Fake 1937 Washington Quarter

I got a few of those silver quarters while selling coffee. People would put it on the counter and I could hear the distinguishable sound they make. I would just exchange them for 25 cents in the til. And people didn't care, they wanted their morning coffee more than a lecture on 25 cents anyway. None of them in good shape, though.

I buy my stuff from the mint now, I definitely wouldn't be surprised if people counterfeit older coins and send them off to a grading service. I just think of older coins as artifacts from the classical world, if I don't know where it came from. . . I don't want any part of it.

But what is really bothering me is when I go to ebay and look at copper bullion and see all the stamps of old coins on bullion, I just really want to pass on buying any of the older coins.

I don't want to second guess myself in about 20-30years about whether the coins I buy are genuine. so I leave that kinda stuff up to you experts.

Good luck with that quarter.

Any idea what metal it is? What's the weight?

You would lecture them on giving you a quarter that is worth many times its face value?

The quarter pictured above is a cast fake and not one that is found very often. It is the first fake quarter I have personally seen in over 45 years of collecting coins.


A narrow minded approach but, that's your opinion and you are entitled to it.

I collect the old coins because of the history behind the times in which they were circulating and they are certainly better looking than the stuff the Mint is producing today, including the ASE's with all of their special finishes. In my opinion they are ugly, the normal uncirculated ASE looks better than any proof they made.

Ed
ANA LM-3175

Noticed you did have the weight. If the size is about the same, based on the weight, it could be anything zinc, tin, or iron based.

Gyrene7483,

Actually, you are assuming it was worth many times its face value when I was selling coffee. I haven't sold coffee in many, many, many years. I remember the price of silver at $5 and under an ounce for many years, it was only recently that it went up. so around $5 an ounce, what's the melt value for one of those quarters? 80 cents -$1? you people help me with the math.

I've been collecting coins on and off for years but don't have the expertise that someone that deals with coins day in and day out does, so if I don't know where it came from, I'm not buying it because I don't have the knowledge to make the distinction. Sorry but if I don't know what I'm buying then I'm simply not buying it.

Most of my 19th century coins were inherited from family members or friends of family members. I bought some of the coins when I was a kid and there wasn't such a premium on them.

Nor do I have enough knowledge to look at a coin and say "yeah that's a fake and that's not a fake", sorry I don't have that knowledge. That's why I'm on this site- to learn. And to keep uptodate on what's going on with coins. Sorry not everyone on this site has your expertise.

I've also been looking at a few threads on this site and every few weeks, someone on this site will find something on ebay and call it a fake and a few days later the seller takes it down. That has not given me confidence in buying goods from people I do not know online either.

I have also been watching tv and I have recently seen documentaries and news reports about counterfeiting. I had CNBC on awhile back and they had an hour-long show about a guy printing up 100s and was very very profitable at it. I flipped on the tv a few nights later and heard about counterfeiting not from a guy in their basement but government sponsored attempts at counterfeiting our money from N. Korea and China. So yeah, I am a little paranoid about anything having to deal with money. Sorry.

So I just buy from the mint, makes my life easier. And if you want to say its "narrow minded" that's fine, because it suits my limited knowledge on the matter and I feel more comfortable buying things from the mint right now.

But if you have that knowledge to buy coins from any source and feel confident about the coins then god bless ya. Hopefully, I'll get that knowledge from some of the folks on this site.

But for now, the mint and coins I acquire without heavy premiums are my options right now.

Is it silver though?