Modern Quarters
Manos73
Posts: 90
Just went through a coffee can that I use to collect pocket change looking at quarters. Out of several hundred quarters, my distribution looked like this:
Half modern pre-1999 quarters
Half modern 1999 to present
Of the 1999 to present quarters:
3 District/Territories quarters!
2 National Parks quarters!
Of the State Quarters
All 50 states found
The earlier the year, the more likely to find. The later years were scarce.
Anyone else seen these results? From about 2007 to present, very few examples! I live in North Carolina.
Manos
Half modern pre-1999 quarters
Half modern 1999 to present
Of the 1999 to present quarters:
3 District/Territories quarters!
2 National Parks quarters!
Of the State Quarters
All 50 states found
The earlier the year, the more likely to find. The later years were scarce.
Anyone else seen these results? From about 2007 to present, very few examples! I live in North Carolina.
Manos
"I'll believe it's a crisis when the people who keep telling me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis." Glenn Reynolds
0
Comments
I wish I knew how coins disappear from circulation.
I know the federal reserve only gives metal value for coins not machine countable. I wonder if lighter coins get pushed back before they don't count.
I've often wondered why they (mint) have to make Billions of each denom. each year! Where do they all go??!!
<< <i>Where do they all go??!! >>
They are in coffee cans, dresser drawers, gallon jars, piggy banks, coinstar machines, banks, collections/hoards, fountains and pockets. Cheers, RickO
Any place with coin sorting machines is my guess.
<< <i>This does not sound unusual.
I wish I knew how coins disappear from circulation.
>>
This. I don't see how it's possible, that even by the late 70s, finding a wheat penny was "special" Did they disappear overnight? I'll throw buffalo nickels into that group. Were any buffalo nickels to even be found in circulation in the 50s?
into banks from customers returning coffeee cans full of coins as well as a few from from stores. These
will tend to be businesses like laudromats or car washes because most coins now are used only to make
change rather than as actual cash. The change is dumped into cans and drawers until it builds up enough
to warrant a trip to the bank.
There's is typically a shortfall of quarters flowing into each of the FED districts and this shortfall is totaled
to determine new mintages. The shortfall is caused by two primary factors; increase in monetary activ-
ity and lost/ destruction of existing quarters. This destruction is caused by myriad factors which are
largely random. Quarters are lost in car seats and the car will eventually be recycled. Coins find their
ways into the garbage stream or are sucked up in vacuums. Smaller denominations are actually dis-
posed of by some people who don't like "heavy pockets". A few quarters will actually be collected by
numismtists but this applies especially to states and parks issues.
The primary determinant of mintages at any point in time is caused primarily by the "wealth effect".
When people are flush with cash or busy working the coffee cans tend to overflow into larger contain-
ers and then when people are strapped for cash or need money for a vacation they redeem it. There
are a lot of forces working to both wear and destroy existing coin. Well worn examples do have a slightly
higher attrition caused by their ability to slide more or to slip through smaller cracks.
The mint uses FIFO accounting which mandates the coins in storage the longest must be the first shipped
though it appears that this is no longer scrupulously adhered to. Most people would be surprised to know
that almost all the surviving quarters made since 1965 are in circulation. Of course billions sit idle at any
given time in coffee cans but these rarely sit idle for more than three or four years. In this lenght of time
most people accumulate enough coin that they simply don't want it sitting around any longer. If you search
circulating quarters you'll quickly realize that these can't spend much time sitting because the grades of a
given date will (typically) for a rather tight bell curve dependent on age. For instance the worst 1966 is-
sues are in G- and the best will normally be a F+. Few will fall outside of the range. This suggests these
turn over quite regularly with very few spending much time in piggy banks or collections. The FED has
stored a lot of coins over the years and some for significant periods but this is the exception rather than
the rule and very few are stored over about six years.
When you think about the large mintages remember that more than half of the 1965 quarters are gone now.
More than a third of the '74 issues have been lost or destroyed. Each time a quarter is lost the mint needs
to make a new one to replace it.
If yougo looking for these coins you can find them everywhere. Even the metal detecting forum right here
will show tens of millions of them. When Niagra Falls was shut down for cleaning years ago they retrieved
six truck loads of coins with many being only partial due to the turbulence. Memphis Tennessee alone ships
several truck loads of coins each year from their incinerator for redemption. Enough quarters fall from re-
cycled cars to add up to a significant amount. People used to notice and chase down lost coin but now they
have so little value they might not get picked up even when the person who lost them knows exactly where
they are.
When a Fed district has more coins than are needed then the excess will be shipped instead of new coin to
another district. This won't happen in good times usually but after election years or in recessions it is much
more likely.
now. About 53% are states/ park and the remainder are the bicentennial quarters.
About 35% of pre-1981 quarters are culls.
<< <i>
>>
This. I don't see how it's possible, that even by the late 70s, finding a wheat penny was "special" Did they disappear overnight? I'll throw buffalo nickels into that group. Were any buffalo nickels to even be found in circulation in the 50s? >>
Buffalo nickels circulated freely until 1963 or so when anything with a date began
disappearing. The wheaties disappeared very gradually from 1965 to 1974. In '74
they hit about .2% and this level has been maintained ever since. It fluctuates a
little but there are about equal numbers of wheaties enterring and leaving circulation.
