COINING IT I’m a coin collector – your Washington quarter could be worth $3,000, the exact ‘duke’ detail to look for

YOUR ability to notice a “duke” detail on a particular quarter could mean you have something extremely valuable in your possession – and it’s worth up to $3,000.

TikToker Coinhub, otherwise known as Blake Alma, shares his tips for coin collecting and top coin finds to his more than 840,000 followers.

Recently, he shared a video on how you can spot this quarter, and it’s one that just might be lying around your childhood piggy bank.

How to find the quarter

In this case, you’ll want to look for quarter with a 2005 date.

It should also feature D mint mark, which stands for Denver.

The mint mark is the letter that is located on the bottom middle right of the heads side.

It is used to indicate the facility where the coin was produced.

Next, go to the back of the quarter and see if the coin has “District of Columbia” written on the back.

If it does, you need to look very closely at the words “Duke Ellington,” Blake said.

“Right here in the ‘Ell’ part, you can see it has some very intense doubling,” Blake said of the valuable quarter.

“This is an extreme example.”

This is known as a double die error.

Blake added that a normal circulated example of this quarter is only worth $75, but the record sales price was $3,055.

The one that went for this high price had a grade of MS66, which was certified by the Professional Coin Grading Service.

A grade can tell you about the quality of a coin.

And in this case, that means the coin has an above-average quality of strike and full original mint luster.Advertisement

In this grade, there can be no more than two or three minor contact marks.

Also, coin grades only run up to 70.

How to find rare coins

Coins tend to gain in value if they have an interesting error that makes them rare, such as errant doubling elements like the one above.

The 2005 state quarter is another example of a quarter with duke doubling.

If you believe you have something of value, you will want to get your quarter professionally appraised to make sure it is genuine.

In general, to see if your spare change is worth anything, you can check eBay by searching the full name, selecting the sold listings and then toggling the search to see the highest value it has sold for.

State quarters

Released from 1999 to 2008, certain state quarters have become cherished by coin collectors, even if most are not nearly as valuable as the 2005 DC D mint quarter.

Many of these quarters have interesting errors that range from obvious to subtle.

A 2008 Alaska state quarter with a ragged clip, which gives the appearance of a big chunk missing, sold for $81 on eBay.

And a Wisconsin state quarter from 2004 sold for $95 due to an extra leaf on an ear of corn on the reverse design.

For more related stories, read which “funky” error can make your dollar coin worth over $8,000.

And see which 2022 quarter is already a collector’s item because of an “errant” error.

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