By CoinWeek …..
September 4, 2018 update: On September 2, 2018, this coin sold for $25,876.132 (with Buyer’s Premium).
A top-population 1932 Washington quarter (PCGS MS67 CAC) is currently bringing frenzied bidding at a GreatCollections Certified Coin Auctions sale. With less than five days to go, the lot has received 48 bids and reached a price of $19,100 ($21,487.50 with Buyer’s Premium).
But What’s it Worth?
That’s the five-figure question.
To try to answer that question, we will first dig into population figures and recent auction data.
PCGS reports a population of nine examples of the 1932 quarter in MS67.
Not every one of the nine has been submitted to CAC, based on our conversation with the owner of at least two of the coins that have earned this top grade, but we can confirm that two examples (#1 and #9 on our illustration) have earned the green bean.
They are the example in GreatCollections’ current internet auction and example number nine, which sold in a January 2016 Heritage Auction for $28,200.
The GreatCollections example is the current large plate coin at PCGS Coinfacts. The inference we take from this, based on past experience, is that this coin is the most recent one of the eight examples that have been submitted to the service for grading and TrueView imaging. It is perhaps, the ninth coin to be added to MS67 population census.
Looking at all nine coins together, one is immediately struck by how these super gem coins run the gamut from nearly brilliant or lightly toned to deeply toned with rainbow toning.
All coins develop tarnish over a period of years, so it is not surprising that none of these examples is blast white as struck in 1932. And while it may be impossible to know for certain how many of these coins are truly “original”, by the looks of the toning patterns on each individual piece, it seems that most of them are.
Beyond the current bid price of $19,100 and the January 2016 price realized of $28,200 for a CAC specimen, how has the 1932 quarter in PCGS MS67 performed in recent years?
According to publicly-available auction data, it depends…
The most recent example to sell at public auction is example 5, which brought $18,000 at a June 2018 Heritage Auction.
This is a far cry from the $40,250 that example 8 brought at an April 2012 auction when it was a population 2 coin.
Of course, the present piece has moved beyond the low price of $18,000 and is creeping up towards the price that the other CAC-approved brought. Where it ends up will tell you quite a bit about the often volatile world of high-end modern coin registry set collecting.
Coins that have extremely low populations of one or two pieces sell for record-setting prices. These prices decline to a degree as new examples come into the market. If this infusion of new material occurs at a steady pace over a period of years, downward price pressure, if any exists, will be gradual.
Are these all Phila mint or are they both S and or D mint marked? I’m glad they didn’t clean them.
These are all 1932 plains. The nine best ever graded by PCGS.
I have been sitting on 4 examples that will grade at MS68+ just never always liked them for what they stood for so here we go I will be sending in these coins washing to quarters 1960,61,63D,63phil mint 64D and a Bicentennial 1776-1976S Business washingTon Strike. I will have them all sent in to grade next Thursday just before Xmas. That way my new year can can still know and want to believe the Holy grail’s are out there. I have proof oh Michael and his coins. What got me thinking was the 1895 Morgan I read before the silver 60 .25cent. Picture are on there way