when a coin is melted or destroyed. But reading your comments on the clad quarters suggests that you have a different definition.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
<< <i>cladking has counted every one and will give you an exact rate of attrition. >>
ROFL. This isn't as far from being accurate as some might think.
It's a shame that such information doesn't really exist. It's especially a shame for these coins
since there has been almost no interference from collectors with their circulation so there could
be a huge amount of information. That people pay very little heed to the actual coins in circula-
tion has always been true. Learning what was actually circulating is a near impossible task
whether talking first century Rome or 19th century America. Everyone knows what's good money
so it simply doesn't get recorded. We are left to make inferences from mintages, wear on sur-
viving issues, and coins dug up in hordes or abandoned in caches.
Quarters are represented in circulation in close approximation of their relative mintages. Slightly
more than half of the earliest clads are gone, lost to the ravages of time. The remaining coins
tend to grade (by metal loss) into a fairly good approximation of a bell curve with the lowest
grades being G and the highest being XF. There are very few outliers for most dates. Later
dates tend to present in circulation based on their age (excluding states coins). The '98 and
'96 are somewhat underrepresented and some quantity may still be around in fed or mint stor-
age.
Dimes are a little more complicated and more are missing. Only a little more than one third of
the early dates are still around and some of the early and mid-90's dates are a little underre-
presented. Grades of the earlier issues are higher and there are larger numbers at the high
end of the curve. These coins obviously spend more time out of active circulation and are more
likely to be lost or destroyed.
In the last several years there has been a higher attrition on the low mintage years like '68-D
quarters and '69 dimes. This can only be accounted for by the nature of collectors to remove
scarcer dates disproportionartely to their mintages. Just removing one coin of each means the
scarcer dates are being removed in larger percentages than common dates.
The FED did a count in 1998 to see how quarters were holding up but their numbers are fairly
unremarkable because they counted only some 100,000 coins if memory serves and they didn't
omit late dates from their calculations. Later dates are always overrepresented in circulation
because it takes time for them to mix in with those not (or barely) circulating. This was the same
thing Research Triangle did in 1976 when they calculated a thirty year life span for quarters. The
RT results are probably proprietary and unavailable, the FED count might be available on request.
Thanks for the replies. My use of the word attrition would have been better had I given a definition. So here goes. For the purposes of this thread, attrition does not mean how many coins of a given date and mint mark survive [i.e. are in the possession of and are (or can be) used by humans]. My definition of attrition in this thread means:
1. a comparison of how rapidly these coins have deteriorated in condition [MS to higher circulated grades to lower circulated grades] vis-a-vis each other [i.e. halves vs. quarters; halves vs. dimes; quarters v. dimes] over the past 40+ years; and
2. whether one or more events during the past 40+ years have accelerated and/or decelerated the rate of deterioration of these coins [i.e., the commencing of the State Quarter program in 1999 and what if any effect it had on the 1964-1998 quarters].
Even with the above definitions, my original thread is pretty out there and does not lend itself to easy, quantifiable answers. I guess it should be treated as a trigger for those who have an interest in these coins to offer up personal experiences, any empirical data they may have, gut feelings and pure speculation.
I get interested in this topic and these coins everytime that I look at the 1932-1998 quarters that I have plucked out of circulation since 1963; that I have cherrypicked from local shops and shows; and that I have bought in bulk (a Mint State date and mintmark set from 1950-1990). The best have been put into a Dansco Album and the extras in Whitman Albums and flips. Looking through them and seeing highgrade and occasionally beautifully toned Silver and Clad Washington quarters just revs me up and causes me to post.
BTW, check your PM.
and if anyone said they did I'd question how they could.
There is a book out somewhere on the great silver meltdown. They may venture a guess in there.
and mint changed the way they handle the coins to coincide with a new accounting procedure. Rath-
er than shipping out whatever was handy they began shipping whatever had been in storage the
longest. By 1975 it was no longer possible to find old rolls with unc or high grade coins because their
stockpiles had been turned over. The silver coins had already been removed from circulation in 1968
but this had no impact on the clads except to increase their velocity.
It takes about six years for the coins to wear one grade but the grades are of much different widths
dependent on how they are defined. Generally only about 90% of the quarters are actively circulating
with most of the rest either in drawers and jars or in FED storage. Coin usage is highly seasonal and
total circulating coins increases markedly at Christmas time. The velocity and mixing reach their peak
at this time of year.
Most of the quarter dates are worn in a nice even pattern dependent on their age. This effects not only
the median grade but also the high end and the low end. There are numerous exceptions because of the
way these coins were issued or made. For instance the '68-D was issued over a long period ending in
1975 but the '69 was almost entirely in circulation even before the end of 1970. The '72-D apparently
had harder surfaces which protected the coin until in finally wore down to XF. The '84-P and D have low-
er rims which don't protect the coin so AU's have been unavailable for years. Velocity slowed in the late
'70's and more in the early '90's but more importantly larger percentages of coins sat out of circulation
for longer periods. In 2001 huge numbers of coins went into storage is only now becoming exhausted.
We may see those '96 and '98 quarters soon. '65 quarters were saved in significant quantities at the
time of issue. Most of these have dribbled into circulation over the generations but you are still more
likely to see a '65 in AU than an '85. '66 and '67 were also saved to a smaller extent. These dates also
get more interest from people so are more likely to get pulled out because they are "old".
Almost the entire mintage of every date went into circulation. The only real exceptions are the '65, '66
'76, and '76-D. Somewhere on the order of 30 million of each of the bicentennial coins were saved in
rolls and bags and almost none of the others have circulated freely since issue. The average grade of
these is still XF+ which is nearly as good as the 1997. Nearly 50% are now in circulation but this is the
highest it's ever been. BU rolls of other dates are rarely seen and a few dates are quite scarce.
Mint sets provide the lion's share of coins for collectors but many of the varieties do not exist in the sets.