1943-S

San Francisco struck 21,700,000 quarters in 1943, the highest of the three branch-mint outputs that wartime year and a step up from the 1942-S total of just over 19 million. The coin carries the S mintmark on the reverse below the wreath, the standard branch-mint location for Washington quarters through 1964. Composition remained 90% silver and 10% copper, a 6.25-gram blank yielding .1808 ounces of actual silver weight. The Lincoln cent shifted to zinc-coated steel for 1943 and the five-cent piece had moved to its wartime silver-manganese-copper alloy in late 1942, but the quarter denomination kept its full silver standard throughout the war years. This issue is also the parent date for a recognized Doubled Die Obverse variety that carries its own catalog slot, and collectors examine 1943-S material with that variety in mind.

Strike quality on the coin is uneven. San Francisco wartime production ran heavy, dies stayed in the press longer than ideal, and the typical 1943-S shows softness on Washington's hair above the ear and on the eagle's breast feathers. Original-skin examples with full luster and crisp central detail are meaningfully scarcer than the population numbers suggest. On the standard die-marriage coin, examine IN GOD WE TRUST and the date under five-to-ten-power magnification for any hub doubling before assuming you have a plain 1943-S; the 1943-S DDO holds its own catalog entry and commands a substantial premium when properly attributed. The S mintmark should sit cleanly punched below the wreath, properly aligned, with no tooling marks around its perimeter; added-mintmark fakes converting Philadelphia coins into branch-mint issues are the chief authentication concern. Buy certified through PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, for any raw example trading above modest money.

The coin is available in circulated grades and through MS63 without effort, with the supply tightening rapidly at MS65 and above due to the strike-quality realities of wartime San Francisco production. Year-set builders treat the issue as a routine acquisition until they aim for gem; superb gems with full strike are condition-rare. Variety hunters reserve serious capital for the DDO. For the broader story of John Flanagan's design and the series' production arc, see the Washington Quarter series history.