State Quarter Collecting Question

Both, definitely. =)

But if you had to pick just one, I'd say Ag, for somewhat of a hedge with the metal value.

Here is my two cents - and it may be wrong...

Here is a weird comparison:

When the fist Star Wars movie came out, the impact it would make could never be known. The companies made some action figures and people bought them. As time went on and Star Wars went viral, people wanted the toys. The originals are still valuable.

So the second wave of Star Wars movies came out years later. The marketing companies were ready for them this time. They KNEW people would believe the new star wars action figures would be collectible and "valuable." So many were made that, unlike the original sets, it will take a long time for them to be worth anything.

The mint, with the state quarters, seems to have capitalized on peoples' perception that something that looks different will HAVE to be valuable some day. The mint made tons of these to satiate this mind set. I truly doubt these will be worth much at all for a long,long time.

If I wanted to collect them (fun b/c of the designs) though, I believe I would only do the silver b/c it has intrinsic value. A silver dime in 1960 bought a gallon of gas and its value today will do the same thing.

BTW - recently I was actually surprised when one of my friends showed me rolls of these proofs he had gotten from the melt pile at a coin shop! He only got them to search to see if he could find anything better than what he had in his album and then was going to take them back for melt.

I'm going to be the odd dissenter on this one. I am putting together a complete Washington quarter set in unc. The 32 to 71 were completed in 1971 when prices were a bit easier. The State quarters are a part of this set; albeit a subset.

I had to stop using a standard Dansco because for certain years you have Satins in the Mint sets. In my opinion the circulating clads for those years will be the "keys". Have you tried to find high grade circulated coins? Not easy. MS70? Everyone uses the mint sets to fill their albums.

Now while it is true that a bunch of people collected these and there are still a large number of circulation collections that have nice coins in them; large numbers of those collections have been turned into pocket change in the last few years.

On that subject I saw a dealer empty a 32 to 98 Dansco album that was full of BU clad quarters from 65 up. He started to put the quarters in the till until I asked for them and got them for face value. One 1965 non-sms ms67 paid for the whole group...and left change over...even after paying for the grading!

I was one that bought into this in the beginning and collected bank rolls or mint rolls of every state. Man were they heavy. Finally turned them in this year for $10 roll to buy silver with. No net gain. Also bought some 70 proof silver coins that at the time was valued at $300 and now probably $70. Once I got my state set complete the mint came out with territories,state parks,etc. I'm then having to decide how far to take it. Very frustrating. Just collect what you have fun with at miminal expense over today's value .

They have too much on them according to my grandfather so he dislikes them

Definitely collect the MS70s, they may be depreciated now, but they will slowly go up in value again. The early clad proofs 1999-2002 might be a steal in PF69, as "70" as the new normal didn't happen until after 2004 or so. The attrition/mishandling rate is greater on the clads than silver proofs, since there were so many "more" made of them. Also the clads tone faster in the OGP, so putting together an original "white" clad proof set will only be possible with cherry picking the nicest coins. Either way, IMO, both the sets are future winners.

70 proof silver dollars at scrappers price of 16 times would get you $280 not $70. If you got a more liberal buyer at 18 times you would get $318. eBay prices are all over the place with as much as $35 for the 99s and the rest averaging $6 each. If you sold them on eBay you would probably get $420 for your silver proofs. Rolls....I was surprised but there are several early bwr that are selling at $15+. I suggest that if you had sold them on eBay you might have made more than your $10 face value.

That may be what he was referring to; but the qoute was "70 proof silver coins", so I have to take him at what he said rather than what he may have meant.