Hello All. First post here. I recently began collecting silver bullion pieces which got me organizing my old state quarter old collection...which led me to this site after finding this dark quarter! Long story short I have 2 rolls of each state (got them from a local bank each time they were released). I recently began organizing them and putting them in Koin tubes. When I opened a fresh roll of Maine state quarters there was a very dark coin in the batch. At first I was going to put it with my change and spend it and then afters some research I saw that it may be a coin error. Is it indeed a coin error? Something with the annealing process I have read. I'm sure it isn't worth much but wanted to check with all of you. I have attached a picture. The quarter on the right is only for comparison.
Welcome to the forum. I honestly don't think that it is a mint error, perhaps it is some form of weathering or unusual "toning" if you will. That being said, I am not an expert on quarters and await the replies of others. Keep up the hunt!
You do not need to be an "expert" on Washington Quarters to know that this is a Sintered Planchet where something went wrong during the annealing process. Sintering or as PCGS now likes to call it, Improperly Annealed, can occur on any US coin. It can be considered a Mint Error since an error occured during its production and it should have been pulled prior to being sent to the Federal Reserve.
Thanks 19Lyds. Is it worth anything more than 25 cents? Also I see the coins you posted have been certified as having the error. Is it worth getting it certified...if so where do you send it? Thanks again for the lesson!
The ONLY time one of these sells for a premium is if its of a high enough grade. Other than that, getting them certified is the collectors preference. There was a time that the Sintered Presidential Dollars got at least $100 but since then many a shoster has figured out that if you dip the coin into a blackening agent, you can get a dark colored coin. Many were sold to collectorts who did not know how to tell the difference. The difference is a "mottled" appearance instead of a flat black. The nickels were known as "Black Beauty's" and marked as such in the 60's. I doubt that I will recover my $55 grading fee's on either one of them which is my mistake. The Eisenhower's can get a bit pricey as I've seen MS66 coins go for $400+ AND a lot depoends upon the year of the sintering. 1978 shows up more than 1977 and I've seen other years but not with as much sintering. For your quarter, I just don't think it's worth the $74.95 you'd have to pay PCGS to get it certified. Of course, if its an MS69 then its a different story! Dang near anything can get into an error slab, but the collector needs to really consider the costs. c Grading = $50.00 plus, Handling Fee = $8.00 Base return shipping = $16.95 Then there's the cost associated with sending it to PCGS which is dependent upon which method is chosen. Most of these, just get mounted in 2x2's and put into the safe which is what I'd do if I had your's.
Thank you again 19Lyds. I may just throw it up on ebay in case any collector is interested. I will just post good photos and let the collector determine if it's something they want..definitely not important enough to get graded for that price!
