My favorite "modern coin" is the original Washington Quarter (1932-98). I don't know why this design is so appealing to me...but it always has been. As a child, I loved the Bicentennial design with the drummer on the reverse...so maybe it stems from that. Some time ago, I started to become interested in the various obverse and reverse die varieties of the Washington Quarter. I have set myself a goal of assembling a AU/MS complete date/MM set including all the ODVs and RDVs. Over the last several years, I have picked up a handful of coins for this project but I have decided to make it one of my main focuses for now. The goal for this set is to be a nice eye appeal raw set (slabbed exceptions being 32-D, 32-S and 36-42 proofs). I have begun to photograph this collection and I thought it would be fun to share it here. I will photograph when I currently have and then any new coin purchases and share them in this thread. Here are the first three that I photographed yesterday. The 47-S is not quite to my grade standard for this set...but I like the green/brown toning and it is the only coin from my childhood collection that was of decent enough grade. So, I will include it as a space filler and possibly upgrade in the future. 1951 is one of only a few years with multiple die varieties on the obverse. This coin exists with both the ODV-005 and ODV-006 type. The simplest diagnostic for this is looking that the "R" in the motto. On the 005, the "hole" in the "R" is more rectangular while on the 006 the "hole" is almost perfectly round.
I also love the Washington Quarter design, and I also have a collection of raw business strike Silver Washington Quarters, and these are the ONLY coins I collect raw. Always fun to me when I find other collectors with similar interests / niches within the hobby. I really love when these coins are satiny, velvety luster as opposed to the super brilliant ones. (I like those ones too!) Capturing how pretty silver Washingtons are in photos can be hard, but in hand, I think its easy to understand why people like them so much. They are a simple and iconic design, in a great physical size (not too big, not too small), and come in a variety of finishes (toned, brilliant white, satiny, etc). Here is one of mine as I bought them: I buy only one or two a year, just sort of a token coin purchase at shows to slowly fill my album: Looking forward to seeing more posts on your collection here. Cheers, -Geek
I also enjoy the set. My 1937-1941 issues are all slabbed. The 1940-1958 issues are in Capital Plastic mint set holders (3 row through 1955, 2 row for 1956-1958). The 1959-1998 ones are in air tite holders, and I have all the mint sets from 1959 through 1998. I do not have all the 1937 issues, and none of the 1932-1936 ones.
I totally get you here. The satiny velvety one's are the sweet spot. My set will have some of each but will lean towards satiny coins.
Here are a few more. This is starting to get into the era of Washington Quarters that really interest me. The reverse die varieties (RDV) found on quarters beginning in the mid 1950s and running into the early 1970s have really drawn me to this set as well as the wonder aesthetics of the coin. Here are a few I photographed yesterday. So, to explain the RDV-001 and RDV-002...you have to go back to the original design of the coin. The RDV-001 reverse is the original business strike reverse. It was used on Washington Quarters throughout the entire silver coinage run (32-64). However, beginning with the second year of proof production (1937), a modified design was found on the reverse. The proof reverse not only features greater detail as you would expect on all proofs...but also a slightly different design. This is all normal and to be expected...except beginning in 1956, the proof reverse started appearing on a small number of business strikes. The true reason for this is unknown (theories range from the wrong hub being used to produce the die, to defective proof dies being recycled for business strike production, to simply a mistake being made resulting in the wrong die being used). Whatever the reason, from 1956-1964 a small subset of Philadelphia business strikes feature the proof reverse. Those of us who dive deep into this refer to these as RDV-001 and RDV-002 (001 being the standard reverse and 002 being the proof reverse). As this is a well known variety, they are more commonly referred to as "Type A" and "Type B" quarters respectively. There are a number of diagnostics to differentiate these coins. For me, the simplest is the spacing between the "E" and "S" in STATES on the reverse. I always start here and if I find one with the wider gap of a RDV-002, I check further from there. See below:
Do you know (or are you?) the author of the section on these in the Cherrypickers' Guide? I think I exchanged emails with them several years ago. I love this kind of collecting.
No, I am not. I have never written anything about these coins. I have just studied them a lot. Honestly, the best resource concerned RDV's I have found come from the Heartland Coin Club website. They have an excellent pair of pdfs that really break these down in great detail...and a quick reference guide as well. An absolutely wonderful resource. http://www.heartlandcoinclub.com/links.html#link14
I have all the regular issues 1932 - 1998 except for the 32 D and S. Uncirculated as well. Working on completing a PCGS graded set for 1932 -1940, just need 5 more to complete that mini-set. Grades I have range from MS63 (36D) up to 66+ (39D). Most are 65 or 66.
Got a few more photographed. All of these are RDV-002 (Type B) coins. The purple toned 1961 is one of my favorite coins.
Here are a few more that I photographed. This rounds out the 32-64 silvers that I have for this set so far. I love the toning on the 1964 RDV-001 business strike...I had to really angle the light to bring it out but it's a really pretty coin. The 1964-D I really dislike but it's a placeholder for now. In hand that mark on the obverse is far more subtle than in the photos. I picked this coin up online some time ago. I thought it was an RDV-003 because the photo of it made the leaf above the A appear to be to the left. The photo was slightly grainy and I took a flyer on it...I was wrong. Oh well. I have since learned the diagnostics better so hopefully I can avoid such errors in the future. Also, the "scratch" on the reverse of the 1962 RDV-002 is on the airtite...not on the coin.
Time to dive into some clad coins...and this is where the RDV's get really interesting. Because of the material change...several adjustments to die design were made in a short period of time. Beginning in 1965 and running through 1972, six different RDV's were used (003-008). Business strikes for 1965 and 1966 are found with RDV-003, 004, and 005 reverses. The 1967 business strike is found with RDV-003, 004, 005, and 006. As far as I have seen SMS coins for all three years are only confirmed to have 004, and 005 reverses (and both are fairly common)...but in theory could existing with the other reverses depending on year (again, not confirmed). There is a great reference here which explains the differences: http://www.heartlandcoinclub.com/links.html#link14 For the 1965-67 run, I only currently have 1 SMS example from each year. See below:
