Expert: Ronald Fern - 1/15/2010

Question
I have an 1998 Washington quarter a Friend brought to me, I collect mostly world coins and am quite knowledgeable of those, But I know little of U.S Misstrikes... This coin is clearly a misstrike. There are almost no signs of the coins edging, I would say the coin is clipped about 3/16 off center. The letters LIBERTY is cut almost in half and 1998 date is exactly on the edge, on the other side the (of) in of America is cut close to half and the bottem is about 3/16 higher than normal. My friend asked if this coin was worth anything? I have doubts but thought I'd ask someone who might know. Thank you for any help, Ken

Answer
Hi Ken:

Thank you for your question.

It is hard to give you a precise answer without a photo or actually examining the coin. It sounds like you may have a minor off center strike. Quarter errors are very collectible. The error is a result of the blank not properly being fed into the die chamber along with the malfunctioning of the retaining collar at the time of striking. Your error should have only partial or no reeding along the entire edge.

The value of your error would depend on three things. The condition, percent off center, and clock position the coin was struck off center at. Your piece would likely have an value of $15 to $35 to an interested error collector, with the higher value going along with the higher grade coin.

You may want to check eBay listings in the error category under US coins from time to time to see if coins like yours are listed and what they are going for. You may also want to check out these links on error coin values:
http://www.coinsite.com/html/USErrorPrices.asp
http://www.minterrornews.com/priceguide.html

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Thank You and Good Luck in your collecting.