Denver vs. Philadelphia Mints

I have always noticed that the coins minted at Denver for circulation always have a nice shiny look as compared to those minted at Philadelphia. I have noticed this for years. When sorting state quarters, for instance, I can tell which are from Denver and which are from Philadelphia without even looking at the mint marks. My sister also says there's a difference. Has this issue been addressed before? Why would Denver coins have a shinier surface while Philadelphia coins have a "milky( cloudy)" appearance? My sister says it's because the Philadelphia facility is older and has worn-out equipment. Aren't the dies used made exactly the same? Are the coin blanks polished in different ways?

 

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Considering that the Denver mint is over a hundred years old and that both have newer machinery the new facility arguement can't be used.

I agree, the Denver mint quarters (especially) are far superior in appearance.
Perhaps someone else can explain why.

 

This is also true of the satin finish coins in the uncirc. sets. There is a marked difference between the two mints.

 

Quality of Mint Coinage

I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who sees a visible difference between coins minted in Philadelphia and in Denver. I was always afraid to post fearing that collectors would laugh at my comments about the Denver coins being of higher overall quality. Has this matter ever been addressed before? I have noticed this difference for decades but kept it to myself. When I got 2 New Mexico quarters recently, I saw a vast difference between the shiny Denver copy and the dull-looking Philadelphia copy. I wonder what explanation the Mint would give. Unfortunately, they don't take questions on their website.

 

Philadelphia has been closing this gap for years now.

It's not just how shiny the coins are but the strike and die quality as well as the amount of marking on the coins. It should be noted that this difference is just between the 80 or 90% of "typical" coins for each mint. At the bottom of the scale the difference is even greater and at the very top there is little difference at all. Indeed, the best .1% of the Philly issue is often superior to the top Denver coins.

 

Mint Quality

I really never really saw any quarter or half from Philadelphia in great condition. Even in the US Mint's uncirculated sets, which are supposed to have the best examples of each, the Denver coins look superior. The difference appears greatest when comparing the state quarters and the Kennedy Halves. The difference seems less when comparing the "Golden" dollars, the dimes and nickels.

 

Oh, that's an easy question to answer...Denver is just a better city in general .

 

Less air polution in the Mile High City?

 

And why does the Philly mint have (what seems like) the most errors, varietys, DDs, etc?

 

I believe some / all of the old proofs were made in Philly. They can be of high quality.
I think it's the new management . . .

 

Way out here in 2022, the milky appearance on Philadelphia coins is very apparent. Especially on dollar coins.

I suspect water quality could play a role?

 

Denver has better quality control and their employees take more pride in what they do than Philadelphia.

 

Maybe Denver uses just a little more pressure when minting the coins. I do not know if there is a “standard” pressure or that is left up to the operator.

 

Philly's Quality Control person(s) are saying "good enough for government work"?

 

Denver coins may look a little better in general, but I am not sure you can make a case for better quality.
Last year's 2021 Morgan dollars are a perfect example of where the Denver mint fell flat on its face. You can get onto PCGS, NGC, and ANACS websites and look at the numbers of Morgans that were graded MS-70 versus the total number graded. Based on the numbers from each service the Morgans minted in Denver had a much lower percentage of MS-70's that the ones done in San Francisco and Philadelphia.

BTW... Based on the grades posted for the 2021 Morgans and Peace Dollars, it also appears that NGC gives coins across the board higher ratings than either of the other two grading services.

Don

 

Double post

 

Hmmm. The Denver quality didn't carry over into the 2021 Morgans last year as strictly by census numbers and appearance, they were the poorest quality of them all by quite a margin so far.

 

The OP is about the apperant haze on business strike circulating coins where the mints don't pay great attention to surface quality. The milky haze is a particular in phenomenon with a systemic cause. What could it be?

 

There is a reason Coors is made in Denver.....

 

Actually, it's made in Golden and the factory has huge reservoirs of mountain stream water on the brewery grounds.

I'm guessing the historical difference between the P and D coins must be some extra attention to polishing here in Denver where we are closer to the sun and have less atmosphere to interfere with looking at our shiny(est) coins

There we go, I've solved it
I'll confirm with some Denver Mint workers once they open back up for tours again...!!!

 

I'm sure this has been discussed, no soild reason, has been conclusively proven. There is a clear visual difference between Denver and Philly, I chalked it up to altitude differences,,,
this is until I noticed the W mintmark quarters stood out in both P and D mintmark rolls, you could identify a likely W just from the coin edge in a roll of 40.

At this point even if all equipment is equal, different management, different operators and machine setters, different timing for die changes, this is the likely cause of the difference.
it's not that Denver is using more care or higher standards or the altitude I think, annual output is similar nowadays between Denver and Philly.

Two people could make buttered toast (this actually happened to me), I use too much butter, she doesn't use enough, I like my toast, she likes her toast, we hate each others toast. It's bread toasted in the same toaster for the same length of time, with some butter on it, very simple.
But it's two different things as a finished product as far as perceptions of the finished product.

Maybe the operators at Denver go lighter on the grease, maybe Philly goes heavy on it. Maybe, there's a slight difference in pressure settings between the mints and how the operators like to run the machines for what they think is the best they can get out of it at the speed it's running.

their goal is to make coins for circulation, it doesn't have to be perfect, just recognizable and acceptable for circulation use. Make an operator drop what he's doing to bang out Morgan dollars and reset the pressures, maybe at mid-day, maybe he doesn't care as much how perfect it is and just gets it done so he can go home.

lots of tiny variables, like buttering toast.