1945-S

San Francisco struck 17,004,001 quarters in 1945, an increase over the 1944-S output of 12.56 million and the highest of the three 1945 branch-mint deliveries. The coin carries the S mintmark on the reverse below the wreath, the standard branch-mint location through 1964. Composition remained 90% silver and 10% copper, a 6.25-gram blank yielding .1808 ounces of actual silver weight. The quarter denomination kept the full silver standard throughout the wartime stretch while the cent moved to zinc-coated steel for 1943 and the five-cent piece carried the silver-manganese-copper alloy from late 1942 through the end of 1945, making this issue and its sister 1942 through 1945 wartime quarters the silver entries for parallel denomination sets.

Strike quality on the coin is uneven, the typical San Francisco wartime story. Dies pressed through long runs, and softness on Washington's hair above the ear and on the eagle's breast feathers appears on a substantial fraction of the output. Original-skin examples with full luster and crisp central detail are meaningfully scarcer than the population numbers suggest, particularly in higher Mint State grades. Examine the date and motto under five-to-ten-power magnification before paying premium money, since the wartime San Francisco mintmark window produced a notable DDO in 1943; on the 1945-S no major DDO has been catalogued at the FS-101 level, but die-marker awareness applies. 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 remain the chief authentication concern. Buy certified through PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, on any raw example trading above modest money.

The coin is available in circulated grades and through MS64 without effort, with supply tightening at MS66 and above due to strike-quality realities. Year-set builders treat the issue as a routine acquisition; superb gems with full strike are condition-rare and earn registry-set premiums. The 1945-S sits as one of the more common branch-mint wartime entries, balanced against the 1944-S in collector demand. For the broader story of John Flanagan's design and the series' production arc, see the Washington Quarter series history.