1932-S Washington - Real or Fake?

Hi everyone! Long time lurker and decided to join.

The reason for this post is I am considering bidding on a 1932-S Washington quarter in an online auction. Upon reviewing the photos, my suspicions were aroused when I took a closer look at the mint mark. The "S" appears to be placed in a concave area which looks really unusual. I wanted to get everyone's opinion before bidding. Of course, the auctioneer stands behind his coins, and I know him pretty well, but why bother with bidding, etc. if it turns into a big ol' hassle later, right?

Here's a pic:



Many thanks for your input!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

that black around the mintmark screams solider to me. Wait for others input though.

 

Howdy, Tex! Welcome to Coin Talk!
Your first post here.
It's sure good to see someone come here before making a (mistake) purchase.
I've got to give you lot's of credit for that.
I can't answer your question, but i'm sure that there are some here that can.

 

Actually, that concave depression is the diagnostic for a genuine 1932-S Washington Quarter. From the PCGS THE OFFICIAL GUIDE TO COIN GRADING AND COUNTERFEIT DETECTION:

The mint mark should square and boxy with the serifs parallel to each other which this appears to be. The other diagnostic is a die scratch above the D in DOLLAR. The photo is a little to fuzzy to tell for sure, but there looks like there might be a die scratch there. Again, the die scratch does not appear on all 1932-S quarters, but if it does appear, the coin is genuine.

Here is a photo of the mint mark of my 1932-S Washington Quarter. Notice a similar depression as your coin.

 

Actually, that is typical of genuine coins, as the "depression" was a real dirt collector. Almost all circulated Washington quarters of that era have the telltale "dark shadowing" surrounding the mintmark.

 

I've seen this kind of depression quite frequently on Denver minted Eisenhower dollars.

 

I'd say real as well

 

Thanks everyone. I've been collecting off and on for over 40 years and I learn something new every month. Last month it was about trail dies. Never knew something like that even existed until I came across a few Lincolns on eBay.

I appreciate the help and opinions!

 

Here's what I have heard about 1932-S quarters: If it looks fake it's probably real. If it looks real it's probably fake. One experience I had was I bought two coins at a coin show, 1932-D and 1932-S quarters. I showed them to a few dealers and most said they were fakes. One dealer said "They both are fake without a doubt".
I went back to the dealer I bought from and returned both coins. He sent them out to ANACS and both were authentic.

 

It looks legit to me.

 

Simple way to protect oneself in this day and age of counterfeit key date coin is just wait until a professionally certified coin comes along.

 

Great information. Its unfortunate that these do sit in a depression, since "black gunk" around a mm is usually a telltale warning, but these naturally have it. I know its not right, but an old dealer I knew used to clean the black off with a toothpick to be able to see the surfaces of where the mm meets the field to verify these.

 

I can't say that I have ever seen a genuine circulated specimen without the gunk

 

I would highly recommend staying away from any raw '32D or S Quarter. There are few diagnostics to use to discern a genuine coin due to a high number of dies used to strike these, and that in combination with tons of attempts to create spurious examples makes this coin difficult to authenticate.
The market is down on these coins right now, and you can buy a certified specimen at close to grey sheet.
Hope this helps.

 

I will also add that authenticating a coin, any coin by only looking at 10% of it is impossible. And anyone that says they can, I'll order a boat load of Morgan dollars and other key date coins for you to buy but you only get to see what I let you see.

 

Agree and in this case especially, with the 32's both P's and D's, there are lots and lots of examples in all circulated grades to pick from.

 

It is also obvious that it's impossible authenticate a coin from pictures alone. 100% of the coin shown or not.

The OP was asking if anything looked fishy with the mint mark on a coin he was considering. On this particular coin (1932-S Washer) the depression pictured IS one of the things you'd look for when you authenticate it. I believe that the OP thought that this mint mark made it look fake when in fact it makes it look real.

 

but the best way to protect oneself is to educate yourself before you buy

 

I found this 1932 d in a river. It has chip die errors, the date was stamped 3 times, the mint mark isn't fake but yet not in a depression, it's silver, weighs 6.25 grams, diameter 24.16mm, thickness 1.6mm. Real or fake?

 

It's a fake, a poor quality one, which is probably why it was in the river.