Collectors Greeted 1965 Washington Quarter with Scorn

Some coins are made beautiful and others are made rare. The 1965 Washington quarter stands as the classic two-time loser. That may never change, but it just may be that with the 50 state quarter program and those that follow, we all should take a second look at the 1965 Washington quarter.

Something many viewed as absolutely terrible happened in 1965. The Washington quarter and the Roosevelt dime were struck without silver. The Kennedy half dollar had only 40 percent silver. It was no accident. The price of silver had simply risen too high for use in circulating coins. The Coinage Act of 1965 guaranteed that 1964 Washingtons were to be the last circulating quarters to contain silver.

When the first 1965 quarters emerged very late that year, they were greeted with something close to scorn. The scorn was over their lack of silver.

We were, however, curious about these 1965 quarters. They were, after all, entirely new. In most cases, they failed their first drop test, which was simply dropping them on the ground to see how they would sound. They did not sound at all like silver, which should have surprised no one. It was noted as another reason not to like them. After the drop test, other tests were likely to follow. There was the “hit them with a train” test and an assortment of others, probably including but not limited to the freezing test, the burning test, the “drop acid on them test” and a few other popular tests of the time. Pass or fail, we were stuck with them.

The 1965 Washington quarter was different also because it had no mintmark. It was not because they were all produced at Philadelphia, but rather because the mintmark that might have been there was deliberately left off. Officials worked to discourage collectors from saving coins. That strange bit of logic was due to a belief at the Treasury that somehow the coin collectors of American had caused, or at least contributed mightily to, a national coin shortage.

In fact, officials need not have worried about the mintmarks. Collectors were not terribly fond of the 1965 Washington quarter. What made them even less fond of it was its mintage. To say that there were a lot of 1965 quarters in circulation would be one of the all-time understatements.

The final mintage for the 1965 quarter stood at 1,819,717,540 pieces. That said, all 1965 Washington quarters looked alike. There was no way to tell a Denver coin from a Philadelphia. Collectors could not have used many even if they sold all of their other coins simply to buy rolls and rolls of the 1965 – and that was the last thing anyone wanted to do.

The fact that collectors did not want to save 1965 quarters impacts the market today. With the new Washington quarter programs of late, the impact may be more dramatic in future years. The current roll price of BU 1965 quarters is listed at $135. That’s so much better than we would have imagined back in 1965! However, the question has to be how many rolls are out there and what happens if there is a rush to assemble sets of the old Washington quarters? Will there be enough of the historic first of the clad quarters to go around in top grades?

Perhaps the 1965 Washington quarter deserves a serious look.