I have noticed that my red book says that the 1983 quarter is worth a little more than the other quarters around that time and after. I am curious to know why. I got 2 last week and can't figure it out. Thanks for any info. The quarters I got a a D mark. I am new to coins.
The 1983 & 1984 quarters (and all others) are worth more because there were no mint sets issued. Folks did not realize it at the time and not enough uncs (esp uncs) were saved. In fact, occasionally, circs are advertised to buy in CW.
As part of one of Reagan's cost cutting iniatives mint sets were eliminated in '82 and '83. Everyone knew it in advance so more rolls were set aside and private mint sets were issued but these weren't enough to satisfy the demand. There's also an issue with the quality of the coins being generally poor during these years.
That's just it, they DIDN'T know it in advance and extra rolls were NOT put back. Since the mintsets provide most of the pool from which collectors pull uncirculated coins years after the date the issue, there was no "pool" for the 82 and 83 coins. Rolls are few and far between so the prices went up considerably more than for other dates.
Exactly. It has nothing to do with lower mintage's as was suggested earlier (because the mintage was about the same). Without mint sets, there were no coins from these dates really set aside as collector pieces. Extra rolls weren't saved. So, you get circulated example which are about as common as normal but the BU examples are hard to find...and therefore expensive. It's a supply and demand thing.
No, you'd be amazed at how few rolls were being saved in those days. It was up considerably from the early '70's and late '60's but still it was probably only in the realm of about 60,000 coins. (1500 rolls) (15 bags). 1981 rolls were advertised for sale right up to the mid-'90's in the coin papers at very low prices. They're no longer in stock but original rolls are still see today if you look hard enough. There's little interest in these rolls since quality is poor and nice coins are available in the mint set. This is the root of the reason rolls wern't saved; quality was horrendous. You can get an excellent idea of the absolute numbers saved by counting the varieties which don't appear in mint sets. The type "d" '81-D, for instance doesn't appear in sets and accounts for about 3% of production. Finding one of these in unc is nearly impossible because the rolls are mostly still intact in storage or have been busted up and spent. Few of the coins from these rolls are available for sale. But it changed in '82. There wasn't a lot of warning that sets wouldn't be made and it was certainly not big news to almost everyone but it was news. Some people did go out and buy rolls and bags in '82 and several private concerns made mint sets. The total was probabaly in excess of about 120,000 for the '82-P quarter and similar for the '83-P. Attrition was initially very high as it has been for all moderns but by May of 1985 Numismatic News was running stories on the difficulty of finding these coins and the attrition slowed. By 1987 the '82-P had developed a large premium but this wasn't because there were fewer rolls it was because all the demand was focused on the rolls because there were no mint sets. Soon enough the paucity of the other coins of these dates began to become apparent. I remember thinking on my way back from Sandusky Ohio with my gem '82 NMM that it was ironic that the '82-P in high grade would probably be more valuable in the long run. I believe this has already occurred only a quarter century later.