In Massachusetts about 1958 I found 1/3 of nickels to be buffalo and 1/3 to be silver warnicks.
By 1964 these had mostly disappeared but buffalo nickels could still be found in circulation here.
I was told no buffalo nickels could be found in California in 1964.
edit: added "be found in"
Eagle reverse are a hair over 50 %. State quarters are almost 50% .
Out of 1181 quarters checked I found
109 dated before 1973.
46 Parks
14 bicentennial
9 territories
<< <i>My recent experience in quarters is similar to previous posters.
Eagle reverse are a hair over 50 %. State quarters are almost 50% .
Out of 1181 quarters checked I found
109 dated before 1973.
46 Parks
14 bicentennial
9 territories >>
Being in Mass, also, Herb, I think my experience is quite similar to yours. Though, I wish I were around when the Buffs and war nicks were that available in change! I don't roll search (though, maybe I should), but really haven't found but just a few scattered silver coins in change (my best month was maybe a single silver Washie and a silver Roosie, and most months are 'dry')...hell, even the Coinstar machines, as well as the 'self check-out' machines, are always cleared out when I get to them. I HAVE had some luck with those 'self check-out' machines, not silver, but people seem to forget, as they are too busy gathering their items and checking their receipts for 'free money', especially at CVS, and leave the change in the return slot.
<< <i>They use a pretty simple system for the determination of how many coins to make. Coins flow back
into banks from customers returning coffeee cans full of coins as well as a few from from stores. These
will tend to be businesses like laudromats or car washes because most coins now are used only to make
change rather than as actual cash. The change is dumped into cans and drawers until it builds up enough
to warrant a trip to the bank.
There's is typically a shortfall of quarters flowing into each of the FED districts and this shortfall is totaled
to determine new mintages. The shortfall is caused by two primary factors; increase in monetary activ-
ity and lost/ destruction of existing quarters. This destruction is caused by myriad factors which are
largely random. Quarters are lost in car seats and the car will eventually be recycled. Coins find their
ways into the garbage stream or are sucked up in vacuums. Smaller denominations are actually dis-
posed of by some people who don't like "heavy pockets". A few quarters will actually be collected by
numismtists but this applies especially to states and parks issues.
The primary determinant of mintages at any point in time is caused primarily by the "wealth effect".
When people are flush with cash or busy working the coffee cans tend to overflow into larger contain-
ers and then when people are strapped for cash or need money for a vacation they redeem it. There
are a lot of forces working to both wear and destroy existing coin. Well worn examples do have a slightly
higher attrition caused by their ability to slide more or to slip through smaller cracks.
The mint uses FIFO accounting which mandates the coins in storage the longest must be the first shipped
though it appears that this is no longer scrupulously adhered to. Most people would be surprised to know
that almost all the surviving quarters made since 1965 are in circulation. Of course billions sit idle at any
given time in coffee cans but these rarely sit idle for more than three or four years. In this lenght of time
most people accumulate enough coin that they simply don't want it sitting around any longer. If you search
circulating quarters you'll quickly realize that these can't spend much time sitting because the grades of a
given date will (typically) for a rather tight bell curve dependent on age. For instance the worst 1966 is-
sues are in G- and the best will normally be a F+. Few will fall outside of the range. This suggests these
turn over quite regularly with very few spending much time in piggy banks or collections. The FED has
stored a lot of coins over the years and some for significant periods but this is the exception rather than
the rule and very few are stored over about six years.
When you think about the large mintages remember that more than half of the 1965 quarters are gone now.
More than a third of the '74 issues have been lost or destroyed. Each time a quarter is lost the mint needs
to make a new one to replace it.
If yougo looking for these coins you can find them everywhere. Even the metal detecting forum right here
will show tens of millions of them. When Niagra Falls was shut down for cleaning years ago they retrieved
six truck loads of coins with many being only partial due to the turbulence. Memphis Tennessee alone ships
several truck loads of coins each year from their incinerator for redemption. Enough quarters fall from re-
cycled cars to add up to a significant amount. People used to notice and chase down lost coin but now they
have so little value they might not get picked up even when the person who lost them knows exactly where
they are.
When a Fed district has more coins than are needed then the excess will be shipped instead of new coin to
another district. This won't happen in good times usually but after election years or in recessions it is much
more likely. >>
More & more I'm seeing SHQs that look like they just entered the circulation stream, even the earlier dated coins.
Is this coming from folks that saved these, maybe by the roll, now deciding to bank them, or is this inventory from the fed and/or counting houses?
HH
1947-P & D; 1948-D; 1949-P & S; 1950-D & S; and 1952-S.
Any help locating any of these OBW rolls would be gratefully appreciated!
<< <i>
More & more I'm seeing SHQs that look like they just entered the circulation stream, even the earlier dated coins.
Is this coming from folks that saved these, maybe by the roll, now deciding to bank them, or is this inventory from the fed and/or counting houses?
>>
Yes. I'm seeing these and most are the "common dates" which is indicative
of people off loding excesses. Some were probably "lost" in FED storage since
they've rushed most issues straight into circulation to satisfy demand. I haven't
seen a BU IL or TN in a long time now suggesting most are coming from individuals.