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What are the rarest quarters?

By the U.S. Mint’s count, the rarest Washington quarters are the 1932-S and the 1932-D: 408,000 and 436,800 made. Since 1965 the scarcest are the 2019-W quarters, 2 million of each design.

Fewest made

1932-S

408,000 struck at San Francisco

About 1 in 300,000 Washington quarters

Scarcest since 1965

2019-W

2,000,000 of each of five designs

The first W mint mark · U.S. Mint

Highest price

$143,750

1932-D, the finest graded, MS66

Bowers and Merena, April 2008

U.S. Mint records · 1932–2025

The 20 rarest quarters by mintage

Washington quarters made for circulation, fewest first, out of 422 issues by date, mint mark and design, about 105 billion coins.

  1. #11932-SSan FranciscoRarest408,000
  2. #21932-DDenverRarest436,800
  3. #31937-SSan Francisco1,652,000
  4. #42019-WWest Point, each of five designs2,000,000
  5. #91939-SSan Francisco2,628,000
  6. #101940-DDenver2,797,600
  7. #111938-SSan Francisco2,832,000
  8. #121955-DDenver3,182,400
  9. #131934-DDenver3,527,200
  10. #141936-SSan Francisco3,828,000
  11. #151946-SSan Francisco4,204,000
  12. #161936-DDenver5,374,000
  13. #171932Philadelphia5,404,000
  14. #181947-SSan Francisco5,532,000
  15. #191935-SSan Francisco5,660,000
  16. #201935-DDenver5,780,000
  17. #211958Philadelphia6,360,000
  18. #221939-DDenver7,092,000
  19. #231937-DDenver7,189,600
  20. #241940-SSan Francisco8,244,000

The five 2019-W designs tie at 2,000,000 each and share one bar.

Rare quarters worth money

What makes a quarter worth more than 25 cents: a low mintage, a mistake at the Mint, and condition. Record prices are single auction results for the finest coins; a worn example sells for far less.

QuarterHow manyA saleWhat it is
1932-D436,800 made$143,750April 2008, the finest graded, MS66The first year of the Washington quarter; Denver struck the second-fewest of any date.
1932-S408,000 made$45,500March 2020, an MS66The fewest of any Washington quarter made for circulation.
2004-D Wisconsin, extra leafFound in change$6,000January 2020, a low-leaf MS67A die flaw added a leaf to the corn stalk on the back, curving up (“high”) or down (“low”).
2019-W, five designs2,000,000 of each—The first quarters with a W mint mark, released only into circulation to get people collecting.
1965 struck on a silver blankSeveral sold—Struck by mistake on a leftover 90% silver blank in the first year of copper-nickel quarters; about 6.25 g instead of 5.67 g.
1970-S struck on a 1941 Canadian quarter1 known—A proof quarter struck over a Canadian coin; the 1941 date still shows. Never in circulation.

Sources: PCGS on the record sale, PCGS CoinFacts, PCGS CoinFacts (low leaf), PCGS auction record (high leaf), U.S. Mint FY 2019 annual report, Heritage Auctions lot, CoinWeek, 2016.

Quarters made in each decade, in billions

  • 1932–390.22
  • 1940–490.868
  • 1950–590.837
  • 1960–696.62
  • 1970–797.39
  • 1980–89approximateabout 12
  • 1990–99approximateabout 18
  • 2000–0931
  • 2010–1915.3
  • 2020–25approximateabout 13

The 50 State Quarters made 2000–2009 the busiest decade. Decades marked approximate include quarters we have not checked date by date against a Mint document (1981–1998) or the 2020-W quarters, which the Mint never counted in public.

The rarest design in each program

ProgramLowest mintage
50 State Quarters1999–2008, 50 designs194,600,0002008-D Oklahoma
D.C. and U.S. Territories2009, 6 designs35,200,0002009-P Northern Mariana Islands
America the Beautiful2010–2021, 56 designs21,606,0002012-D Acadia National Park
American Women2022–2025, 20 designs55,800,0002025-P Vera Rubin

Philadelphia and Denver coins made for circulation; the 2019-W quarters are counted apart.

