Market Analysis: 1945-S MS-67 CAC quarter at $7,200

By Steve Roach , Coin World

Published: Apr 22, 2020, 10 AM

The 1945-S Washington quarter dollar “comes nice” and Pogue’s example graded MS-67 with a green CAC sticker sold for $7,200 on March 20, a price that is six times what a higher-graded example brought in an online auction two days later.

Original images courtesy of Stack’s Bowers Galleries.

The cataloger wrote, “The 1945-S is the easiest of the three 1945 Washington quarters to find in Gem condition," but this PCGS MS-67 example from the Pogue Collection with a green CAC sticker brought $7,200 on March 20 (six times the $1,200 that an MS-67+ piece realized at auction two days later).

Images courtesy of Stack’s Bowers Galleries.

An astounding price was seen when a 1945-S Washington quarter dollar graded Mint State 67 by PCGS with a green CAC sticker from the D. Brent Pogue Collection brought $7,200. The Stack's Bowers Galleries cataloger praised the bold, generous luster, observing, “Otherwise pinkish-silver iridescence yields to a halo of steel-blue, olive-copper, salmon pink and reddish-orange peripheral toning on the obverse.”

The World War II era San Francisco Mint issue has a relatively hearty mintage of 17,004,001 and PCGS has graded 70 in MS-67 — one of which sold for $168 at a March 11 online Stack’s Bowers auction — and 18 in MS-67+. PCGS CoinFacts observes, “The 1945-S is the easiest of the three 1945 Washington quarters to find in Gem condition. There are many fully frosty, white luster Gems, but strike can be somewhat of a problem. Sharply struck examples are the exception.”

Pogue’s example brought six times the $1,200 that a higher-graded, 1945-S quarter dollar in PCGS MS-67+ with a green CAC sticker sold for at a March 22 online auction by David Lawrence Rare Coins. The March 20 Pogue VII auction continued to demonstrate that bidders recognize the wonderful eye that Pogue had, and his ability to pick out superb coins.

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