1969 25C (Regular Strike)

Mitch Spivack: I have personally been working diligently to locate the highest quality clad quarters (1965-1998) since around 1983. Twenty-seven years of "hunting" gives one a pretty good idea which coins are the very toughest to locate in the series in superb gem MS67 quality. The 1969-P ranks among the top three toughest dates in the entire series to obtain in MS67 grade. Everything that could possibly go wrong in your hunt for a superb gem is encountered when you go after this one! Badly scuffed surfaces, poor luster, weak strikes... you name it. I believe I have been through thousands upon thousands of 1969-P coins over the past (3) decades, including huge quantities of fresh U.S. Mint sets and original rolls. You begin to realize just how frustrating a search for an MS67 specimen is after you finish carefully screening a couple hundred fresh 1969 Mint Sets and realize the nicest couple of 1969-P quarters you located might grade MS65 at best! Obtaining fresh material to search is also becoming harder and harder. It wasn't that difficult to get your hands on 250 or 500 fresh 1969 Mint Sets back in the 1980's. Such is certainly not the case in 2010; a decent percentage of the material has been searched already or has been somewhat negatively affected by sitting in the govt. plastic for 40+ years (which has not served the coins well). In my opinion, the 1969-P quarter has a fantastic future for gem and better quality specimens.