2007-P Washington

Philadelphia's 2007 Washington quarter carries Charles Vickers's "The Evergreen State" reverse: a king salmon arching mid-leap above a stylized Mount Rainier silhouette, the inscription riding along the lower edge. Vickers compressed two of the state's defining symbols (the Pacific salmon runs and the volcanic peak that anchors the western horizon) into a single readable composition by anchoring the fish across the design's center and reserving the lower half for the mountain profile. Washington ratified its statehood on November 11, 1889 as the forty-second state, the second of the four northern-tier states admitted together that month. Philadelphia struck 265,200,000 pieces, a mid-range 2007-P output that sat between the Montana opener and the Idaho release that followed in June. The leaping-salmon framing produces one of the more dynamic action lines in the program's catalog, distinct from the static landscapes and standing-figure reverses that fill most of the lineup.

Strikes on Philadelphia Washingtons come up cleanly defined on early-die-state coins, with the salmon's scale texture and the Rainier ridgeline serving as the natural detail registers. Weak strikes show up first as softness along the fish's leading edge and along the upper slope of the mountain profile where the relief sits deepest. Washington's cheek and hair-above-ear remain the obverse weak points for grading, and 2007-P bag handling typically caps many candidates at MS66. PCGS and NGC populations run deep at MS66, narrower at MS67, and meaningfully scarce at MS68 in the population reports kept by the two major third-party grading services (TPGs). No FS-listed varieties have anchored to the issue, and the open-water field above the mountain leaves little surface for the doubling marks that turn up on busier reverses.

The 2007-P Washington benefits from the program's only fish-as-primary-subject reverse, giving it strong topical pull across Pacific-Northwest and conservation-themed subsets. Roll searchers continue to pull premium strikes for full-detail gems, and MS67 examples remain available for collectors completing a top-grade run on a working budget. The leaping salmon reads especially well next to Oregon's Crater Lake reverse from two years earlier in a Pacific-states grouping. For wider context, see the 50 State Quarters series history.