2018-S Voyageurs Proof

San Francisco struck the 2018-S Voyageurs clad proof at 1,019,398 pieces, the figure matching the U.S. Mint Clad Proof Set sales total because the five 2018 quarters shipped as a packaged product. Patricia Lucas-Morris' second 2018 reverse honors Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota. The design centers on a rock formation with a rope swing, figures enjoying the lake below, and the unmistakable recreational-use framing that sets the composition apart from the strictly landscape-and-wildlife reverses dominating the rest of the program. The park preserves the canoe routes the French-Canadian voyageurs paddled between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay during the eighteenth-century fur trade. The issue is the third of five 2018 releases.

Proof finish on the issue is the standard San Francisco style: mirrored fields struck from polished planchets against dies frosted in chemical baths before each press run. Cameo (CAM) and Deep Cameo (DCAM) are the contrast designations PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, apply on top of the numeric grade, with DCAM the default outcome rather than an upgrade tier. The rope itself is the diagnostic strike feature: it appears as a thin raised line that disappears first on weak strikes, and the swing-to-figure rope continuity is what separates PR69 from PR70 at top-tier grading. Grade distribution clusters at PR69-DCAM and PR70-DCAM with top-tier population counts in the thousands. The clad composition (75% copper-nickel over a pure copper core, 5.67 grams, 24.26 mm) matches every Washington quarter struck since 1965, so counterfeit risk is essentially nil at the issue's price point.

The issue routes through year-set or design-set assembly. A raw certified PR69-DCAM example moves for a small premium over the cost of breaking up a sealed 2018 Clad Proof Set, and PR70-DCAM examples in NGC or PCGS holders sit at a modestly higher tier. The recreational-use composition is the most distinctive feature of the Voyageurs design and gives the issue slightly firmer visual interest than the year's pure landscape reverses, which sustains modest registry-set support at the top tier. The 1.02 million print continued the steady proof-set sales contraction through the program's late years. For the broader story of the ATB proof program and the series' production arc, see the Washington ATB series history.