Is it a fake, or a rare error??

NEPA History

Full Member
Apr 12, 2018
103
322
Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania
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Garrett Ace 400
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All Treasure Hunting
This is a really confusing coin that has me both puzzled and excited at the same time. I just don't know if it's real or not.
I found this 1932 Washington quarter earlier this year while metal detecting and just put it in a bag with all the other "common" silver coins I find. When I have enough "scrap" silver, I take it and sell it for some cash to put back into the hobby. I was checking through everything tonight to make sure I wasn't scrapping any key dates
Here's the issue. On a 1932 Washington quarter, a mint mark would appear under the ribbon on the reverse side, or "tails" side. If there is no mint mark, it means it was minted in Philadelphia. No mint marks should be presented on the obverse or "heads" side. As you will see in the photos, this coin has a "P" mint mark next to Washington's head on the obverse. No mint mark appears on the reverse under the ribbon. This coin should not exist..yet I seem to have found one. Is it real? Is it a rare error? Or is it a coin that someone tampered with? I'm not even sure how to get this authenticated, other than sending it to one of the grading services. Anyone have any thoughts or information on this?
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:o I can't Find Mention Anywhere :o

the 32 appears to be Rare, So perhaps someone Countefeited it & Screwed Up :tongue3:

That Doesn't mean it's Fake. I Suppose There is a Slight Chance it was an
experimental piece that wasn't supposed to be released,
I Checked the 82 P to see if perhaps it was altered but too large a p for an 82 from a silver mint set.

If No One else here Knows, only way I can think to check for sure is to Have it Graded & Confirmed.

Would be well worth it :treasurechest:
 

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:o I can't Find Mention Anywhere :o

the 32 appears to be Rare, So perhaps someone Countefeited it & Screwed Up :tongue3:

That Doesn't mean it's Fake. I Suppose There is a Slight Chance it was an
experimental piece that wasn't supposed to be released,
I Checked the 82 P to see if perhaps it was altered but too large a p for an 82 from a silver mint set.

If No One else here Knows, only way I can think to check for sure is to Have it Graded & Confirmed.

Would be well worth it :treasurechest:
I thought the same thing, maybe someone tried to alter a 1982 Quarter, but the coin is silver. And the Mint mark is on the wrong side of the coin..like I said, I just don't know what to think. Thanks for replying!
 

This is a really confusing coin that has me both puzzled and excited at the same time. I just don't know if it's real or not...
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I moved ya from HELP! over to COINS for more exposure.
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NOTE: Forum HELP! contains guides tutorials on how to use the new TreasureNet.com software.
 

Take it to a good coin shop and have them send it to PCGS or NCG. You could send it yourself but you have to join and be a member to send coins. It seems to me if there were several of these out there we would know about it. These Washington quarters were heavily collected right from the start. It does look legit and not added later by someone.
 

My vote is... it is rotten... or something else off is going on.
#1 reason... the 1932-P had NO mm.
Then there are other nuances... like Eagles wings are too far off lettering.
These couple of things hit me on just initial look at this.
 

I thought the same thing, maybe someone tried to alter a 1982 Quarter, but the coin is silver. And the Mint mark is on the wrong side of the coin..like I said, I just don't know what to think. Thanks for replying!
I'm pretty Confident the Mint was Selling Silver mint Sets in the 80's ,both proof and regular. Maybe Still are . Looks like it was Heaviy Circulated though .

I would think it would be hard if Not Impossible To add a Raised Mint Mark to a coin. You can do it with a Punch but a counterstamp would be Very Obvious. and the crack/scratch through the P makes it Even say the Coin was Mint marked With The Coin.

I agree with ToddsPoint with having a dealer you can trust submit it ! even if it comes back counterfeat it has value
 

ARC and ToddsPoint are both correct. It is a counterfeit. A badly designed one, at that. Over 20 individual design flaws on the obverse, alone. Each number on the date is wrong. That, alone is enough for me. The addition of a “P” makes it even more glaring.

A little looking around and it seems these fakes are available from China, and a few other Asian nations. My guess is that there are at least several thousand copies floating around individual collections and coin shops.

It may be a low silver alloy or, less common in cheap counterfeits, high silver alloy clad to a base metal core, such as a high nickel alloy. On this I am speculating based on my collection of counterfeit Morgans.

Time for more coffee.

Edited for spelling.
 

Take it to a good coin shop and have them send it to PCGS or NCG. You could send it yourself but you have to join and be a member to send coins. It seems to me if there were several of these out there we would know about it. These Washington quarters were heavily collected right from the start. It does look legit and not added later by someone.
I do plan on taking it somewhere to get it looked at, I
Take it to a good coin shop and have them send it to PCGS or NCG. You could send it yourself but you have to join and be a member to send coins. It seems to me if there were several of these out there we would know about it. These Washington quarters were heavily collected right from the start. It does look legit and not added later by someone.
I do plan on taking it somewhere ro get it looked at. I briefly looked at the PCGS website and saw that it would be expensive for me to just send it out on my own. Thanks for the response!
 

My vote is... it is rotten... or something else off is going on.
#1 reason... the 1932-P had NO mm.
Then there are other nuances... like Eagles wings are too far off lettering.
These couple of things hit me on just initial look at this.
Thanks for the info. It does seem off, and my thoughts were the same about the mint mark. I just have never seen anything like it before. I do plan on having it looked at, just to be sure.
 

On second look, ARC is correct. That’s a Chinese(?) fake. Here is a close up of the date on the fake, and below is the date on a real 1932 coin. Good eyes ARC!👌👍🏻View attachment 2186514View attachment 2186515
Thank you for the comparison, you can clearly see that there is definitely something different about the 3 from that. I still want to get it it looked at, just to be sure. But I agree that something looks off.
 

ARC and ToddsPoint are both correct. It is a counterfeit. A badly designed one, at that. Over 20 individual design flaws on the obverse, alone. Each number on the date is wrong. That, alone is enough for me. The addition of a “P” makes it even more glaring.

A little looking around and it seems these fakes are available from China, and a few other Asian nations. My guess is that there are at least several thousand copies floating around individual collections and coin shops.

It may be a low silver alloy or, less common in cheap counterfeits, high silver alloy clad to a base metal core, such as a high nickel alloy. On this I am speculating based on my collection of counterfeit Morgans.

Time for more coffee.

Edited for spelling.
Thanks for the info. It definitely seems off and has me stumped. Like I said in my original post, I found it metal detecting so I didn't even notice it until I was going through my scrap silver I was getting ready to sell. My guess is that it was probably lost a long time ago, so I'm wondering how long ago they were making fakes of it. I still would feel better if it is looked at by a professional, just to see exactly what's going on, even if it's a counterfeit. Thanks again for checking it out!
 

Yep ~! if Chinese it would probably be a Recent Counterfeit
maybe last 30 years ??? and not worth more then a couple dollars.

If an old Counterfeit made of Silver it would be worth knowing
as like the Henning nickles Would Be worth a Premium.
The Blackish Toning says much older to me.

interesting if counterfeit,

The mint mark on the Washington Quarter was moved from the reverse to the obverse in 1968:
so who ever counterfeited it did so after 1968
 

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Absolutely no chance it is real, even ignoring the impossible mintmark the details are all wrong.
I'm definitely leaning that way, it doesn't make any sense. Still going to have it looked at, but it's a neat piece either way.
 

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