Why are quarters so much tougher than dimes?

[jamesandsons]

I haven't ever tried hunting quarters, based on learning from the experience/mistakes of others as documented on these forums. But it never occurred to me to question *why* silver dimes are so much more readily available in circulation than silver quarters.

Is it because more quarters were melted down/hoarded over the last 50 years? Is that solely because they are bigger than dimes?

These are my uneducated thoughts. Please educate me.

Dates:
both dimes and quarters went from silver to clad in 1964.
Advantage: even

Design changes:
(premise: silver coins are more likely to be found in circulation when they bear the same design as current-year versions)
Washington quarters have been around since 1932. 32 years of silver versions.
Roosevelt dimes have been around since 1946. 18 years of silver versions.
Advantage: quarters

Size:
Quarters are considerably bigger, thus a silver quarter is both more likely to be noticed in circulation and more likely to be considered "worth keeping". Silver dimes are more likely to not be noticed or not be considered "worth keeping" (especially in past years).
Advantage: dimes

What else am I missing?

 

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[jamesandsons]

Or you could just as well ask this question the other way: why are silver dimes so plentiful in circulation as compared to quarters?

 

[BuffaloBoy]

Well silver coins in the us are proportionally equal. A 90% silver half dollar has 5x the silver as a silver dime and 2x the silver content of a silver quarter.

 

[coinhunter2013]

Some of all that might come into play but I think its simpler, mintages is most likely the reason

 

[jamesandsons]

Some of all that might come into play but I think its simpler, mintages is most likely the reason

Meaning that there are so many more clad quarters in circulation than clad dimes, that the signal-to-noise ratio just makes quarters harder to come by?

 

[enamel7]

It's what you thought. The quarter is larger and easier to see than the dimes. The dimes are too small to catch most peoples eyes (except ours!).

 

[Vdubguy]

At least from my own experience, I have received a silver quarter once as change somewhere and right away I heard that sweet sound of silver as it hit my hand. Whereas, to me anyway, a silver dime doesn't really sound all that different from a clad dime when someone hands back change. And with that being said, the silver dime goes into the pocket, unnoticed, and back into circulation for us to find.

 

[fistfulladirt]

At least from my own experience, I have received a silver quarter once as change somewhere and right away I heard that sweet sound of silver as it hit my hand. Whereas, to me anyway, a silver dime doesn't really sound all that different from a clad dime when someone hands back change. And with that being said, the silver dime goes into the pocket, unnoticed, and back into circulation for us to find.

I have seen it happen with a gas-station attendant, young girl in her early 20's. As she prepared to hand me my change, she kept picking up and dropping into her hand a silver quarter. She knew something sounded different, she commented that it sounded different, yet handed it to me anyway thank goodness.

 

[Styfflin]

I've always attributed the lack of silver quarters in circulation to the fact that quarters are used much more by consumers. I don't have facts or numbers, but I'd guess that quarters are pushed through circulation at twice the rate of dimes. If quarters are in the hands of twice as many people, the silver ones are twice as likely to be snatched up. Add in vending machines rejecting silver quarters the last couple decades, and I think that's the answer to the quarter question.

 

[fistfulladirt]

I've always attributed the lack of silver quarters in circulation to the fact that quarters are used much more by consumers. I don't have facts or numbers, but I'd guess that quarters are pushed through circulation at twice the rate of dimes. If quarters are in the hands of twice as many people, the silver ones are twice as likely to be snatched up. Add in vending machines rejecting silver quarters the last couple decades, and I think that's the answer to the quarter question.

I wonder. Here's what I've found - my banks and CU's sell me more bags of dimes to buy, faster than the quarter bags accumulate ($500 bags). It could be that merchants are buying the quarter rolls on hand, faster than the dime rolls.

 

[Iamrussell]

Of course all the new state quarters add to the tougher finding for ag qrtrs-

-------------------------------------
just keep stacking, just keep stacking, stacking stacking stacking

 

[Styfflin]

I wonder. Here's what I've found - my banks and CU's sell me more bags of dimes to buy, faster than the quarter bags accumulate ($500 bags). It could be that merchants are buying the quarter rolls on hand, faster than the dime rolls.

