Suggestions On Collecting Washington Quarters 1932 - 1964

First off, Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my questions and tons of great advice since joining the site. So is there big concern if I mix a collection of BU and circulated?

I am 35 years old so I can drive and search and that is half the fun. When I collected coins with my grandfater when I was younger, all of your collecting was done search no internet. I am getting back into collecting and I want my kids to get the same experiences I had. We have almost completed their full sets of the State Quarters set and they love it. Seaching rolls and rolls of quarters at a time.

Nothing wrong with mixing BU and circulated at all. That is a matter of personal r=taste. My Lincoln Dansco starts circulated. No way was I going to attempt all BU from 09 to the 30s. Pfffttttt. My BU coins pick up right about 1930. You put together the set you like and can afford.

After reading some of the other responses, I am changing (somewhat) my original thoughts of getting as many Washington's out of the junk silver bins as possible. Someone mentioned buying "BU" only coins. Several of the quarters I've bought on ebay were BU's, as I must say they stick out (in a good way) from the other 'junk' coins in my folders, even though I appreciate all my coins. I'd say "Yes!", go ahead and buy BU's, as long as the 'spread' between VG and BU is close; a few dollars or so. However, some of the issues have upwards of a $100 difference or more between junk and BU. These I'd still get at the lower grade.

Another replier mentioned going after the 'key' varieties first, which does make some sense. A 10% across the board increase might mean and extra 50-cents for some commons, but $10 or more for the keys. However, should the silver market go up again, the common quarters will rise at a faster rate than the keys; so it's hard to say which way is best.

I'd have to agree with those who say to just collect what YOU like. I'm happy with my mix of G to BU Washington's; the hunt is the best part.

Good luck to you. With patience and diligence you will have a great collection.

Of course you're right about mixing circulated and uncirculated coins but I always felt it was nicer to either go all circulated or all uncirculated.

A while back a started upgrading my Lincolns and realized that I preferred the memorials to be uncirculated but the Wheats, due in part to the cost of the keys, to be circulated. There's a nice logic and uniformity to that approach.

I even went so far as removing uncirculated Wheats from my album and replacing them with nice AUs. (I had a heck of a time finding nice AU '43s.)