Circulating American quarters, at random.

[villa66]

It occasionally gets written here on the forum that the American commemorative quarters aren't circulating. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course.

Here, just before I rolled them, are the random remainders from last month's pocket change:

v.

[chrisild]

Ah, so you have them all. No wonder they cannot be found in circulation.

Well, I find come across a few of them myself, so I would never say they are not circulating. But there are interesting differences - between late 1999 and early 2001 each state quarter had a combined (D+P) mintage of more than a billion. Mintages went down to roughly half of that towards the end of the program. The territories? Very roughly 100 million each. And ATB quarter mintages are around 70 million per issue, I think.

The good thing about those special quarters is, they match the "regular" piece in terms of specifications (size, weight, etc.) and are thus readily accepted. And unlike the penny or the nickel, the quarter is even actively used by quite a few. However, it has become more difficult than in previous years to get a complete collection from circulation ...

Christian

[villa66]

What you say about putting together full sets from circulation becoming tougher is definitely true, particularly if mintmarks are part of the process. (As you say, though, the quarter is still widely used--so they travel around much more often than the others.)

It's been years since I read it, and I have no idea whether it still applies, but at one time U.S. coins were thought to be subject to an annual attrition rate of about 3% per year. (Maybe that's where that 30-year coin-life convention derives.)

I didn't look at the dates of eagle-reverse coins. None are older than '65 of course, and if I had to guess, the oldest coin here is the Bicentennial quarter from '75 or '76 in the top row, second from right.

v.

[mumbapuri]

the good part about qtrs is the shape, size and wt have not changed over the decades. All u need is some time and eventually somthing turns up in the vending machines. Thats been my experience as a partial tourist/stayer there or at least that was what i experienced few years ago.

Been on a american coin forum ct where a lot of pple give a f/b about bank tellers. Thats also encouraging rgd

[FosseWay]

I last went to the US in June 2006, and before that in March 2005 and May 2002. I think I have all the states issued up to the end of 2005, and most of those with both mintmarks. I have sporadic coverage thereafter, from coins found in rummage trays and bulk lots in the UK. But the 1999-2005 issued were all gathered from circulation or by getting rolls of (random) quarters from banks and sorting through them. Given that between May 2002 and June 2006 I was in the US for all of five weeks, during some of which time I was in the back of beyond not handling money of any kind apart from a credit card to buy gas with, I think it's a hell of a lot easier to put together a set of SQs from circulation than it is, say, a collection of all the commemorative £2 or 50ps in the UK, or €2s in the eurozone. Heck, I lived in the UK for years and never found all four of the 2002 Commonwealth Games £2s, only one Suffragette 50p and no Olympic 50ps whatever.

[Enlil]

I got half the set already from circulation coinage in Australia, they are a similar size to the 10 cent here.