What are State Quarters Worth?
Despite each coin in the State Quarters series being minted in the hundreds of millions of coins, the venerable Statehood Quarters program is one of the most widely collected coin series in history. 
The U.S. Treasury Department occasionally states in press releases that 140 million Americans are collecting State Quarters. So, even if the average mintage of a circulating State Quarter is somewhere around 270 million coins of each date and mint mark, with 140 million people collecting them, that's only about 2 coins per person, right?
Actually, the Treasury Department's estimate of 140 million State Quarter collectors seems suspect. This figure probably includes everybody who ever put away 1 coin from their own state or something, but the point is that State Quarter collecting is very popular. Like any popular series of coins, the supply often fails to meet demand, causing a price increase. This brings us to the first half of the answer to my question, "What are State Quarters worth?"
I recently updated my two State Quarter value charts, one for single coins and one for rolls of 40 coins (the standard $10 roll of coins.) As in all of my coin value guides, these values are actual prices that coin dealers will pay you for your coins today, not inflated catalog values that lead many a collector to suffer a horrible disappointment when he goes to sell his coin collection.
- State Quarter Value Guide for Single Coins
- State Quarter Value Guide for Rolls of Coins
- Why Are Most Coin Price Guides Unreliable?
- The Difference Between a Coin's Price and its Value
The second half of the answer to my question, "What are State Quarters worth?" depends on our future economy. If 140 million Americans have really squirreled away some quantity of State Quarters and our economy continues to go sour, the vast majority of those Americans are going to suddenly flood our economy with all those $10 rolls of quarters (not to mention all the dollar coins and other assorted spare change that folks have lying around the house.) Two things might happen really quickly if the average person finds that they need to spend all that saved-up change. (1) The sudden influx of currently reserved money into our economy will further increase inflation, and (2) the collector values for these coins will plummet as the supply suddenly surges.
Fortunately, there are factors in our economy that will strongly mitigate, if not outright prevent this doomsday scenario. First of all, on the national level, hopefully our nation's banking and economic gurus have a pretty good handle on controlling our economy, so any fluctuations should be modest and brief. Secondly, like it or not, coin dealers also exert a fair bit of control over coin values by the way the coin market operates at the wholesale level. If all these presumed State Quarters suddenly hit the market, it's a safe bet that our friends, the coin dealers, will absorb the majority of them, at least for the medium term, partially to protect their own investments in this area. And lest anybody think I'm trying to imply that there is collusion or price fixing among coin dealers, that it not what I'm saying at all. The coin market has always ultimately gone up in the long run, and State Quarters are very popular, even if people can't afford to hoard them away at times. If coin dealers can snag these great coins at current prices, it serves two ends. They get the coins cheaply, and they prevent further deterioration of the selling prices by taking the excess coins off the market. And in the long run, the prices will go up.
The original Statehood Quarter program is in its final year in 2008, although Congressional legislation has extended the general idea one more year to allow for quarters to honor Washington D.C. and the U.S. Territories. As the State Quarter program winds down, and especially as the final State Quarter is being released soon (for Hawaii), many industry experts expect all State Quarters to sharply rise in value, at least for awhile, as people put away complete Uncirculated sets.
Photo courtesy of the United States Mint
Comments
I have a Kansas Statehood quarter, “D” mint, and the “K” is missing from Kansas. Is this a grease error quarter?
thank you
I think regardless of what the economy does that the State-Hood quarters will retain their worth. A large influx of P&D mint coins shouldn’t effect the values of the premium coins like the proofs & silver proofs. Most collectors of these coins have these coins in slabs & are not hoarding bags or rolls of business strike type coins so I would think that the value could only increase for the premium type sets especially if you have the entire series in tact.
Just an Opinion…
That may sound like alot of coins in circulation. Along time ago before the web was born, i read a story about coin collecting and the coin population. The less amount of coins minted have always drawn collectors to a particular coin because of it’s rareity. On the other hand the story went on to say that although a coins smaller mintage may indeed make that coin more rare to collectors, but in fact the lessor minted coins seemed to survive longer and were easier to find, then say a coin with a very high mintage for a particlar year. When we look trough our coins today, i believe that ay hold some truth because it is getting harder to find older coins in pocket change anymore. A few decades ago indian head cents were still found in pocket change. Today the chances of that happining is near zero. I don’t know where all these coins end up eventually. They are out of circulation. I believe the same holds true for the state quarters. At some point the supply will dwindle for what ever reason. Ever wonder why so many coins are minted every year in such high numbers, why do we need so many coins if we have so many circulating? That is one quetion i have never been able to figure out.
I saw 40 quarter coin rolls advertised for double their face value? They are New York State 2008. If this is indeed the last year they will be made, is there any reason to spend that much money on newly minted NYS rolled quarters? Thank you!
found a wisconson quarter thats gold colored,guess they forgot to silver coat it, is this rear?
i have a gold state quarter and i cant figure out how much it is worth?????
The value guides for single coins and rolls of coins both show Tennessee to be significantly higher in value than the other State quarters. Is this because there were fewer made of the Tennessee quarters? If so, why was the number of Tennessee quarters less than for other State quarters? Does anyone know what caused Tennessee to be significantly different? Thanks.
If you collect State Quarters then collect the bank rolls, and don’t search them! Also, collect the proof silver State Quarters for two reasons: One, they are silver. Two, their mintages are lower compared to business strikes.
Consider this, if you got to your local bank and use 10% of your pay check every pay day(the recommended amount to put in a savings anyway) and buy bank rolls of State Quarters, and put them in a safe without ever searching them. By the time you retire or are ready to liquadate you will be able to sale each roll for at least $10 each and that’s like a savings.
However, if you do a search on ebay for 1999, to the present, unsearched bank rolls of State Quarters you will see that they sale for much more than face value.
i have a gold quarter. can’t find any info? is it common or rare???
I have a quarter that says quarter dollar on the front of the coin and the back of the coin is gold… The coin background is silver in color but the raised picture is gold. And the entire coin is clear coated… Is this a collectors coin. Will this coin grow in value…
Hi Kendo, I just bought some of these at a web site statequartersale.com. Go there and you will see the prices.
Regards Tim