Help Needed: 1956 Washington Type B Rev or Proofs?
Matt04
Posts: 493 ✭✭✭✭
Earlier today I headed back to the coin shop to look for some superb examples for my collection and ended up stumbling across these four 1956 Washington Quarters with the Type B reverse.
The issue is that I’m having a hard time determining whether these are simply 1956 proofs that were thrown into a 90% silver tube, or if they are actual business-strike Type B reverse quarters. I know the 1956 is considered the toughest date for the Type B reverse variety, which makes it even more interesting.
How does one determine this based on the obverse strike?
I picked them up for melt, so either way I’m not too worried, but I’d really like to know for future reference and to better understand what to look for.
Upon first inspection I notice die cracks on the head and above the date on the bust consistent with what I have seen on business struck WQ's.


Rev's

Obv's

Comments
@TomB Something you might be able to help me with
Those are not Proofs.
Coin Photography
Business strikes as @FlyingAl said.
Awesome, I thought it was too good to be true finding 4 in the same tube !
These are business strike coins you imaged.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
I think it makes sense that you would find a group together in the same roll.
Collector, occasional seller
Awesome.... great find !
That's the only one I don't have
True, but this was a LCS so they had tubes for each date. I just assumed they put together whatever comes in the shop from time to time in the tubes for people to search through. But this couldn't be a coincidence they had to have come together.
nice group. the couple on right look like could be sliders
the reed sharpness and rim edge can help on hard to determine proof/business quarters
Its just the toning, only 1 out of the 4 I determined to be AU58/ low MS. Rest I would say are MS63-65. We shall see, they are at pcgs now.
Yup, main purpose of this post was to differentiate whether it was a business strike vs proof as they both would have the same reverse of course, but I found these all together so I initially thought it was too good to be true and were just proofs.
I once bought a roll on 1958 MS quarters. 34 of the 40 quarters were the Type B variety.
I just found the pic and thought it would be a good reference for others. Good find!