While looking through quarters today, I noticed a big difference between these 2! Quarters. The left one is a 2019 P AMP. Quarter. The one on the right is a 1995 P quarter. My question is why is there such a bold difference between them. The 1995 has very detailed hair where the 2019’s hair has much less detail. Is that because of a difference in strike pressure? Is there a term for the more detailed coin? Thanks!
Different designers/different designs. Higher relief and more detail on the 95 than the 19. Compare some late 60's cents vs some mid 90's cents vs 2017-2019 cents.
The focus of post-1998 quarters is on the designs of the reverse so mint engineers began increasingly flattening Washington's hair to lengthen the lifespan of the obverse dies. They figured no one would care or notice how flat Washington's hair is on the front. Only, people do.
I have been collecting for over 70 years. These new quarters are a real poor example of US coins. I don't like to even have them around.
Between 1932 and today, the technology goals of coin production have changed radically. In 1932 quarters were made to be used in the economy. Now they have use, but increasingly they are made for collectors because E-commerce is replacing them. Dies are now made shallower with less detail and relief so that they will last longer. There was a period in the 1980s and ‘90s when the mint tried to increase the amount of hair detail on Washington’s portrait. A fair number of collectors did not like it. They called it “spaghetti hair” so the mint backed off. Designs change, even if they were supposed to have remained the same on paper. If you ever get the chance, compare the modern Lincoln Cent portrait with the one in 1909. They are similar, not the same. They changed because the old tools (called master hubs) wore out and had to be replaced. Most collectors never notice this, but it makes the hobby more interesting.
I'm starting to notice that. A lot of the new ones seem to have a weird "hazey" look to them. where the older ones, are what I've always thought a coin should be like.
Seems very true. I just took a new 2019 quarter and held it between my thumb and forefinger and the obverse felt flat, almost like a blank planchet, Did the same with an older quarter , and could easily feel the design. Then tried to catch the edge of Washington's outline with my fingernail on the new quarter. it slid right over it. Tried it on the old quarter and it caught. Seems to me like these new quarters won't last long in circulation. After a few years of use the obverse should be all but identifiable.
Back when the 1995 was truck they were using presses that struck between 60 and 100 coins per minute, about 1 coin per second. That gave the metal time to fill the higher relief used on the dies. Today the press is running at 750 coins per minute, 13 coins per second. There just physically would not be enough time for the metal to flow into the relief of the dies used in 1995. If they tried they would come out of the press with the detail of a G-4. So they have had to GREATLY reduce the relief just to have some detail on the coin. It can be interesting to put together a date set of modern coins since 1965 in MS just so you can see how the the designs and relief change over the years.
