What is your experience with bust quarters?

What has been your experience with bust quarters? Prior to going to the FUN show, I had some discussions with Detecto about bust quarters in grades F to VF. He had purchased a raw bust quarter which I hope he will post here. Detecto’s coin was one of the reduced-size quarters & I think the date was 1834.

As a result I became interested in possibly finding a new bust quarter for my own collection. At the FUN show I asked at least a dozen dealers for price quotes on their slabbed bust quarters. I was mostly looking at the large size pieces but there were some reduced-size quarters as well. EVERY quote that I received was for significantly more money than grey sheet. In a majority of the quotes, (I mean like every quote) the dealer wanted EF money for a VF coin or they wanted VF money for an F coin. To put this into perspective, when I was expecting a $100 quote the dealer would quote $300. When I was expecting a $300 quote, the dealer would quote $1,200. The slabbed quarters were so expensive I didn’t bother to make any counter offers. I just politely passed on every offer.

By contrast, the raw examples were priced much closer to grey sheet prices for the grade listed on their (raw) holders. However, most of the raw coins (almost without exception) were cleaned or had some damage and perhaps most should have netted a lower grade / cheaper price IMO.

I have watched Bust quarters disappear from the shows for the last 30 years. Since I already had a couple nice examples in my collection, I never studied their prices or where they were going until now.

Heritage auction archives indicate that the prices realized have been significantly above Grey Sheet. Perhaps it’s time for CDN to adjust their prices or am I missing something here. I’m interested to learn others experience with these cool 2-bit coins.

 

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Depicted here is an 1831 reduced size bust quarter from my Dansco 7070. I believe this example was washed a long time ago.

 

Bust Quarters-really tough series altogether and regardless of the date. I'm having a tough time finding the one I want with eye appeal and that's not going to hold me over the coals financially. I've found that the acceptable/problem free examples were pricey, mostly in part to the die pairing attributions. But I completely relate to what you're going through, I just don't want to settle for something that I know I'll have to upgrade later on. On the flip side, the bust halves are so much more approachable and reasonable cost wise, it's why I envy the series so much more.

 

Agree. Bust quarters are what bust halves WOULD be today if not for the fact they were the largest US denomination for decades. As such, thousands of bags of them sat in bank vaults. This is why halves are much more available.

A nice bust quarter is simply a tough coin, tougher than many people expect. I am not surprised they go over bid.

 

No offense intended or implied, but you were surprised or shocked by the prices quoted because you don't know the market. Problem-free CBQs with good eye appeal and in "collector friendly" grades can be tough to find and have a wide audience. The Greysheet is woefully inaccurate for many series and this is one of them. Many raw coins are as you noticed; raw for a reason and thus their prices reflect those reasons. From time-to-time I carry CBQs on my site, but I can't recall having a nice CBQ for sale at near Greysheet. They sell rather quickly, too.

 

I hope that others will chime-in and provide their experience with the bust quarter series.

I further hope that other CT folk will read this thread (before it gets naturally buried) & learn something about the Bust quarter series. These first posts from Kookoox10, medoraman, and Tom_B echo some of what I have recently learned about the Bust quarter series and the market. Here are some good points:

□ Bust Quarters are a really tough series altogether
□ Pricey in part due to the die pairing attributions
□ Many more half dollars were preserved in vaults than quarter dollars
□ Problem-free examples are tough to find and have a wide collector audience
□ Not surprisingly, they go way over Grey sheet bid (F for VF money and VF for EF money)
□ The Greysheet is woefully inaccurate for the Bust quarter series (and many other series)
□ Several high grade examples were smelted in the 19th Century due to their high silver content
□ I might add that a vast number of Bust quarters have been washed at one time (some were bathed more harshly than others)

 

That last point is VERY true, and may explain the greysheet. I cannot think of another series of coins that percentage wise are more commonly found cleaned/badly cleaned than these. Flowing hair halves would be close.

