I'm not interested in collecting Washington quarters at this time, but for some reason I was going through my red book last night looking at them. I wanted to see what, if any, valuable quarters there were after 1964. I ran across the 1983-P. It says they're worth 21.00 in MS-63. I thought, that was weird. With a mintage of over 673.5 million, it shouldn't be that scarce. Does anybody know why this is? Anyway, I went to lunch today. My only purchase in the last several days. I paid last. Got some change back. 3 pennies, one dime and a quarter. Unbelievably, the quarter I got was a 1983-P! Of course it isn't MS-63. It's been in circulation a while but it is in pretty good shape. I'd give it a VF. I still can't believe it. I guess it isn't that big of a deal but to have it happen like that was kind of neat.
The 1982 P and D and 1983 P and D are worth a premium, especially in MS grades. I've seen circulated examples sell for a few dollars.
The ironic thing about it is that more rolls than usual were saved. It's just that almost all the moderns come from mint sets so the extra rolls weren't nearly enough. The Redbook is all wet on the value of an MS-63. An MS-60 WHOLESALES for more than $23 and nice MS-63's are pretty tough. You'll only get three or four out of the average roll.
I was under the , obviously wrong , impression that normal mint strikes after 64 weren't worthlooking at . Thanks for showing me wrong . rzage
Well, for the most part you were right. The mintages are huge. You need a MS-63 or better or it's hardly worth your time. I went through my change jar and found four more 1983-Ps in decent shape. There's a guy on ebay selling six of them, similar to mine for 0.99 cents and no bids. He may end up selling a 1.50 for 0.99. lol In other words, they appear to be a dime a dozen unless you've got a MS-63+.
Funny the same thing happened to me a couple of years ago. I had just read that the value of 1983 quarters was higher than most clads. I went to the store and got one in change. I did put it on ebay and it sold. The coin was rather beat. The buyer left feedback sayng the coin was nice.
MS-60's are far scarcer than a '31-S Lincoln in unc. The reason prices on the modern coins is low is because demand is low. There are hundreds of thousands of people who want a '31-S Lincoln. There are only a few who want an '83-P quarter.
