What is a West Point Quarter?
Have you ever seen something weird on a quarter in your change? You’ve seen the mint marks P, D and S but now there’s a “W”..huh? For National Coin Week The U.S. Mint stirred things up by releasing a smaller than normal amount of America the Beautiful quarters with the “W” mintmark into circulation. This is a first for the U.S. Mint for quarters in 227 years of minting coins.
What is a mint mark? What does the “W” mean?
Since 1838, the Mint has given coins with mint marks which distinguish the office that struck the coin. The most well-known mint marks are a “P”, which means coins made in Philadelphia or “D” for coins made in Denver and S for coins made in San Francisco. Regular circulating coins are made in Philadelphia or Denver. Most special edition and limited edition coins are struck at the San Francisco and West Point mint. The significance of the “W” mint mark is to notate the coins were produced at the West Point Mint in New York. While West Point Mint has created quarters previously, they did not have a “W” mintmark and were indistinct from Philadelphia quarters.
Why should I collect W Quarters?
The objective of seeking out “W” quarters is because they’re lower than normal mintage. 2 million minted vs 100 million+ normal mintage. The Mint thought that by bringing uncommon coins into the flow of cirulating coins, it would make people want to seek them out. They feel that this will allow anybody the chance to collect the quarters from their pocket change or even from Coin Roll Hunting.
When the coins were first released with the new mint mark, PCGS a coin grading company offered a reward of $5000 to the first collector who could find a West Point minted quarter and mail it in. The prize was split between two collectors as they both found and submitted them on the same day! It’s safe to say $2500 for a quarter is still a hefty prize for just search through quarters!
How do I find them?
This year, the Mint is creating around 1% of the all-out flowing quarters at West Point, making the “W” mintmark quarters the first of its type. They are only releasing 2 million of each “W” minted design and will not be making them again. The coins will be scooped up by other collectors to make sure you look for them any way you can! Be sure to check your change when you receive it. If you enjoy coin roll hunting, it’s not unheard of to find a few of them in rolls while searching!
What are they worth?
West point quarters definitely have a premium when sold at online auction or sale. They usually fetch around $6-$10 depending on the quality of the coins. There have been past auctions where online sellers are selling $10 rolls of 40 quantity W quarters for premiums up to nearly $1000! The demand is high as the quarters are still new and being sought out by collectors through every outlet possible.
Make sure you do your best to seek out these quarters and find a handful of them. Hold on to them for the future generations as this is the first time that a new mint mark has been on quarters since the start of our country. Go find some coins!