1953 Washington Quarter

With abundant numbers of Washington quarters made during most years of the series’ run, there were not only plenty of these coins available in circulation, but there were also millions being hoarded in rolls and bags. Many of these uncirculated rolls of coins continue to supply coin collectors today with pristine examples of the Washington quarter. Much of the squirreling away of quarters was fueled by the price booms seen by coin collectors of the 1950s, many of whom saw investment potential in saving examples of newly struck coins for resale, with many uncirculated rolls at the time going for multiples over face value. Thankfully, collectors of the day saved Washington quarters and other coin series of the time in vast quantities, or otherwise series collectors today would in all likelihood have far fewer to choose from (and have to pay a whole lot more to buy them!).

One can see by the high mintage figures below that there were scores of 1953 quarters struck, which helps to further add to the high availability of this date today:

• 1953, 18,536,120 minted; $7

• 1953 proof, 128,800; $55

• 1953-D, 56,112,400; $7

• 1953-S, 14,016,000; $7

*Values listed are for coins in a grade of Extremely Fine-40, unless otherwise noted.

What may stand out above is the mintage of 1953 proof quarters, which well exceeds 120,000. This is just one example of how popular coin collecting was in the 1950s – the United States Mint was responding to increasing demand for its collector coins.