Questions About Proofs

san fransisco made business strikes for cents 1968 through 1974 and nickels 1968 through 1970.

All proofs prior to 1965 were made in Philadelphia and carry no mintmark. There was no proofs issued in 1965-67, but Special Mint sets (SMS). Starting in 1968, San Francisco makes all of the proofs found in the annual sets, both clad and silver from 1992 onwards. Of the P-mint proofs that you are discussing, they occur in two distinct periods, 1936-1942 and 1950-1964. They are easily distinguished from a Philadelphia business strike by having squared off rims, a sharply defined strike, and if untoned white, deeply mirrored fields AND devices. This is true of all years except for '36, some proof coins received a satin finish instead of a brilliant proof finish. Only the first few dozen coins of a new die would issue proofs with frosted devices, but generally proofs of this era are of the brilliant uncameoed variety.

And in the case of the quarters, the business strikes had reverse A throughout, while the proofs had reverse B from 1937, with slight differences of detail between each. Reverse B was used for some Philadelphia business strike quarters 1956-64, but they are generally scarce and hard to find, and make for a nice subset. When found uncirculated, they have the finish of a brilliant proof, but are either poorly struck or lack the detail of true proofs.

Bizybackson and biokemist6 - thanks for the info and as usual it has created more questions for me. What is meant by reverse A and reverse B. And Another question is if 36 was the beginning of the first proof period for quarters does that mean that from 1932-1935 there were no proofs made, which collection wise means I would only be searching for (in my case) circulated and BU examples from all mints?

I can tell for sure this is gonna be fun, all this detail about 1 little coin...who knew?!

The proof situation is surprisingly complicated. Just when you think you have a handle on it there is an exception!

The 1942 Jefferson nickel proofs were made in normal copper-nickel alloy and the copper-silver-manganese wartime alloy. The wartime alloy proof carries a large P mintmark above the dome of Monticello on the reverse.

One other oddball coin exists: the 1984 Olympic commemorative $10 gold piece. These were issued in proof format with P, S, W, and D (Denver) mintmarks. I added one of these to my collection, just because of the oddity of a Denver proof coin. I think there were some unofficial proofs made when the Denver mint opened in 1906. The $10 Olympic coin is otherwise the only Denver proof available to collectors.

I knew there'd be a reason I'd love this hobby. This info is absolutely fascinating to me. So one more question (my grandpa used to call me the 20 question kid hehe), if I were to ever find myself in the position of trying to determine if a reverse B from the 56-64 range is a proof or a business strike, is the only tell tail sign the deep mirror finish and the sharp details on the rim and devices? It seems to me on a BU example that may be hard to do.

Love the info guys...keep it comin. If you had to give me 1 or two book suggestions on the Washington quarters, what would they be?

I would recommend The Official Red Book: A Guide Book of Washington and State Quarters by Q. David Bowers

Just ordered The Official Red Book: A Guide Book of Washington and State Quarters by Q. David Bowers for 11 bucks..not a bad deal! Cant way to get it and start reading...now what can I toss questions out here about now....maybe I'll start a topic on my collection and just keep updating it as I add to it. Either way I've learned a lot just from this question alone, very valuable tool here.