My girlfriend gave me a nice set of BU state quarters she'd bought online in a Dansco album for Christmas. I wanted a set for the sake of having one, but hadn't been collecting the proofs or from general circulation, so a set of P and D uncirculated was good enough for me. I know there are tons of each coin minted, and everybody and their grandkid is collecting up a set, so their potential for value is limited. However, I was reflecting...with all the fine detail they tried to cram into these things, isn't there a good chance the ones in circulation will wear down pretty quickly? At that point, I think we will have a lot of ugly looking state quarters floating around in circulation. Even with the brand new ones I have, it is sometimes hard to figure out what the design is unless the light hits it just so. If they wear pretty badly in circulation, won't it be nice to have a BU set floating around to show the grandkids. It will also be interesting to see which state designs hold up the worst over time. Sometimes a nice simple bold design is best.
Well, I'll give ya this much - it's a nice set to collect for posterity, the kids love 'em and I do enjoy many of the designs. I'll also give you that the designs will not wear well overall. However, everybody and his two brothers, his 14 cousins, all the aunts and uncles, the cat and both dogs have bought unc rolls or bags and saved them, saved albums of unc examples and they have all saved more unc examples and just thrown them into a jar or bucket. So 100 years from now, we'll still be overrun with unc examples of the things. But if you collect them for the reasons in the first paragraph - then the second paragraph doesn't even matter
I use to not think so but i believe now that the state quarters will be a highly collectable coin in the many years ahead. Just look at what the '99 sets are going for. Think the same may be true for the presiential coins that come out in the mint sets later this year. Get them while they are relatively inexpensive. This is just my opion but the washington quarter is not a very exciting coin on its own. we shall see after the 2008 season and the uncirculated and proof coins are a sell out and future generation begin to collect them
It's interesting how the relief has been lowered on the clad quarters over the years. They even started making them slightly thinner in 1999 so that the new coins wouldn't be a lot thicker than the worn coins in circulation. If these actually circulate until they are all heavily worn there will be surprisingly little difference between the oldest and newest coins. It's unlikely they'll circulate that long though due to inflation.
One thing that will really save some wear and tear on the coins is their elimination from slot machines. Here in Vegas nearly all coin machines are gone. Wonder how this fact has influenced the mintages if at all?
the demand will way beyond anything anyone imagines toward the end of the run. The promoters will really crank this one through the roof like nothing we have ever seen. There are still people out there who are just now noticing that they are putting states on the quarters (or is it dimes?) and they will want a full set once they see the ads.
