1945

Philadelphia struck 74,372,000 quarters in 1945, a meaningful drop from the 104.9 million produced the prior year and a signal that the cash-demand surge of the wartime peak had begun to ease as the European theater closed and Pacific operations wound toward conclusion. The coin retained the 90% silver and 10% copper composition, a 6.25-gram blank yielding .1808 ounces of actual silver weight. The five-cent piece carried the wartime silver-manganese-copper alloy through the end of 1945 and the Lincoln cent had returned to bronze in 1944 after a single year of zinc-coated steel; the quarter denomination remained on the full silver standard throughout, making this issue and its 1942 through 1945 siblings the standard silver entries in wartime denomination sets.

Strike quality on the coin is acceptable but the softness typical of the wartime stretch carries forward, with weakness on Washington's hair above the ear and on the eagle's breast feathers showing on a substantial portion of the production. Original-skin examples with full luster and crisp central detail are meaningfully scarcer than the population numbers imply. John Flanagan's JF initials at the truncation of Washington's neck appear on every legitimate piece and serve as a quick die-marker check during authentication. Counterfeit pressure on the regular date is minimal, but the high-mintage Philadelphia issue is occasionally used as a donor coin for added-mintmark fakes purporting to be branch-mint 1945-D or 1945-S, both of which carry modest premiums in higher grades. Any raw 1945 with a reverse mintmark deserves authentication from PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company. No major DDO has been catalogued at the FS-101 level for the 1945 Philadelphia issue, though examination under five-to-ten-power magnification remains the standard approach for wartime Washingtons in general.

The coin is a common date today, set-fillable in circulated grades for modest premiums over silver melt and obtainable in Mint State through MS65 without effort. Above MS66 the population thins; original-skin gems with full strike and luster earn registry-set premiums. Year-set builders, wartime specialists, and type collectors make up most of the buyer base. For the broader story of John Flanagan's design and the series' production arc, see the Washington Quarter series history.