I picked this Washington up for a mere $20 at the coin shop yesterday, and I think it was a pretty good buy. Comments and opinions are always welcome.
Looks like it might get to MS-64, but tough to tell from the pics. Even a 63 is a great grade. Definitely a great $20 purchase.
The coin is indeed a nice original 64. I'm not sure if the pic is clear enough to show it, but it is also the Heavy Motto variety, which is what made the coin a great cherry pick.
If so, the greysheets list it as an $85 coin in 64 condition heavy motto. Really nice buy TOLS196024. It is a really nice quarter.
Here is what is, hopefully, a better image of the motto, and a brief explaination of the three different mottos found on 1934 Quarters: Light motto: Because of dies being hastily prepared for the introduction of the new Washington Quarter design, and after it's approval for production in April of 1932 (coins released to Federal banks in August, 1932), it was discovered that all coins minted in 1932 had a very low-relief motto, i.e. the Light motto. Breen estimates 1934-P Light motto quantities to be somewhere around 1/2 million. Medium (or regular) motto: Found on the vast majority of 1934-P coins, as well as many 1934-D coins. All coins minted in 1935 (Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco) carry the Medium motto, exclusively. Heavy motto: Found on a very small number of 1934-P coins. Since no mintage figures were kept that made any distinction between motto types, it's purely speculative as to how many exist. . The 1934-D carries the Heavy motto, as well. It would appear that there were many more Denver coins produced with the Heavy motto than were the Philadelphia coins. This motto type was used exclusively from 1936 on. The key diagnostic for attributing this variety is the letter "W" in "WE". If the middle point is higher than the other two legs, it is a heavy motto coin. Also, all of the letters are broader and bolder than those of the medium motto.