Interesting. I wish dimes filled the coin counters here faster because that's all I'm really interested in buying (except halves of course). I've tried quarters off the coin counter, because they always seem to have them, and I just haven't found many silvers. I wonder if leading up to the holidays changes that though? Only one way to find out, I guess.

 

[fistfulladirt]

Interesting. I wish dimes filled the coin counters here faster because that's all I'm really interested in buying (except halves of course). I've tried quarters off the coin counter, because they always seem to have them, and I just haven't found many silvers. I wonder if leading up to the holidays changes that though? Only one way to find out, I guess.

The counters may be rejecting the silver. I buy up bags from banks easily, as there are many banks in my area, but counters are almost non-existent.

 

[GlenDronach]

Yes, quarters are always incredibly popular. Vending machines, car washes, laundries, etc. At the branch I used to buy bags at, they'd have 2-3 bags of quarters for each bag of dimes. They filled much faster.

 

[50cent]

OP, says who??

my dime boxes have dried up as of late, in September I was doing 10 boxes of quarters a week with fairly good results. Quarters>dimes in 2013 and Dimes >Quarters in 2012. dont say nothin bout quarters lest you've hunted them IMHO for anyone wishing to make further comments.

 

[cooper36]

I haven't ever tried hunting quarters, based on learning from the experience/mistakes of others as documented on these forums. But it never occurred to me to question *why* silver dimes are so much more readily available in circulation than silver quarters.

Is it because more quarters were melted down/hoarded over the last 50 years? Is that solely because they are bigger than dimes?

These are my uneducated thoughts. Please educate me.

Dates:
both dimes and quarters went from silver to clad in 1964.
Advantage: even

Design changes:
(premise: silver coins are more likely to be found in circulation when they bear the same design as current-year versions)
Washington quarters have been around since 1932. 32 years of silver versions.
Roosevelt dimes have been around since 1946. 18 years of silver versions.
Advantage: quarters

Size:
Quarters are considerably bigger, thus a silver quarter is both more likely to be noticed in circulation and more likely to be considered "worth keeping". Silver dimes are more likely to not be noticed or not be considered "worth keeping" (especially in past years).
Advantage: dimes

What else am I missing?

Size matters!!!!!!

 

[Wickaboag]

OP, says who?? my dime boxes have dried up as of late, in September I was doing 10 boxes of quarters a week with fairly good results. Quarters>dimes in 2013 and Dimes >Quarters in 2012. dont say nothin bout quarters lest you've hunted them IMHO for anyone wishing to make further comments.

hey fifty I've hunted them a lot and they're bad bad bad! Don't try to lead the blind. Happy hunting Wicka

 

[baddbluff]

OP, says who??

my dime boxes have dried up as of late, in September I was doing 10 boxes of quarters a week with fairly good results. Quarters>dimes in 2013 and Dimes >Quarters in 2012. dont say nothin bout quarters lest you've hunted them IMHO for anyone wishing to make further comments.

Why don't we use good old fashioned science & find out: everyone on the forum buy 1 box of quarters & one box of dimes this week from your banks and report our findings. If everyone did it we would get a pretty random, representative sample. If we find >2.5 more dimes then quarters, dimes win. I would bet my mother that dimes will win easily.

 

[jamesandsons]

Why don't we use good old fashioned science & find out: everyone on the forum buy 1 box of quarters & one box of dimes this week from your banks and report our findings. If everyone did it we would get a pretty random, representative sample. If we find >2.5 more dimes then quarters, dimes win. I would bet my mother that dimes will win easily.

I like this idea - but to be truly scientific, we'd have to account for the fact that dimes have 25% more coins per box (2500) than quarters do (2000).

A quarter is 2.5x the face (and AG) value of a dime, but a box of quarters has 80% the number of coins in a box of dimes. 2.5 / 0.8 = 3.125

So to break even, the number of dimes found per box would have to equal 3.125 the number of quarters found per box.

If our volunteers average 1.5 dimes per box (which is somewhere in the range of where my average floats), quarters would need to do better than 0.48 per box to win.

To beat one dime per box, quarters would need to do better than 0.32 per box to win.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

I like the scientific method discussed, but to be fair you're going to need 10,000 boxes searched minimum before you can reach any real conclusions. 100,000+ would be better.