Do you have a set of Washington State Quarters? Were you one of the 140-plus million Americans the Mint estimated were trying to assemble a complete set? Or are you an old collector like I am who thought it might be fun (and challenging) to put together a 100-coin set of State quarters from circulation?
Of course, you didn’t have to try to find each state’s coins in your pocket change or at the bank. The Mint made it easy to buy each new issue in roll quantities, as long as you were willing to pay a premium over the coins’ face values. And if you happened to live in a locale with local coin shops, I suspect many dealers bought rolls of each new issue to offer their customers individual dates at retail.
But what if you live in a coin-shop desert like I do? Would it be possible to find each new issue as it appeared? If you missed some, would a search of mixed-date rolls enable you to complete your collection? These were questions I set out to answer when the State quarter program began in 1999.
If you wonder why 1999 was chosen as the starting date for the series, it’s important to note that George Washington was born in 1732 and died in 1799. With that information, it’s apparent why the Washington quarter began life in 1932, near the beginning of the Great Depression (1929-1941). That year marked the bicentennial of Washington’s birth.
Although the plan initially was to mint a 1932-dated commemorative half dollar to honor Washington’s bicentennial, the Depression’s terrible economy