For some reason, there is simply in my view a disproportionate amount of problem coins of this series. Maybe all of these problem coins are pulling down the CDN averages so far to make this "average" very meaningless for high quality coins for the grade?

Whatever the reasons, I agree with your list. Tough, expensive coins.

 

You're right on the money Chris. I've never seen such an inconsistent series when it comes to "original & unmessed with". I would estimate, for every 20-25 problematic examples, there's 1 good one. And very rarely would you come across a problem free example that isn't slabbed. These have been thoroughly cherrypicked over the years.

 

Over the 25 years or so during which I have collected U.S coins, I have found that, as a type, the bust quarters, followed by the bust dimes, are much scarcer
to find than the bust half dollars. To illustrate this, bust half dollars could even be found (back then) at almost all European coins shows, while dimes were few and far between and the quarters were even scarcer. This applies even more so to the large size (open collar strikes) for both dimes and quarters.

The numbers tell part of the the story: the combined mintage for all large diameter bust quarters dates 1815-1828 amount to ca. 1,3 Million. Compare this with a reported mintage of 1,37 Million bust halves struck for the year 1808 alone.

I really like the bust dimes and quarters, specially as mentioned, the large sized dates, and have added some to my collection over the years - but yes, they are hard to find and you have to pay the price. Some dates, like the 1815 and 1822, let alone 1824/2, are very much sought after, and in every instance I have paid the price in the Red Book, or more, for them.

A challenging series for sure!

 

One thing to keep in mind with the attrition rate is that these CBQs contain about 7% more silver in them than quarters issued from the early 1850s onward. This might not seem like a lot, but it was enough of a difference back in the mid-1800s that there was strong incentive to melt down the older coinage to turn a profit on the bullion. These coins were easy targets, especially any pieces that were relatively high grade and thus had less wear.

 

Well said, sir.

 

I bought one 35 years ago for my type collection. It was expensive then, so I have no interest in the series.

 

I've gone through my accounting for the last two years and these are the CBQs that I have sold-

1) 1825/4/3 PCGS AU53/CAC $3,950 where Greysheet currently lists $1,750 for AU50 and $3,100 for MS60

2) 1818 PCGS EF40 $1,500 where Greysheet currently lists $1,155 for EF40 and $1,750 for AU50

3) 1825/4 NGC VG10/CAC $295 where Greysheet currently lists $90 for VG8 and $175 for F12

4) 1834 NGC AU53/CAC $850 where Greysheet currently lists $640 for AU50 and $1,200 for MS60

Please note that I specialize in this area (this era and this type of coinage) so the fact that I have only handled four acceptable coins in two years tells one quite a bit about what is out there. Also, note that all the coins sold for over current Greysheet and that Greysheet has shown positive prices for these in the last few issues, which means that these coins were sold for ever greater amounts above Greysheet when they were sold.

 

Here's a nice example. 1832 Graded 35 by anacs

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1832-25c-AN...20?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item5652bc64b8

 

Thank you muchly!

BTW, My want list now includes an EF45-AU58 large-sized bust quarter (common date for type).

 

Great thread thanks for posting! I too have found problem free examples in any grade difficult to find.

 

Today I am contending with about 3 ft of snow that fell on Connecticut last night. They report about 2 ft in Hartford and 3 ft in Milford. My house is under close to 3 ft of snow.

It is a good day to play with coins inside. Let me begin by posting a photo of the bust dime from my Dansco 7070. (I am out of bust quarter photos). This dime was originally purchased in a slab 10+ years ago and it resides in the Dansco now.

 

Photos of bust quarters & dimes

Post 'em if you got 'em. :smile

 

wa-da-ya-think?

I stand corrected. I do have another photo depicting a bust quarter in my collection.

Anyone else got a bust quarter photo?

 

I'm also in Connecticut and also under a mountain of snow. However, we have also lost our cable Internet connection so I am posting from my phone. Perhaps in a few days I may have images to add.