1960 Washington Quarter : A Collector’s Guide

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
 

In 1960, the Philadelphia Mint produced  29,164,000 Washington Quarters – less than half the amount of its Denver counterpart and nearly five million more than it had produced the year before. These levels would pale in comparison to quarter mintages later in the decade.

At the start of the 1961 fiscal year, the United States Federal Government held more than 1.8 billion fine ounces of silver, with more than half of that stored at the West Point Bullion Depository. Deposits from India, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia as part of their lend-lease agreements, made up a large part of the Government’s acquisitions. The manufacture of silver coins drew down more than 42 million ounces, and Treasury Department sales accounted for an additional 40 million ounces.

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1960 Washington Quarter Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens

When Stack’s Bowers Galleries sold a Brilliant 1960 Washington Quarter in MS67 for $5,175, the certified population stood at just eight pieces with none finer. While this date is hardly worth submitting to a third-party grading service unless you think it can grade MS66 or better, that doesn’t mean that the bulk of surviving premium 1960 Washington Quarters had been accounted for by the time of that sale. Still, the market for the 1960 is a far cry from what it was then, and that coin–unless it upgraded to MS67+–will have lost at least 90% of its value in the proceeding years, adjusted for inflation. Through March 2025, PCGS has certified one coin at the MS68 level, 39 in MS67, and five in MS67+. NGC’s top population grade is MS67+, with 10 examples recorded.

Top Population: PCGS MS68 (1, 3/2025), NGC MS67+ (10, 3/2025), and CAC MS66 (14:0 stickered:graded, 3/2025).

• PCGS MS67+ #46680213: Heritage Auctions, July 21, 2023, Lot 3534 – $3,000; Heritage Auctions, December 15, 2023, Lot 3303 – $1,560. Diagonal streaks of brown and gold toning along the periphery of the obverse.
• NGC MS67+ #5716372-005: Heritage Auctions, November 19, 2023, Lot 7143 – $1,200. Lightly toned. Curved die line across the top of Washington’s head.
• PCGS MS67+ #37700388: Stack’s Bowers, March 25, 2021, Lot 2347 – $5,040; eBay, March 2022 – $6,890. Reported sale.
• PCGS MS67 #35588821: “Del Loy Hansen”; marketed by DLRC, March 2025 for $800.
• PCGS MS67 CAC #25236831: As NGC MS67 CAC #173492-002. Heritage Auctions, February 3, 2014, Lot 3774 – $2,115. As PCGS MS67 CAC #25236831. Heritage Auctions, January 30, 2015, Lot 3816 – $1,527.50 Crossed to PCGS. Darkly toned in violet, gold, orange, and blue.
• PCGS MS67 #18573253: As PCGS MS67 #10512760. Heritage Auctions, September 14, 2006, Lot 1778 – $5,750; “The George’s Army Collection,” Heritage Auctions, April 19, 2012, Lot 4328 – $2,426.50. George’s Army Collection on insert. Streaky gold, orange, and muted plum-colored toning.
• PCGS MS67 CAC #06695957: Heritage Auctions, September 10, 2009, Lot 700 – $5,750. Lustrous, with a light layer of gold, plum, and pale blue toning on the obverse. Toning spot to the left of Washington’s forehead and on the ridge of the nose.

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Design

Obverse:

Designed by John Flanagan, the obverse of the 1960 Washington Quarter is based on a bust of the general created by the neoclassical French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon in 1785. However, Flanagan’s design differs from the original bust in several ways, such as a slightly different head shape and several curls of hair that are not on the bust; for comparison, the bust can be viewed at the late president’s Virginia estate, Mount Vernon. Under the left-facing bust’s chin is the motto IN GOD WE TRUST. The legend LIBERTY runs along the top of the coin’s field, and the date 1960 is below. In small letters, Flanagan’s initials JF can be found above the “0” in 1960 at the base of the bust.

Reverse:

Unlike the obverse, no restrictions were placed on the candidate sculptors when designing the Washington Quarter reverse. Flanagan’s reverse is dominated by a heraldic eagle with outstretched wings and a left-facing head. The eagle is perched on a neat bundle of arrows with two intertwined olive branches below and the “S” mintmark centered between the two olive branch stems. The two main inscriptions above the eagle are UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and E PLURIBUS UNUM. Finally, at six o’clock on the design is the denomination written out as QUARTER DOLLAR.

Edge:

The edge of the 1960 Washington Quarter is reeded.

Designer

John Flanagan was born in New Jersey in 1865 and lived in New York for most of his life. He began working with Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1884 at the age of 20 and quickly became a well-known sculptor and medallic artist in his own right. Saint-Gaudens made introductions for Flanagan at the United States Mint. While the Washington Quarter was his sole numismatic design, Flanagan designed numerous famous medals and sculptures, including the official medal of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, the official Verdun medal gifted to France by the United States Government, and the 1924 bust of Saint-Gaudens. Flanagan was also a member of the American Numismatic Society (ANS).

1960 Washington Quarter Coin Specifications

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