Can Anyone Explain Why A 1986-D Roll Of BU Quarters Goes For $140.00?

Most people have no idea how few clads were saved each year. There were some that were set aside in larger quantities because of a single individual or a few. It wasn't that expensive to set aside thousands or a few bags of a date. The very few who were interested in clad knew that the best specimens were in mint sets so they sought these out. The '86 set had a huge premium for years which served to do two things; spread it out through the population and prevent the formation of BU mint set rolls. It's still difficult to assemble rolls of these because finding quantities of the set is difficult in part because most owners will take a loss if they are disassembled.

Eventually this date will fall or the others will rise more than it.

Keep in mind though that mint set '86-D quarters are extremely good quality and can sell themselves. Even rolls (if you can find them and you probably can't) come nicer than most dates.

I tried to amass a quantity of these BU rolls back in the day and failed. There weren't many and everyone wanted full bid or more. Of course quality is very hit and miss on regular issue coins.

One other thing to consider is that many bu coins are cut out of mint sets not rolls that were hoarded. That is the reason for the high price of the 82 and 83 coins in BU. Few coins were saved and there were no mint sets. Well they didn't save a lot of 1986 coins either and while they did make mint sets that year it was the lowest mintage mint set since 1964 (there have been lower mintages since then but back in 86 it was the "key" set, and once that moniker gets applied and a premium established it tends to stay a premium item even when the price is no longer justified.) and the 1986 mint set commands a premium. So there is no low cost way of getting Unc 86's.