People made a literal run for the money when state quarters first started coming out in 1999, snapping each state’s coin into place on colorful little maps that had holes waiting for each state’s quarter.
It was a fun way to collect the series, but the enthusiasm was short-lived as people quickly realized there were too many of these quarters to ever be worth much.
Finally more than 25 years later, some state quarters have begun to come into their own.
Not the quarters jingling around in anyone’s pockets. Those are still worth just 25 cents — and likely will remain so.
It’s the error coins that are finally starting to show significant increases in value, and some of the state error quarters make something of a statement.
Take Wyoming’s “pooping horse” quarter, marked with an advantageous “P” no less. The letter doesn’t stand for “poo,” of course. It’s for the Philadelphia Mint, where it was struck.
What’s The Coin Really Worth?
The pooping horse error was caused by a prominent die break that fell right between the tail of the bucking horse and its backside, causing a suggestive piece of excess metal that some say resembles a nasty blob of poo.
How much such a coin is worth is somewhat debatable.
In 2017, a 2007-P Wyoming state quarter sold for $2,115 from the Mile High collection, a record price for that issue. It was not clear from the details of the sale if it was an error coin or just a certified coin in exceptional condition.
But the same coin was sold again for considerably less by GreatCollections, which only nabbed $1,068.75 for it.
Today, the more usual value Cowboy State Daily was cited for the pooping horse quarter is between $25 to $100, all depending on the severity of the die break that caused the error, and the coin’s overall condition — not to mention the mood of the buyer.
Did the buyer really need a Wyoming pooping horse quarter? Was there a gag or some quirky anniversary or birthday gift involved?
That could dramatically change a coin’s value in the moment.
Why eBay Doesn’t Set the Market Standard
But mood swings aren’t how coin shops evaluate coins, and that’s why they don’t consult online auction sites like eBay when settling on a coin’s value.
Prices for coins fluctuate all the time, said Lee Harper, a manager for Green River Bullion and Coins. And online eBay auctions are the worst indicators of actual value.
That’s why coin shops rely on price guides and wholesale sheets, as well as expert opinions from those who regularly handle such coins.
“People will look online and say, ‘Well, somebody sold one for $2,000 or it’s listed on eBay for $600 or something,’” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And we always tell them there are a couple of these things that are probably worth that kind of money to someone at any given point and time. But you’ve got to find them.”
The other point he makes about eBay is that anybody can list anything for any amount they would like.
Remember the partial grilled cheese sandwich that supposedly had the image of the“Virgin Mary” on it? That sold for $28,000 in 2004.
Then there was the Dorito shaped like the Pope’s hat that went for $1,209 in 2005, or how about the corn flake shaped like Illinois, which went for $1,350 in 2008.
Just last year, someone paid $88,000 for a hot Cheeto shaped like the dragon Pokemon Charizard. Dubbed “Cheetozard,” the fried corn snack was won by an anonymous bidder who beat out 60 others in an online auction.
Were those things really worth that amount of money?
“We get a lot of people in here hoping, which I can’t blame them, but hoping their quarters are worth $600,” Harper said. “And we say, ‘Wow, that’s a quarter. I’ll give you 25 cents for it. If you have eight of them, I’ll give you a $2 bill.’”
A Legend That Will Stick
State quarters were, in some ways, victims of their own success.
For a while, everyone wanted them, and as a result, too many of them were made. That makes most of them, outside of error coins, too common to ever truly be collectible.
Many coin shops still have relatively large inventories of state quarters, among them The Coin Shop in Cheyenne.
“My father dealt in them extensively when they were current production,” shop owner David Brockman told Cowboy State Daily. “At the time, all the people were collecting them.”
But these days, Brockman is spending a lot of those quarters. He is convinced they are unlikely to ever exceed face value, even in the next 30 years.
“I need them. I use them for change,” he said with a chuckle. “I still have probably 100 sets of them sitting around here.”
He also has around 1,000 Wyoming state quarters, though not one of them happens to be that rare pooping horse error quarter.
But, he added, if someone did walk into his shop with a particularly nice example of that Philadelphia-minted pooping horse quarter, it would at least be an occasion to get on the phone and talk with the dealers who handle such coins.
“I know at one time they were up around $100, and that was a big news flash,” he said. “Everyone wanted one. People who had them charged huge amounts of money, as much as they could get.
"That’s modern capitalism. It’s worth what you can get for it, whatever the market will bear.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
