Customers returned to regular bidding patterns at an auction of $9.25 billion in five-year Treasury notes, with more than 93 percent submitted by New York-based primary dealers.

Allan S. Chait, a New York-based dealer in Chinese export porcelain, said, "Today it's not price, it's quality that counts."

"I think the verdict is still out on that one," said John Jonat, a trader with Deak International Inc., a New York-based dealer of precious metals and foreign currencies.

"Community Newspapers cannot meet its debt-service obligations," said Stephen Unterhalter, a senior analyst at R. D. Smith & Company, a New York-based dealer in distressed securities.

"In any auction this large there will certainly be some buys," said Vance Jordan, a New York-based dealer of American art.

Joan Mirviss, a New York-based dealer in 18th-, 19th- and early 20th-century woodblock prints, paintings, screens and contemporary ceramics, says there are now more American customers for Japanese prints and paintings.

In marked contrast to the last two-year auction, New York-based primary dealers bought well over 90 percent of the securities sold yesterday.

Of the bids that were accepted by the Treasury, more than 93 percent were submitted by New York-based primary dealers.

"This is a show for the mature collector," says Allan Chait, a New York-based dealer.

"It seemed like a lot of attention was focused on what the latest rumors were," said Tim Evans, a copper trader with Deak International Inc., a New York-based dealer of metals and currencies.