I receive a lot of questions about quarters with no ridges, lines on the edges, or edge reeding. Are these quarter errors? What is a quarter error no ridge worth? Here are reasons why your quarter might not have any ridges or lines on its edges and the value of your quarter errors.
⚡TIMESTAMPS⚡
00:00 Intro to U.S. quarters with smooth edges
00:33 Smooth edge quarter examples
01:33 Three ways smooth edges on quarters happen
04:43 How broadstrike error quarters happen
06:28 Value of error quarters with smooth edges
06:45 How to identify error quarters from damaged quarters
08:22 Summary of values for U.S. quarters with smooth edges
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hey, this is Josh with The Fun Times Guide and today we’re talking about quarters with no ridges (or smooth-edged quarters that have no lines, or edge reeding, on the sides of the coin.
Like we see here… this quarter is a uh… I found it in circulation. It’s a coin that has NO apparent edge reeding at all. And the question really is: “Is it an error?” “Is it damaged?” What’s a coin like this even worth?”
We’ll discuss all that and much more in this video!
So, quarters with no ridges… or no edge reeding… or no lines on the edge. Tell you what, that’s what caught my eye with this quarter! I found it in circulation some time back. And as you can see, it has certainly experienced some wear and tear in its life. It looks like it has some oxidation here, some surface discoloration — at least on the reverse anyway.
But notably, check this out… Look at that! Nary a line or edge reeding to be seen on the edge of this quarter.
I receive a lot of questions about quarters just like this on Coins.TheFunTimesGuide.com and also here on the U.S. Coins Guide channel on YouTube as well. And I get it. I can see why people ask questions about quarters like this — because they look kind of unusual. I mean, I could see what about this coin looks like an error… It has no edge reeding. The apparent rim is kind of thick and tall. Maybe it’s a tad narrower than other quarters because of the fact that the edge was pushed in.
How is it pushed in?
Well, in some cases, people will deliberately “spoon” or kind of “machine” that edge in — to kind of give it a weird look, you know, and kind of throw people off. And believe it or not, there are people who have enough time on their hands, they will manipulate coins just to kind of confuse other people. Or to kind of make a novelty of their own coin.
In most cases, a coin like this acquires these smooth, thick edges by being rolled around inside the drum of a clothes dryer. And you’re going… I can almost assure you, somebody out there’s going… “Josh, what are you talking about, man?! That is so far-fetched. No, this is an error! I mean, look at it. I mean, it looks so bizarre and so weird. There’s no way a clothes dryer could impart such a smooth, tall edge.”
But believe me, this is a well-studied area of the hobby because people ask questions like this all the time on various coin forums — including Coins.TheFunTimesGuide.com.
And a coin can be smooshed in like this just through the centrifugal force inside of a clothes dryer. I mean, think about it. A lot of folks have coins in their pockets and such, and they’ll throw the trousers into the dryer, turn the machine on, maybe do a “extra-dry” load, like I sometimes do. I’ll put the clothes on a cotton “extra-dry” to make sure those clothes are certainly dry.
And enough time inside that clothes dryer, coins start coming out of the pockets and spinning around. Centrifugal force will do its magic and push in the edges of these quarters and in the process obliterate the edge reeding. I’m telling you… this is a drier coin. And it is worth face value.
I know it looks unusual. I can get why it looks like an error to a lot of folks. But this is just post-Mint damage.
Now, another situation where we see coins that have no apparent edge reeding — or certainly quarters with no ridges. Check this out… This is a 1981 quarter. It has seen a lot of wear and tear in its time. Look at that. Do you see any apparent edge reeding there — or ridges on the edge of the coin? Well, if they’re there, they’re very faint. I see a lot of pictures of coins that look like this also on Coins.TheFunTimesGuide.com. And this is basically just an extra worn quarter.
Now you’re going, “Now, wait a minute. Why would a quarter have lost its edge reeding just because of wear?”
Well, think about a quarter for a second. They see a lot of vending machine action. How do you put a quarter into a vending machine? Well, the way I do it is something kind of like this. You know, put the coin in my hand like this, thumb and maybe middle finger or forefinger on the quarter. I put it against the machine, and I kind of push it in like this. And then down goes a quarter through the channels of the vending machine into the coin reservoir — and yeah, edge wear!
