Not So Common Modern Quarters

What actually got me back into CRH ironically was the fact I was having all kinds of trouble finding 2009 dated coins in circulation... As we all know now, the 2009 P & D nickels and dimes are difficult to find in circulation. In the case of the 2009-P nickel, I have found exactly 3 in 4 1/2 months of searching.

One thing I set out to do early on was to complete a set of modern quarters from 1999 to present. It's been very chllenging. Thanks to a lot of searching, I have found all but one coin (2009-P Northern Mariana Islands).

Most of the Quarters dated 2009-2012 are difficult to find. Why? The mintages are low. In many cases, fewer than 50 million coins were made. Here are the under 50M coins:

2009-P Guam 45M
2009-D Guam 42.6M
2009-P American Samoa 42.6M
2009-D American Samoa 39.6M
2009-P US Virgin Islands 41M
2009-D US Virgin Islands 41M
2009-P North Mariana Islands 35.2M*
2009-D North Mariana Islands 37.6M
2010-P Arkansas 35.6M
2010-D Arkansas 34M
2010-P Wyoming 33.6M
2010-D Wyoming 34.8M
2010-P California 35.2M
2010-D California 34.8M
2010-P Arizona 34.8M
2010-D Arizona 35.4M
2010-P Oregon 34.4M
2010-D Oregon 34.4M
2011-P Pennsylvania 30.8M
2011-D Pennsylvania 30.4M
2011-P Montana 30.4M
2011-D Montana 31.2M
2011-P Washington 30.4M
2011-D Washington 30.6M
2011-P Mississippi 30.8M
2011-D Mississippi 33.4M
2012-P Puerto Rico 25.8M
2012-D Puerto Rico 25M
2012-P New Mexico 22M
2012-D New Mexico 22M
2012-P Maine 24.8M
2012-D Maine 21.6M
2012-P Hawaii 46.2M

When you consider that prior to these coins, every coin produced since 1972 (except the 2008-D Oklahoma quarter at 194.6M) had a mintage of at least 213.8M, you can see why these coins are so difficult to find.

I've been putting all of the above away... have any of the rest of you been doing the same?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

There's a story out there that a HUGE percentage of 2009-P nickels and dimes that got into circulation were distributed through banks in Puerto Rico. I don't know if it's true or not, but I keep hearing it from various sources.

 

I find 2009 (mostly P) dimes semi-reguarly, but I've searched hundreds of dollars worth of nickels and only found 3. I find 1940s and 50s coins with similar mintage numbers (or fewer, even) far more often than 6 year old coins.

I save 2009 quarters if they're in decent shape, same with pennies if they're already brown or gunked up.

 

I find the 2009-D dimes semi regularly as well... I own I think 17 of them now... since I'm on the West coast, the 2009-P dimes are actually harder to find, despite the fact that they made twice as many as Denver did that year.

I do find 2009-D nickels fairly regularly, though I've never found more than 5 in any one day. I have found around 70 of them in nearly 60,000 coins... but BU examples are very scarce.

I save the 2009 cents as well... the Philadelphia coins are also tough to find out here... I only have a few examples of most, while I have rolls of all of the Denvers except the Presidency 2009-D coins.

Believe it or not, the easiest 2009 Philadelphia coins for me to find have been the NIFC half dollars!

 

Not the cents? Wow! It's not a constant thing, but occasionally I can't go a day without running across a 2009 cent in circulation. Then they dry up again for a while. Rinse, repeat.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "not the cents."

When I go through cents - whether it's $5, $10, or a box, I rarely don't find a 2009-D... though I have been skunked on them a few times even on MWRs! The Philly coins (other than the Halves) just don't seem to get out here to the West coast.

 

You indicated that Philly 2009 NIFC halves are seen more than 2009 cents. Seems odd to me, even for the west coast. But then, I don't search bank rolls, never have. I search supposedly solid BU rolls for varieties, like 1970-S small date cents. Got a few major monsters, too.

 

I got you now... pretty much all I search through are bank rolls... If/when finances let me, I may eventually go through solid BU rolls as you do. I've found 12 2009-P cents to date in 4 1/2 months, but around 300 2009-D cents in approximately 50,000 coins...

I've been very pleasantly surprised by the existance of the NIFC halves in MWRs... In two months, I've managed to put together a complete set of them from 2002-2015 in about 10,000 coins.

 

I have only seen about maybe 5 of the 09 quarters in circ, most of those being Wash. D.C and one or two Guams.

 

The DCs are the most common, though there is that "Doubled Ellington" error to look for in them... no, I haven't found one of those yet.

 

I personally have been keeping the ones that look the best. Either the rest of them have been in circulation to long and I personally do not find eye appealing and are in bad shape. I have put quite a few of these back into circulation. As I said in one of my threads, keep the best dump the rest. Over the years and even to this day I'm finding A variety of quarters in a lot better shape that has been in circulation, then the ones I have in original mint sets. And that also includes mint rolls.

 

You kind of through me with the state names instead of the national park names. I though for a minute you were saying those states were that low mintage! lol But yes, I pull those (not Hawaii) if they are in high enough grade. So I have a few of each of the parks. I usually just pull 5 BU gorgeous examples as each one comes out. But those from 09 - 12 are low enough mintage that I have kept a few extra of them too.
dittos usmc60, "keep the best dump the rest"

 

It's easier for me to remember them by the states than the entire name of the National Parks, so that's why I did that.. The 11-P&D Oklahoma, 12-D Hawaii, and 12-P&D Alaska are much more common than the others so I don't keep them except for a few very high grade ones.

 

I started saving good examples of the State park quarters, esp the low mintage.

 

Puerto Rico is not 2012. It came with the other US territories, Guam, Samoa, etc.

 

We covered this earlier in the thread... I refer to all of the 2010-2021 quarters by their state names and not the park names because they're shorter to write down/abbreviate.

 

Of the State Park quarters, the first 3 issued in 2012 (both mints) have proven to be the hardest to find for me, especially the P mints...

Of all of the 2009-2012 dated coins, the only one I have yet to find in circulation is the 2009-P North Mariana Islands coin.

 

I'll definitely have to see if I can find more info on this... sounds interesting!

 

While we're on the subject of 2009 coins, does anyone know if there are any rare varieties with all the cent reverses they made? Any low mintage totals associated with certain obvs?

 

Mad Stax, I heard there's some sort of error with the second bicentennial cent design with extra fingers / doubling by the fingers. Don't know if the variations have been acknowledged by ANACS/NGC/PCGS, but they may in like 10 years. Or not.

Regardless, the first three designs have approximately the same mintages, though the last one is half the size of the others. According to the 2016 red book (69th edition)...

Birth P: 284.4M
Birth D: 350.4M
Form. P: 376M
Form. D: 363.6M
Prof. P: 316M
Prof. D: 336M
Presid. P: 129.6M
Presid. D: 198M