I really should of posted drives me crazy After seeing a thread on a 32D quarter it got me looking at what it's worth.. Now the 32D and 32S quarter are just about hand in hand equal but when it goes up to AU or MU60 to MU65 grade the 32D just takes off. How is this price guideline determined? Is it known that there are less 32D quarters in MU60 to 65 condition in circulation? How would they even know how many are out there after 90 years.. I understand it's very complex but maby in a nut shell just why?
Always a mystery considering the 1932 San Francisco has a lower mintage. I found this on the PCGS website. Still not a great answer, but would indicate that the 1932-D is harder to come by in higher grades. "Uncirculated examples of the 1932-S were apparently saved a little more than the 1932-D in the year of issue as the 1932-D is definitely rarer than the 1932-S in mint state condition. The 1932-D has the lowest MS65 population of any Washington quarter."
Keep in mind that we were in a depression and cash worked hard. There weren't a whole lot of folks that could afford to keep pretty examples of their pocket change set aside.
That 25 cents in 1932 was worth ~$4.73 today. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ In the 30's you could buy 10lbs of potatoes or 3 loaves of bread with that quarter and still have money left over: http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/30sfood.html
An old time dealer named Ben Marlenee was a dealer in the 1940's. I asked him this question once. He said it was almost from day 1 that the 32 D was acknowledged as the scarcer coin. He said the first time he own both dates in BU he had 4 offers on the 32 D and the 32 S just sat in his case. He said even from BU rolls the 32 D came crummy, while the 32 S was nice out of the roll. Therefore, everyone was always chasing a nice looking 32 D from the start. In Des Moines at the time 32 D's were actually more common in circulated grades, but BU the D was always king. Edit: I bet you that having a recent history of "scarce" coins from SF like the 31 S cent also had the effect of more BU rolls of them being put aside then Denver issues.
Btw sir, in general, always take mintage figures with a grain of salt. They have VERY little to do with how many survived. Look at 1883 nickel types and see what I mean. The "scarce" one survives in massively higher numbers. Many, many reasons that can affect survivability, mintage is only ONE factor. Also, the older the coin, the less pertinent the mintage versus the other factors. A coin with a mintage of 5,000 can today be a more common coin with one with a mintage of 500,000. It can happen.
Good point and agree. Mintage numbers can be far higher than the numbers released to banks and merchants. Retained coins can be destroyed (usually melted) or stored indefinitely. Even coins issued in bulk to banks can sit in vaults for decades. Who knows what lurks in the vaults of banks, the mints and the US Treasury today? Then there can be big quantities of newly minted coins that are lost early on in ship wrecks and otherwise. So, mintage numbers, even if accurate, represent only a potential maximum number of coins that might have made it into the hands of the public. Cal
The mintages don’t mean anything, what really matters is the extant population, and more to the point, the certified population. Here are the current combined populations (NGC & PCGS) for each issue (8/2020) in MS63. 1932-D: 999/1027 (CDN $1,100) 1932-S: 1673/2127 (CDN $375) These coins are valuable in the mint state grades and we can safely assume that the majority of the coins have already been graded ruling out a shift in these numbers in the future. Now we can argue about the accuracy of certified populations or the disparity in price difference, but I think we can all agree that the 32-D is the rarer of the two coins and deserves a higher price tag.
I agree with your conclusion on the 32 D, but disagree on your assertion that what matters is only the certified population. Some of us ARE sitting on a ton of US coins not slabbed. I own coins in tubes that were taken from 1960's era folders, I have BU rolls of certain dates. To assume, especially in the last 70-80 years, that all good coins are slabbed is a mistake. Also, pop numbers of slabbed coins by definition unreliable. They never went to the trouble of tracking the coins, so it is massively unknown how many crackouts and regrades there were. Are pop reports good data? Yeah, for older coins its good indicative data of rarity. However, to pay a ton of money on a modern coin based only on pop data I think is a little risky. Anyone can collect what they like, but paying a lot of money for a 50 year old quarter because its a 67, (choose whatever grade you want), would make me nervous. What if a couple of nice rolls get sent in?
An unsearched roll of uncirculated 1932 Washington Quarters is akin to Big Foot or the Lochness monster.
I know Paul, which is why I said I do not disagree with you on this coin. However, there are still unsearched rolls of other coins nearby. I bought rolls in the late 70s/early 80's of 38d buffs, and the early Jeffs. I do not think the dealer searched them, and I only opened them up to see they were all the correct dates. This was before the slabbing craze and even before the different reverse on the 39's I think. They are still sitting in the roll in the SDB, along with BU rolls of mercs, WL, and a few other dates for Jeffs, (I was thinking of making a roll set of them at the time, I think I have 48d and a couple of other post WWII dates, not the 50D though which I thought was overhyped). There is stuff still out there is my point, owned by people who do not wish to sell coins or play the slabbing game. Maybe not enough of coins from 80 years ago is left, maybe I am a dinosaur, I can just talk about my personal experience. There was a LOT of this still unslabbed when I was in US collecting, but to be honest that has been over 20 years now. Maybe I am really out of date. Btw Paul, I have really enjoyed your Jeff threads here. At times you almost got me back interested in them. I love to see someone passionate about them, since they were so overlooked for so long in US numismatics.
I didn’t mean my assertion about graded populations as a general rule, I was talking specifically about 32-D & 32-S Washington Quarters. Now I would say that it applies to most key date 20th century coins as well but it doesn’t apply to common dates or conditional rarities. My brother @Springford CC is currently assembling a high grade registry set of Franklin Half Dollars. I routinely advise him to avoid paying extremely high prices ($5K+) for conditionally rare coins because there are a ton of ungraded Franklins out there and over time, the populations WILL grow, and prices will either fall or remain stagnant. In other words, I agree with you that graded populations are not the end all be all, but they are useful when dealing with key dates.
Mintage numbers and TPG populations aside, there are fewer known 1932 D quarters in higher MS grades than there are 1932 S quarters and it's by about half in all grades at MS63 and above. I mean you can forget the mintages or the populations, finding a MS65 or MS66 1932D is going to cost you considerably more than a MS 654 or MS66 1932S I meran they are comparable on TPGs up to about MS62, but the difference happens from 63 onward, the D's just don't make the cut like the S's do. on Ebay a MS64 1932 D quarter sold for $1,530.00 and one for $1546.30 this year Both PCGS, there isn't an NGC one sold that I could find. For MS64 1932 S sold, there's been 5 and sold ranging from $575-$745 in the end it comes down to conditional rarity and availability. Although I have to say, I see no reason whatsoever why the price differences still occur At MS60 and below. it gets comparable at VF35 or below..... which to me is odd. the lower grades just have like a $20 difference. must be some sort of market influence and dealers and all that. Spend like $100 for either one in G6 and call it a day lol.
For rare/key dates, they also have good #s about how many have been submitted for certification... those aren't a perfect mirror of rarity, but an indication. PCGS shows 7,222 32D and 8,473 32S
I write it off to supply and demand. But let's not forget the depression either. All coins worked hard at that time.
This is a valid point. All my younger years I plucked S mint coins and set them aside. I believed they were more desirable for some reason.
There are some coins that are "condition rarities" based on how many were saved and how many were not. One example I can think of is the 1924-S Peace dollar. In circulated grades, it's common, but MS-60 and above, it certainly is not. The novelty of a new design is a factor also. For example, a 1909-S Indian Head cent and a 1927-S SLQ both have a lower mintage than a 1909-S VDB Lincoln cent, but guess which one is worth more?
