1946-S Washington Quarter

San Francisco struck only 4,204,000 quarters in 1946, the smallest postwar San Francisco output of the series and a number that puts the coin on the lower border of Semi-Key territory among Washington quarter date-mint combinations. The figure represents a steep drop from the 17 million 1945-S total and falls well below any wartime San Francisco production of the prior five years. 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. Postwar cash demand had eased, the five-cent piece had reverted from its wartime alloy on January 1, 1946, and San Francisco production schedules tightened across denominations.

Strike quality on the coin is acceptable, with modest improvement over the wartime San Francisco norm. The typical example still shows softness on Washington's hair above the ear and on the eagle's breast feathers, but well-struck pieces appear more often than they did during the 1942 through 1945 stretch. Original-skin examples with full luster and crisp central detail trade at meaningful premiums over scrubbed coins in the same numerical grade. Authentication concerns are real on this issue. The relatively low mintage and the modest premiums in higher Mint State grades create an incentive for added-mintmark fakes converting higher-mintage Philadelphia 1946 coins into the scarcer San Francisco variant; the S mintmark should sit cleanly punched below the wreath, properly aligned, with no tooling marks around its perimeter. No major DDO has been catalogued for the 1946-S at the FS-101 level. Buy certified through PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, or NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, for any raw example trading above modest money, particularly in Mint State.

The coin is available in circulated grades for modest premiums and obtainable in Mint State through MS64 with some hunting; the supply tightens noticeably at MS66 and above. Year-set builders treat the issue as the toughest of the immediate postwar San Francisco entries, and the low mintage relative to the year's other coins supports a consistent premium that crosses into Semi-Key conversation at the gem level. Population reports at PCGS show the issue is meaningfully scarcer in superb gem than its wartime San Francisco neighbors. For the broader story of John Flanagan's design and the series' production arc, see the Washington Quarter series history.