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Have Any Of You Found A West Point Mint Quarter?


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https://www.usmint.gov/news/inside-the-mint/mint-releases-first-ever-w-quarters-into-circulation

I like this quote from that article:  "The goal of the initiative is to create excitement about coin collecting by introducing rare coins into circulation, allowing anyone the opportunity to collect the quarters from their pocket change."  (emphasis mine)

How things have changed since 1965 when the USA federal government tried their best to kill coin collecting among the common (i.e. non-wealthy) people by no longer using mintmarks and stopping proof coinage.  (Of course that is when they stopped minting 90% silver coins and started the ugly clad coinage, but that was because the silver coins' cost of minting was higher than face value.)  Mintmarks returned in 1968.

Are these first non-error coins meant for circulation minted in the last 60+ years which carry a premium value (over face)?  I'm not aware of any others but I lost interesting in modern coins (except for some of the double dies, etc.) long ago just for that reason.

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I have a stack of 1965 clad quarters all worth more than a quarter. Seems collectors want fine+ condition or the fake "uncirculated" from over seas hehe.

Daunting task to go through all my clad again 😞

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The chances of finding one of these with a detector must be pretty small.  First off, they are scarce to begin with.  Secondly, there hasn't been much time for them to have been dropped.  Chances are greater than zero, though, and if you're recovering them anyway you have nothing to lose by checking the date+mm.  Certainly in my detecting grounds they will still show the bright nickel color as opposed to the gray/red appearance 25% nickel alloy develops after some years in the ground.  I don't know about ones found in water/muck as those conditions seem to lead to different surface development.

I wonder if the mint had second thoughts when the covid-19 shortage developed this year....  I don't mean people pulling the -W quarters out of circulation but the possibility that the search for them made it more likely that people kept quarters instead of recirculating them.  Probably still not much of an effect relative to the other causes.

On a related note, I wonder how many detectorists check their copper Memorials for the 1972 double die....  Ditto the 1969-S dd but that would be like finding a needle in a continent sized haystack!

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