1946-D

Denver struck 9,072,800 quarters in 1946, the lowest Denver output since the prewar 1939-D figure of 7.09 million and a notable step down from the wartime years that had run between 12 and 17 million annually. The coin carries the D 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. With the five-cent piece returning to its prewar copper-nickel alloy on January 1, 1946 and the cent already back to bronze since 1944, the 1946-D belongs to the first full peacetime production run of Washington quarters after the high-volume wartime stretch.

Strike quality on the coin improves modestly over the wartime norm, with central detail on Washington's hair above the ear and on the eagle's breast feathers slightly sharper than the 1942 through 1945 average; the typical example still shows the routine softness common to Denver branch-mint output of the period. Original-skin examples with full luster command meaningful premiums over scrubbed coins in the same numerical grade. Authentication concerns are moderate. The standard 1946-D is not heavily counterfeited, but the D mintmark should sit cleanly punched and properly aligned below the wreath, with no tooling marks around its perimeter; added-mintmark fakes converting higher-mintage Philadelphia 1946 coins into branch-mint issues are the chief authentication risk. No major DDO has been catalogued for the 1946-D at the FS-101 level. 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 plentiful in circulated grades and through MS64, with availability tightening at MS66 and above due to the standard branch-mint strike-quality realities. Year-set and short-set builders treat the 1946-D as a routine acquisition; the lower mintage relative to the year's Philadelphia output supports a small but consistent premium in higher Mint State grades. Population reports at PCGS show the issue is common up through gem, then condition-rare in superb gem with full strike. For the broader story of John Flanagan's design and the series' production arc, see the Washington Quarter series history.