Collecting American Quarters

The U.S. Mint was founded in 1792 and began striking coins that year. The first quarter dollars were not issued until 1796 because the Spanish-American coins denominated in Reales still circulated at the time in the U.S., as they would through the 1850s. One Real was made by cutting one of the 8 Reales coins into 8 pieces, each worth 12 ½ cents. Two of them, or two bits, were worth a quarter dollar.

Silver Quarter Years

Quarters made of 90% silver and 10% copper were issued for circulation from 1796 to 1964. Since then they have only been issued in silver for coins made for annual proof sets or other collector sets.

The first quarters are known Draped Bust whose obverse carried a design of a right-facing bust of Liberty while a small eagle appeared on their reverse. Those coins were only issued in 1796. From 1804 to 1807 the prior obverse was paired with a new reverse with a larger, Heraldic eagle. Then from 1815 to 1838 a new design with a left-facing Capped Bust paired with a reverse showing an eagle clutching arrows and olive branches in its talons. In 1831 the diameter was reduced.

Then from 1838 all the way to 1891 Liberty Seated quarters were issued that showed Liberty sitting on a rock wearing a flowing dress and a Phrygian cap with a Liberty pole in one hand and a striped shield with “Liberty” on it in the other. Five different sub-types exist of these quarters.

Charles Barber created a design for dimes, quarters and halves that debuted in 1892 and featured a right-facing profile of Liberty wearing a Phrygian cap with a laurel and LIBERTY inscribed on a band above her forehead. Six stars appear to her right, and seven to her left. The reverse has a Heraldic Eagle that is holding an olive branch and arrows in its talons, symbolizing the desire for peace while being prepared for war. These coins were issued on an annual basis at Mints in Philadelphia, Denver, New Orleans and San Francisco (not at each mint every year) through 1916 and remained in circulation until the 1950s. 

Rolls of circulated Barber quarters can be had for about twice their silver value.

One of the coins that came out President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous “Renaissance of American coinage” is the Standing Liberty quarter designed by sculptor and engraver Hermon A. MacNeil that featured a design of Liberty with her head facing eastward, bearing an upraised shield in her left hand and an olive branch in her right hand. The reverse features an eagle in full flight with its wings extended.

This design was intended to show that Liberty wanted peace but was prepared to defend itself against the problems happening to our east in Europe. Issued from 1916 through 1930 except for 1922, there are two versions of the design, whose first version featured Liberty with one of her breast’s exposed and was issued in 1916 and 1917. The second version, which debuted later in 1917, had chain mail covering the breast.

Rolls of circulated Standing Liberty quarters are also about twice spot value.

Washington Quarters

The Washington quarter, which was originally intended to honor the bicentennial of Washington’s birth in 1732, features a left-facing bust of President George Washington by New Jersey sculptor John F. Flanagan on its obverse, debuted in 1932. The coins are made of 90% silver and 10% copper like all previous quarters issued through 1964. Since then they have been made of a 75% copper-10% nickel alloy plus a 99.5% copper core, commonly known as a cupro-nickel composition.

The reverse design features a bold eagle with wings stretched perched on a bundle of arrows in a style many view as art deco. The coin was issued unchanged until 1976 when a special one-year only reverse was used for the nation’s bicentennial that featured a colonial drummer. No coins were issued in 1975.

The series then continued with the original 1932 design until 1999, when the 50 state, also known as statehood, series debuted. This was the first modern circulating coin program with a new reverse on each coin. The series saw the issuance of 50 quarters – one for each state – through 2008 in the order in which they either ratified the U.S. Constitution or were admitted into the Union.

In 2009 the state quarters were followed by a related series of coins issued for the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories.

In 2010 a new series with one coin for a national park or major historic site in each state and territory debuted called the America the Beautiful, or national parks, series. These coins are also issued in a 5 oz silver bullion version and a second version with a vapor-blasted finish and “P” mintmark for the Philadelphia Mint, where all ATB silver coins are produced. The final and 56th coin of this series will be issued in early 2021.

Silver versions are still produced for annual collector sets, which through 2018 were made of the same composition as pre-1965 quarters but are now composed of .999 fine silver.

In 2019 the Mint delighted quarter collectors with the first coins struck at the West Point Mint that carry a “W” mintmark with a mintage of just two million for each of the five 2019 coins. They are only available in circulation.

How much is a silver quarter worth?

90% Silver quarters issued until 1964 are still occasionally found in change, though much less often than they were in the past. At today’s spot price of about $18 per ounce, one of these coins has a silver value of about $3.30, which is based on a pure silver weight of about .18 ounces. Rolls of  40 uncirculated quarters can be purchased for $200 today.

Silver quarter value

The values of Washington silver quarters vary greatly depending on the year of the coin and its condition. A complete set that includes circulated examples of the scarcer and older coins and almost uncirculated examples of the later dates  can be had for $650.

On the other hand, a nice graded set of MS63 coins runs almost ten times that amount at $6,000, and that does not include the variety coins such as the 1937, 1942-D and 1943-S Double Die Obverse coins. When varieties are added, the same set runs about $30,000.

The clad coins are much more affordable apart from high-grade examples and most dates still circulate.

1964 silver quarter

The final silver quarter ever struck, the 1964 coin, runs $10 in MS63 but reaches $850 in MS67.

An interesting aspect to the 1964 coin is that the Philadelphia Mint continued striking the coin in early 1965 due to a coin shortage that then Mint Director Eva Adams blamed on collectors. And in 1965 the San Francisco Mint struck 15 million 1964 quarters with no mint mark and another 4,640,865 1964 coins in early 1966. This was all due to the date freeze mandate of the Mint.

1967 silver quarter

With a mintage of over 1.5 billion coins, the 1967 clad quarter has the second-highest mintage of the series after 1965 and is mainly valuable in MS67 examples worth $160 and especially in the top grade of MS68 worth over $6,000.

However, it is also a year when Special Mint Sets were issued instead of proof sets at the San Francisco Mint but with no mint marks. The SMS coins have partially mirrored surfaces, but high-quality examples of the regular 1967 coins look very similar.

The Washington quarter series is a fun one to collect, not just for the silver coins, but for the wide variety of designs issued in copper-nickel since 1965, especially if you are lucky to find high quality examples in change that can be quite valuable.