What is the value of a 1999 Delaware state quarter that omits the final E on 'The First State'?

Answer 1

Probably not much more than 25 cents. Dies can become coated with grease and bits of metal as they wear down. This situation occurs frequently when a lot of coins of a particular design are struck, as is true with the state quarters. The crud can fill in some of the smaller parts of the design so that it appears blank when struck. However, there are some coins where a filled-die error is very valuable; for example, the 1922 "no D" cent. That year cents were minted only at Denver but a filled die caused some of them to appear as if they did not have a mint mark. In the case of the 1999 Delaware state quarter, though, many examples of the "missing E" error have been found in circulation, keeping collector demand and, therefore, collector value low. Missing letters, like you describe, are usually caused by a foreign substance -- like grease -- getting into the coin die and preventing the coin from being fully struck. With all the hundreds of millions of quarters minted every year, this abnormality occurs more often than you might think. Collector interest is low, ans so is its value -- perhaps a dollar or two.