The metal in a quarter, August 2026

YearsMetalMetal value
1932–196490% silver, 6.25 g$11.83
1965–2025Copper-nickel, 5.67 g8.2¢

0.1808 troy ounces of silver in a pre-1965 quarter, at the month’s average price.

Mintages for 1932–1965 are from the Bureau of the Mint’s record of coins manufactured, 1792–1965, read year by year; 1966–1980 from the Director of the Mint’s annual reports and the Mint’s 1981 record of coins made; 1999–2025 from the Mint’s production figures for each design and its year-end figures as CoinNews reported them; 2019-W from the Mint’s 2019 annual report. 381 of 422 issues have a figure checked this way. Metal prices: World Bank Commodity Price Data, August 2026.

All 422 issues with sources · CSV Look up your quarter

How rare is your quarter?

The mint mark is a small letter: on quarters from 1968 on it is on the front, to the right of Washington’s hair ribbon; on those from 1932 to 1964 it is on the back, below the wreath. Quarters dated 1965 to 1967 have none, and Philadelphia quarters had none until 1980. Calculated on this page.

1932-D quarter

436,800

made for circulation: 2nd lowest mintage of 422 issues

Made of
90% silver, 6.25 g
Metal value, August 2026
$11.83
Of all Washington quarters, about
1 in 200,000

Check the mint mark on the back, below the wreath: the 1932-D and 1932-S are the two rarest Washington quarters.

It is 90% silver: about $11.83 of silver at August 2026 prices, before any collector value.

Checked against the U.S. Mint’s own record of coins made, 1792–1965.

The rarest quarters by mintage

Mintage is the number of coins a mint struck. For Washington quarters made for circulation, the lowest are the 1932-S: 408,000 and the 1932-D: 436,800, from the first year of the design. Next come the 1937-S (1,652,000), the five 2019-W designs (2,000,000 each), the 1939-S (2,628,000) and the 1940-D (2,797,600).

The Mint made about 105 billion Washington quarters for circulation from 1932 to 2025, in 422 combinations of date, mint mark and design. Only 28 of them had fewer than 10 million made, and only two fewer than a million. Apart from the W quarters, the 20 rarest are all dated 1932 to 1958. The fewest in any year were in 1932: 6,248,800 at three mints.

The W quarters

In 2019 the Mint struck quarters at West Point for the first time with a W mint mark: two million of each of the year’s five America the Beautiful designs, 10 million in all, mixed into ordinary bags from Philadelphia and Denver and released only into circulation. They are the scarcest quarters since 1965.

The Mint did the same in 2020 with a V75 privy mark for the end of World War II, but it published no count of those coins that we could find, so the lookup gives no exact figure for them.

What a silver quarter is worth

Quarters dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver: 6.25 grams, 0.1808 troy ounces of pure silver, worth about $11.83 at the August 2026 average silver price. The Mint switched to copper-nickel in 1965, and a modern quarter holds about 8.2 cents of copper and nickel. Silver quarters are 3.8 billion of the 105 billion, about one in 28.

A few 1965 quarters were struck by mistake on leftover silver blanks. They weigh about 6.25 grams instead of 5.67, so a kitchen scale that reads to a tenth of a gram can spot one.

Rare quarters worth money

Beyond silver, what a collector pays depends on the date, the mint mark and the condition. The record for any Washington quarter is $143,750, paid in 2008 for the finest known 1932-D; a top 1932-S brought $45,500 in 2020. Worn examples of both sell for far less.

Mistakes can be found in change. Some 2004-D Wisconsin quarters have an extra leaf on the corn stalk, curving up or down; a low-leaf coin sold for $6,000 in 2020. A 1970-S proof struck over a 1941 Canadian quarter, with the old date still showing, is the only one known.

