Quarters, quarters, quarters. While having been a part of the United States’ coinage for many, many decades, it feels as if the talk about the denomination has amped up within the last few years. It makes sense, really, given that the end of the America the Beautiful series (2010-2021) came in early 2021, a very limited Washington Crossing the Delaware took its place for the remainder of the year, and a brand new four-year series was introduced in 2022 with the American Women Quarters program.
While the Washington quarter has been around for a long time now, it has been through its fair share of design changes. One of those changes occurred in the middle of the 1960s and created a variety from an error. That quarter dollar is the subject of our next 100 Greatest U.S. Modern Coin blog series entry modeled after the Whitman Publishing fourth edition. With help from authors Jeff Garrett and Scott Schechter in addition to some of the most influential coin dealers across the country, we will navigate the series of events that unfolded in order to make this particular quarter very special.
#39 - 1964-D Washington Quarter, Reverse of 1965
The Washington quarter dollar design was successful from the outset. First produced in 1932, the design was easy to coin and the low relief held up well during the high demand of their striking. However, the low relief also proved to be a problem in that it had to be re-hubbed more than other coins. This created more variations among the series as a whole, although subtle. Hubs are used to create the dies that are then used to strike the coins. The process of re-hubbing during production changes the design that is made throughout the entire series production. Several variations have occurred because of this process, including in the year 1964. However, the variation was not so subtle.
In 1965, the reverse of the Washington quarter was re-hubbed as the detail needed to be enhanced. The eagle’s feathers needed strengthened in addition to the United States Mint’s decision to add the shaft of the feathers. This was different from the previous years’ design. The newly re-hubbed reverse was meant for the beginning of the series 1965 coinage. However, the dies were impressed with the ‘D’ mint mark and used to strike the 1964-D Washington quarter dollars.
With only two dies being found to have produced the coins to date, an estimated 400,000 quarters were struck with the “Reverse of 1965.” It sounds like a good amount, but more than 704 million were produced. However, it still is not exactly known how many were produced as it is unclear if there are more used dies out there. Also deemed the “Type C Reverse,” the coin is a part of what is called the transitional varieties which means that an old and new design is featured on a single coin. What also makes this coin unique is that the 1964-D quarter was the last of the silver quarters, with the 1965 intended to be the first copper-nickel clad quarter. The variety of this coin is the copper-nickel-clad reverse style used on a silver quarter. In addition, mint marks were left off of the 1965 series and did not appear again until 1968 when they were seen on the obverse instead. This means that this quarter variety is the only 1965-style quarter to have a mint mark on the reverse.
Since the first edition of this publication, this quarter has moved up three spots from #42 (#39).