I am a little confused. I was browsing my Coin Prices Magazine and I noticed that the 1995 Washington Quarters in MS-65 are valued at: 1995-P $10.00 1995-D $9.00 Okay, here's what I am confused about. I was looking at the mintages for these two quarters, both over 1,000,000,000 each. Now why are these two worth so much? I would think the more that are minted the less they'd be worth but this seems like the opposite. Is there anything special about that year?
Nothing special about that year, that I am aware of. I believe $10.00 is about the average selling price for most MS-65 modern clad quarters. Oh yeah, the total mintage has nothing to do with how many will grade at MS-65.
All coin and collectible prices are determined strictly by supply and demand. Supply had a strong positive correlation with mintage up until 1934 but this correlation has completely broken down in the modern era. Now days people tend to sock away the small mintages so that the coins with the large mintages can be extremely elusive. Couple this with the extremely weak demand for most of the circulating moderns and it can make some very interesting pricing anomalies. The '95 is readily easily understood though. Most of these coins come from the mint sets and this set had a very low mintage making it scarce enough to have a significant premium to the coins in the set. ie- if you cut this set to get a quarter there is a large decrease in the market value. This puts great pressure on the supplies of BU rolls which like most dates, were saved in very limited quantities. Couple this with the fact that almost all the coins in the rolls and most of the coins in the sets have such extensive marking that there is no chance of grading MS-65 and what's left is another scarce modern with a "huge" premium. If you want a real challenge try to find a raw '82-P in gem at any price.
Your odds of finding a MS-65 outside of a broken mint set are slim and none. UNC rolls are a good source of MS-63's and the occasional 64, but that is about it. When you add up how many sets were issued and broken up, the premiums work from there.
