Bicentenial Quarters

thats good advice however unless they are really bad shape I kkep them , but thats only because I like them

I've been saving them for some reason. I recently searched $600 of quarters and found about 13.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Irishraider

I like the silver clad type. Millions of them were melted in 1982. Local coin shop has them for $3 a piece and I think I will get a couple of them next time I go.

---

Those melted in '82 were a distinct type! This is a very overlooked part of the bicentennial era but the mint had intended to cease production of the 40% silver unc three coin set when orders ran out in mid July 1976. As the dead line approached they came to believe that Congress hadn't set a production limit of 11,000,000 sets but had intended that to be the mintage. With little time remaining they needed to make some 20+million coins. They ran these off on high speed presses and unceremoniously dumped them into 55 gallon drums. These coins are simply awful and are distinct from the other 40% silver coins. They made the three piece sets from these for years and kept them on sale but sales were very poor since the market was saturated and the quality was terrible. Melting them was a mercy killing.

These are readily identifiable even out of the packaging but where the regular set had a white stripe on one side of the plastic these "high speed" exmples did not.

In addition to gem issues there is also a very desirable DDO on the Denver clad piece. MS-65's are actually quite common for this date but very few appear in collections because most collectors dismiss it. High grades are nearly as scarce for this date as other dates of that era. '76 mint sets have nearly 10% gems though the '75 set has only about 3%.

Like scoutjim, I also keep them when I run across them. Not sure why. I do like the design, but I realize that in terms of value later on, it's a waste of time and money to save them.

Good question.

There are probably only around 70,000 of these surviving after years of having a little higher attrition than the regular set. In the old days these were discounted by buyers severely but I rarely see this discount anymore. It may be a case of a small market developing for them as collectors realize that they are a distinct type. At the current time there is no discount and it wouldn't be surprising to see a premium in the future.

They may be ugly, but they're hard to find.