Miami Valley Coin Club

New Quarters

 

Coin collectors have observed that one of the ways to measure the economy’s health is to take a look at the coins in your pocket. If you have new, shiny coins it probably means good times – expanding economies need generate a need for more coins and currency. Conversely, bad times have meant not so many new coins in circulation; historically, some of the lowest mintages have occurred when the country was deep in a recession or depression. When people aren’t spending, the old coins on hand will be more then sufficient for their needs.

 The recent Great Recession officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009. The strong aftershocks, though, have been with us for some time; it looks like the economy is only recently showing sustainable strength. How has that been reflected in our circulating coinage?

 In September 2010 one of our members did a survey of some 650 quarter dollars then in circulation. He found that quarters dated 2008, including the final state quarter forHawaii, were well represented. There were 48 2008 quarters, or almost 7.4% of the total. Beginning with 2009, though, the numbers shifted. There was only one quarter for 2009, the year of the DC and Territorial quarters, in the sample, or 0.15% of the total. There were no quarters from 2010, the first year of the ten yearAmericathe Beautiful quarter program (you can find a complete description of what was found here).

 In March 2012 the same member recently surveyed another, larger sample of quarters, looking at 1600 different coins. The emphasis on this search was to see how many 2009 to 2012 quarters were in circulation. A higher percentage of coins in circulation would indicate a relatively healthier economy.

 12 quarters dated 2009, 2010, or 2011 were found in the sample, equaling .75%. No quarters dated 2012 were found. While the percentage was up from the earlier sample, it still pales when compared with the final year of the state quarters. This would seem to indicate that economic growth is not yet robust enough to pull newer quarters out of storage and into circulation.

 Here’s a list of what was found in the newer sample:

 2009: DC-P (2), Puerto Rico-D (1), Guam-P (2)

2010:Mt.Hood-P(1),Mt.Hood-D(1), Grand Canyon-P (1), Yosemite-P (1)

2011: Glacier-P (2), Gettysburg-D (1)