An Entire Box Of Contaminated Quarters!

@USSID18 said:

@jmlanzaf said:
Stored in a basement that may have flooded or was just damp for a while. I've seen entire collections that look like that.

Put this wasn't some ones collection.

Not what I said. I said that I've seen entire collections stored in a basement where everything looked that way. I'm talking 100 pounds of everything from silver to large cents to Lincolns to clad.

It could easily have been a box of quarters that was in an area that got flooded. How do you think they got that way? Cu-Ni corrodes pretty quickly just sitting on a sink. I've got a quarter in my car that has been in my cup holder for the better part of a year. It''s about halfway to where those coins are just from sitting under a sweating cup.

@PerryHall said:
Flooded basement would be my guess. Return them to the bank and let them know that they were contaminated.

I agree. But he doesn't like my assessment. LOL

@RedRocket said:

@PerryHall said:
Flooded basement would be my guess. Return them to the bank and let them know that they were contaminated.

@jmlanzaf said:
Stored in a basement that may have flooded or was just damp for a while. I've seen entire collections that look like that.

You two are onto something. At first I thought how would the center coins within a roll also be so contaminated? I can't think of another reason though.

I'm telling you - just you, not the OP - I've seen huge collections like that when they were in a damp basement for long periods or even just a massive flood for a relatively short period. One such collection had dozens of rolls of steel cents that were essentially fused together.

Wow, that is odd. The quarters, all of them, are environmentally damaged. The wrappers look white and crisp. I wonder if they were wrapped in that condition.

Bank stored that was in a flood zone. Subsequently rewrapped.

Perhaps a whole box got submerged somehow, then sat for a while, and then got deposited intact back to a bank, which shipped it to the coin handling firm they did business with, which decided that they didn't want to be bothered returning it to the Fed, so they just rewrapped it as one lot, with perhaps a few normal coins because some were fused together or whatever, and they shipped it out as one lot to one unlucky recipient.

Etsy might be another dumping place. You could make “unearthed treasure chests” from your hoard.

Coinstar rejects?

Wow. Never seen or heard of such a thing.

It is strange that they are all so horrible looking, even though at least some are very new. I don't know that I have found that HOPE quarter in circulation yet, but here is one already worn out. This is very recent damage.

But at least they aren't bent out of shape or stuck together like the last rolls I got from the bank.

@USSID18 said:
The coins still work, it's money.

Would you want to carry a few in your pockets? Would your wife want a few in her pocketbook?
These should go back to the bank where they came from and the bank should be told that they are contaminated so they can return them to the federal reserve for proper disposal like they do with other damaged coins and currency.

They look like coins that were in a flood. Happened to me in 1985 in Louisiana. Luckily nothing of serious value.

@MarkKelley said:
How come no one has mentioned maybe these were in a house fire? Recovered and re-wrapped.

They don't show heat damage but, sure, they could have gotten wet that way. But flooded basements are more common than house fires.