Lots of old quarters in circulation now that look like in brand new condition

Not sure if anyone has noticed this lately, but there are a lot of really old quarters out in circulation right now that look virtually new. I go through my pocket change daily looking for oddities and lately I've been running across 1965 through 1976 quarters that look like they've not been in circulation hardly at all. I'm curious as to why this is and if anyone else has noticed this as well. I'm guessing that perhaps many people horded large volumes of quarters starting in 65' and then just recently started using them. It's not uncommon for me to run across, for example, a 1965 quarter that looks in near mint condition in my pocket change. That's over 50 years old. When I was a kid collecting coins 20 years ago, I'd never find coins in this great of shape that were even 20 years old. Or, are financial institutions just starting to put into circulation older coins, in this example, the US quarters, that they've had stored for decades?

 

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Very interesting. Usually in the past this is an indication of financial distress. When people are near the end of their financial rope they empty out the piggy jars so to speak. The last time this happened was in 2008-2009, when tons of bicentennials, proofs, etc hit the economy. This was such a big thing that 2009 is really a pretty rare year to ever find in your change, since so much old change came back into commerce there was almost no demand for new coins.

 

I think it's probably due to the "Great American Coin Release", a concerted, national effort which I believe started a few months ago. Coin dealers & others started releasing coins into circulation to boost interest in collecting activity. I believe at one time on CT, I saw a preliminary list of those participating in the release.

Probably not a lot of silver released, but judging by your observations, "the system works" & I'm sure many others have noticed as well.

 

Excellent point. I never thought of that.

 

Wow, very interesting information. I'm glad to read what you know about this. Thank you. I'll go to the carwash, run a $20 bill in the coin machine and before washing the car I'll go through the quarters just to see if I can find anything interesting. That's when I started noticing the older quarters that are like new. Eventually I started finding them in my regular pocket change too. I don't come across the same with pennies, dimes or nickels that often though.

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Could be people just dumping what they once thought was something. Found a box of ms Kennedy's 1971 awhile back. I kept them. Recently found rolls and rolls of 78 and 79 lincoln cents ms. Kept them too. Maybe my son will dump them all one day after I'm gone and somebody will grab them and the process will continue.

 

This is a lot more common than many people think. A collector who has hoarded roll upon roll upon roll of mixed-date, uncirculated coins suddenly passes, and when the heirs discover that all of the coins the old G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) hoarded were only worth face value or not worth having graded, they simply dumped them back into circulation.

Chris

 

True enough I'm sure. Good for the hobby though I'd speculate.

 

The baby boomers are dumping left and right. Lots of shiny cents around too.

 

They may have been cleaned. Or, they were held onto for years in original rolls, and then people die, and they get spent by the heirs. Or, they realize they are still only worth a quarter and spend them. If you find really nice 1982 or 1983s, then those are worth keeping in UNC/MS condition.

 

I dumped a lot quarters back into circulation a few years back. I had a dozen rolls or more of shiny, barely circulated examples that I picked from change. I realized that I no longer wanted to save pocket change so I downsized. Others may have done this, too. Since many recent coins have mintages in the upper multi-millions, many years will likely pass before they have much, if any, value beyond face.

 

We are moving across the state of California and I have been putting back into circulation over $3000 worth of 1998-2019 Sate and ATB quarters that I bought from the mint over the past 20 years. All are U/C condition. Just Ps & Ds. The Ss are kept. I didn't realize how much I had put away in rolls in two bins until I tried to move them. My bank has 8 different branches where I live now and I have been depositing $150.00 in each branch about every week or so (Trying not to over load them). Still have some 97 rolls left. Again, all are U/C condition.

 

It’s a realization cupro nickel coins with big mintages will never be worth above face.

 

I've been seeing a few more AU's as well.

It's highly improbable the coins are being released from BU rolls because there are very few BU rolls. Even if all were released you'd hardly see the effects in circulation. It could be mint sets but there aren't large numbers of mint sets left either. However mint set coins are tarnishing in large numbers so it's hardly impossible that these could get released.

But what I'm seeing doesn't look like mint set coins. Also the distribution doesn't seem to be reflective of mint sets but rather more closely tied to mintage and what was circulating in 1998.

There were still some old quarters in nice condition in '98 and when the states coins were released these attracted some attention. I suspect these are being rereleased now.

You might be seeing something else and from your description I'd guess you're close to some dealer's dumping ground. Dealers sometimes will dump thousands of old coins (usually from mint sets) into circulation because they are substandard, cull, or tarnished. These tend to go to a single bank and then will be distributed by the same several banks. Coins returned to the bank will tend to go to a counting house and then rerolled for distribution to their customers. This will cause samples coming from any of these banks to be contaminated with large numbers of high end quarters. This contamination tends to be very brief in duration as the coins spread out. Once the uncs stop hitting the bank within weeks you won't see them any longer.

Sometimes the FED will release coins that have been in storage a long time but this can't be what you're seeing because no quarters have sat in storage so long. It's very rare that these releases involve coins in storage over about seven years. About 80% of quarters are in near constant motion (minus piggy banks etc) and 20% can sit for 1 to 3 years in storage. Of course this varies over time and is correlated to mintages. The higher the current mintage the faster they grind in circulation and the fewer are sitting out.

If you could provide more details about what specific coins these are, their grades, and your location I could provide a better guess. But I've got to believe you're seeing contaminated samples and it is unique to your location. I'm seeing a few more (circulated) coins that were set aside in the late-'90's.

 

This isn't impossible and could be part of it but there are just too many quarters in circulation for this to be very visible. If they dumped them over a few years there would hardly be enough to notice at all.

 

I doubt it for the simple reason that most coin dealers believe moderns and clads are uncollectible. Most people believe these are so common that they'll never be collectible. A 1967 roll wholesales for $155 so few dealers would be willing to spend them even if they thought novices would be interested. Dealers don't have rolls of eagle reverse quarters in any date at all. If you don't believe it, ask them. They'll have 30 to 300 mint sets and that's about it.

It is not terribly unusual to find contaminated samples over the last 50 years that people have been ignoring clad. Just this week I found a roll with "5" 1974 quarters in VF+ condition in it. The odds of this occurring randomly is very remote. I'd guess someone cleaned out all his '74 quarters below XF and I just happened to get "5". The rest of the roll was a bit unusual as well as it had only 53% states coins and a BU '76.

 

Thought I would post up some pix of the quarters I have been mentioning that I've come across within the past 2 years in my pocket change. It blows me away to see such older coins in such great condition in circulation. First one is a 1965.

 

Next is a 1984 that looks like it was a proof in it's previous life. Still in very good shape I think. Lots of nicks, scratches, and blemishes yet the bust and eagle still look unpolished while the rest of the coin still has a polished appearance. The edge of the coin looks very good as well.

 

About a month after running across the 1984, I came across this beautiful 1976 bicentennial quarter. This one is about my most favorite of the quarters I've run across in circulation. On this one, like the previous, it looks to be a mint that was put into general circulation. The bust has that unpolished look while the rest of the coin has a polished mirror shine to it. There are some scratches, wear and blemishes on this one as well.

 

Next are 1965 and 1967 quarters that I ran across in my change within this year which shows very little wear and tear. Amazing that these two quarters are over 50 years old but in outstanding shape for being found in general circulation.