So, in many cases where you see a quarter with no edge reeding (or no ridges) and it does NOT have these thick tall edges (or rims) like you see with this drier coin… in most cases it’ll be a quarter that just has extra edge wear.
And again, I mean it looks unusual because it doesn’t have the edge lines or the edge reeding. But this is just an extra worn quarter worth face value.
Now, there’s a third kind of situation that would cause a quarter to have no edge reeding…
Check this out. This is a coin known as a broadstrike. Now, we see here that the design looks kind of weird. It’s kind of a little bit off-center. But there’s a lot of extra metal here on the edge of the coin AND really no rim.
So, what happened here?
Well, this quarter when it was struck was not struck inside of a collar. Now, a collar when a coin is being struck helps to do a couple things. In the case of ANY coin… the collar which goes around the coin as it’s being struck (or the planchet as it’s being struck) helps keep the coin centered on the press. So, when the coin (when the dies are hitting the coin), it keeps… the collar keeps the coin centered.
But also on quarters, for example, which have edge reeding… the collar will actually have the edge reeding inscribed onto the collar. So that when the dies sandwich the coin inside that collar, the planchet will spread out, hit the collar, right? And then the edge reeding is imparted into the edge of the planchet.
And as you see here with BOTH these coins, even though they have no ridges (or no edge reeding), they do have rims.
Now, this one has been exaggerated by the drier effect inside the drier drum. But like take this 1981 quarter for example — with no lines on the edge. It still has a rim, right?
Well, go back to this coin here. NO rim — or nothing to really speak of. There is a little bit of a lip here. But it doesn’t have the proper rim — because it wasn’t struck inside of a collar. And a coin like this, this quarter, this broadstrike quarter will have no edge reeding or no lines on the edge. Now, this IS an error!
And look at this… This coin sold for $222 back in September of 2020. This is a coin that was sold via Heritage Auctions (or www.HA.com). And this is an honest-to-God error.
But the way you could tell this error (broadstrike) from these regular strike quarters here that just have some damage or wear is again… look at it. This coin doesn’t have a rim. But also because it wasn’t struck inside of a collar, it’s a bit wider and thinner than a typical quarter. And that’s what you would look for.
If you’re looking for a quarter that would have NO ridges or NO edge reading or NO lines on the edge… AND if you want to find out if it’s an error or not, you’ve got to look at the diameter of the coin — how thick the planchet is.
This coin when it was struck, because it didn’t have a collar, would spread out. So, it’s actually thinner and wider than a typical quarter. And again, it has NO rim.
So, there we see 3 different kinds of quarters that don’t have edge reading (or don’t have ridges). We have the post-Mint damaged one right here.
These quarters that like this 1990 quarter has no apparent edge reeding due to just typical wear. You know, we see kind of faint lines here. This one has… this one has basically NO or very faint edge lines right here, you know. So, you can see that’s just wear.
And then, of course, the bonafide error right here… worth the big bucks!
Now, do you have any quarters like this that you want to know about? Drop me a line below. Ask your questions here at the U.S. Coins Guide or of course go to Coins.TheFunTimesGuide.com where I answer questions there, too.
And let me know what you have. I’d love to find out more about the quarters YOU have in your collection. If you have any errors, I want to know about them — so I can help you learn more about your coins.
Well, there you have it. In most cases, quarters that have no ridges, no lines on the edge, or no edge reeding are either cases of post-Mint damage OR excessive edge wear and are worth face value.
But having said that, there are actual quarter errors out there with no ridges, no lines on the edge, no edge reeding that are broadstrikes. And those are worth a whole lot more than face value.
So, drop me a line below if you have questions about your quarters that have no lines or no ridges or no edge reeding. Or go to Coins.TheFunTimesGuide.com. You can check out our many articles on quarters — including articles about quarters that have no ridges.
I’m always happy to help you there with comments that you can leave us on those articles OR here at the U.S. Coins Guide. But in any case, I want to thank you for your time. Thank you for watching this video. And happy collecting!
