This Ordinary-Looking Quarter Could Be Worth More Than a Used Car — How To Spot One
Written by
Nicholas Morine
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Zuri Anderson
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With the price of silver skyrocketing as of late — and U.S. quarters, issued in 1964 or earlier, being composed of 90% silver — you may be tempted to scour your old change jars or dig through the attic looking for vintage coinage.
But should you find a handful of older 25-cent pieces, it might be worthwhile to take a longer look, examining them for particular details (and judging their wear, condition and degree of circulation) to see if you’ve accidentally stumbled upon a small fortune. A pair of 1932 Washington quarters, a key date for that particular coin, are of particular interest.
Given that the Washington quarter design was first struck in that year, and only saw a change of reverse in 1998, these valuable quarters may appear quite ordinary at first glance.
The 1932-S Washington Quarter ($27,600 Recent Sales Record)
Kicking off the list is this 1932-S Washington quarter. The “S” is meaningful in this regard, as the mint mark denotes that it was struck in San Francisco, and at just 408,000 manufactured, this is the lowest mintage of the Washington series as a whole. The lower mintage comes about, as a historical note, due to the impact that The Great Depression had on coinage issuance.
The most recent example of a prominent sale of this quarter came about in September 2025, via a Stack’s Bowers auction. A MS66 (mint state, grade 66) example sold for $27,600. Previous sales bracket this position, with an August 2024 Stack’s Bowers example in the same grade reaching $26,400, and a December 2021 sale hitting nearly $35,000. With the average price of a used car coming in at just under $26,000 as of very late 2025, per CarEdge, it could be close to an even trade if you get lucky finding this coin in top condition.
How to spot it? Look for the key date on face the face, or obverse of the coin. Then, search for the S mint mark, on the reverse side of the coin, below the two olive branches but above the text “quarter dollar.” The key to value, however, is the condition of the coin. Only very pristine examples command such a premium price. In circulated but very fine, rather than mint state, condition, value drops to about $125.
The 1932-D Washington Quarter ($78,000 Recent Sales Record)
Despite having a slightly higher mintage of 436,800 coins versus the 1932-S’s 408,000, the 1932-D Washing quarter (the “D” representing it was minted in Denver), PCGS describes this coin as “by far the rarest of the Washington quarters.” You’ll be able to spot it by the date, as well as the letter D mint mark in the same placement as the above San Francisco coin.
An October 2025 sale of an MS66 example reached an eye-watering $78,000 — still below the PCGS price guide projection of $85,000 — via a Heritage Auctions event. That’s enough for a few run-of-the-mill used vehicles, or one very luxe pre-owned ride.
Recent prices for the 1932-D Washington quarter range from about $240 for XF (extremely fine) examples scoring 40 or 45, or about $4,000 to $5,300 for MS64 or MS65 examples.
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