State and national park quarters

None of the 50 State Quarters is rare by mintage: the lowest was the 2008-D Oklahoma, at 194,600,000. The national park quarters that began in 2010 were made in far smaller numbers, down to 21,606,000 for the 2012-D Acadia. The 2009 District of Columbia and territories quarters went as low as 35,200,000, for the Northern Mariana Islands from Philadelphia. Among the American Women quarters, the 2025-P Vera Rubin is the lowest, at 55,800,000.

The Bicentennial quarters dated 1776–1976 were struck in 1975 and 1976, so none are dated 1975. The Mint reported 1,669,902,839 made for circulation, 809,784,000 at Philadelphia and 860,118,839 at Denver; the 40% silver versions, with an S mint mark, were made for its collector sets.

How rare is your quarter?

Enter the year and mint mark in the quarter lookup to see how many were made, what the coin is made of and what to check for. On quarters from 1968 on, the mint mark is a small letter on the front, to the right of Washington’s hair ribbon; on quarters from 1932 to 1964 it is on the back, below the wreath.

Where the numbers come from

Mintages for 1932 to 1965 are from the Bureau of the Mint’s own record of coins manufactured from 1792 to 1965, which we read year by year; its Denver column adds up exactly to the total the Mint printed. Mintages for 1966 to 1980 are from the Director of the Mint’s annual reports and the Mint’s 1981 record of coins made, 1793–1980, which count the quarters made each year at each mint; the record’s footnotes also say how many of each mint’s 1975 quarters carried the Bicentennial date. Mintages for 1999 to 2025 are from the Mint’s production figures for each design, archived from usmint.gov, and its year-end figures as CoinNews reported them.

We show a figure only where one of those stands behind it. The table most sites copy has 15,388,000 for the 1947-D, where the Mint printed 15,338,400, and 518,708,000 for the 1979 Philadelphia quarter, where the Mint’s report prints 515,708,000; it has 809,784,016 for the Philadelphia Bicentennial quarters, where the Mint’s record adds up to 809,784,000, and it counts 2,360,000 and 2,261,583 special mint set coins sold to collectors in its 1965 and 1966 totals. For 1981 to 1998 we have not checked a Mint document date by date, so the lookup says only how large the mintage was.

Record prices are single auction results, each linked. The methodology has the full rules.

Good questions

What are the rarest quarters?

By mintage, the 1932-S (408,000 made) and the 1932-D (436,800), then the 1937-S (1,652,000) and the five 2019-W designs, 2,000,000 of each. Rarer still are mistakes such as the one known 1970-S proof quarter struck over a 1941 Canadian quarter.

How much is a silver quarter worth?

Quarters dated 1964 or earlier are 90% silver: 0.1808 troy ounces each, worth about $11.83 at the August 2026 average silver price. That is the metal alone; scarce dates and coins in top condition sell for more.

How much is a bicentennial quarter worth?

A worn copper-nickel 1776–1976 quarter is worth its face value, 25 cents: the Mint made 1,669,902,839 of them for circulation, and their metal is worth about 8.2 cents. Only the Bicentennial quarters made for the Mint’s collector sets, which have an S mint mark, contain silver (40%).

How much does a quarter weigh?

5.670 grams for quarters made since 1965, which are copper-nickel over a copper core. The 90% silver quarters of 1932 to 1964 weigh 6.25 grams, so a scale tells them apart.

How much does it cost to make a quarter?

14.53 cents in the Mint’s 2025 fiscal year, down from 14.68 cents in 2024, according to its annual report. A quarter still costs less than its face value to make; a penny cost 3.02 cents in 2025.

What quarters are worth money?

Any quarter dated 1964 or earlier, for its silver (about $11.83 in August 2026). Beyond that, the key dates and mistakes: a 1932-D sold for $143,750 and a 1932-S for $45,500, both in top condition, and a 2004-D Wisconsin quarter with an extra leaf on the corn stalk for $6,000.

Which quarter years are the rarest?

1932, with 6,248,800 quarters from three mints, then 1938 (12,304,000), 1949 (19,380,400), 1955 (21,362,581) and 1937 (28,537,600). No quarters were struck in 1933, and none are dated 1975.

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