Quarters and halves
Bicentennial quarter value: is my 1776-1976 quarter special?
Pick the mint mark under the ribbon, right of Washington’s neck: the tool gives the number struck at that mint, the metal and its value now.
Bicentennial quarter: which one do I have?
Metal value
8.3¢
| Struck at this mint (1776-1976 dated) | 809,784,000 |
| Metal | Copper-nickel clad quarter |
| Weight | 5.67 g |
The San Francisco figure counts copper-nickel proofs and 40% silver coins together. A silver one weighs about 5.75 g against 5.67 g, and shows no copper stripe on its edge.
Almost every Bicentennial quarter you find is worth twenty-five cents. The coins dated 1776-1976, with a colonial drummer on the back, were struck in 1975 and 1976 in very large numbers: the Bureau of the Mint tables record 809,784,000 at Philadelphia, with no mint mark, and 860,118,839 at Denver. Those are copper-nickel clad coins of 5.67 grams, holding about 8.3¢ of metal. The exception is San Francisco, whose S coins were made for collectors, part of them in a 40% silver-clad alloy of 5.75 grams worth about $4.04 at the silver price read on October 27, 2026. The tables give 15,344,248 San Francisco pieces, proof and silver together. An S quarter with no copper stripe on its edge is the one to set aside; the tool above shows what each version holds.
How much are my silver quarters worth?
Melt value of 4 coins
$39.06
| One coin | $9.76 |
| Face value | $1 |
| Pure silver | 0.723 troy oz |
At silver $53.94 per troy oz (last price read).
Mintages, metals and prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
A coin dated with two years
For the two hundredth anniversary of independence, the Mint changed the backs of three coins at once: a colonial drummer on the quarter, Independence Hall on the half dollar and the Liberty Bell over the Moon on the Eisenhower dollar, as the Mint’s history of circulating coins describes. Washington stayed on the front, with the double date 1776-1976 under his neck. No quarter bears the date 1975, and the coins struck that year are counted with those of 1976 in the separate table of dated coins kept by the Bureau of the Mint.
| Mint | Mark | Struck | Metal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philadelphia | none | 809,784,000 | copper-nickel clad |
| Denver | D | 860,118,839 | copper-nickel clad |
| San Francisco | S | 15,344,248 | clad proof and 40% silver |
The silver ones come from San Francisco
Only San Francisco struck Bicentennial quarters in silver, for sets sold to collectors. Those coins have outer layers of 80% silver bonded to a core of about 21% silver, which averages out to 40% silver for the whole coin, the same alloy as the Kennedy halves of 1965 to 1970. San Francisco also struck copper-nickel proofs with the same S. The Bureau of the Mint figure counts both together, so it is not possible to say from the official tables how many of each exist.
A silver Bicentennial quarter holds 0.0739 troy ounce of pure silver, about $4.04 at $53.94 an ounce. That is a modest premium over face value, but a real one. A 90% silver quarter dated 1964 or earlier holds more than twice as much; the tool below counts the silver in a stack of those.
How much are my silver quarters worth?
Melt value of 4 coins
$39.06
| One coin | $9.76 |
| Face value | $1 |
| Pure silver | 0.723 troy oz |
At silver $53.94 per troy oz (last price read).
What makes an ordinary one worth more
With more than a billion and a half struck for circulation, scarcity cannot lift a Philadelphia or Denver Bicentennial quarter. Three things can. A minting error, such as a coin struck off center, doubled or on a blank meant for another coin, is the first; the error coins guide shows what to look for. The second is condition: a coin that never circulated and shows no marks is far rarer than the mintage suggests. The third is simply an S mint mark, which tells you the coin came from a collector set.
This site gives no dealer or collector price for any of them: no official or freely licensed source publishes such prices. It gives the number struck and the metal, which already rule out most of the claims seen online that every Bicentennial quarter is valuable.
Checking yours in three steps
- Find the mint mark just right of Washington’s ponytail, under the ribbon. None means Philadelphia.
- If it is an S, look at the edge: no copper line suggests silver; a scale settles it.
- Enter the mark in the tool at the top of the page to see the figure and the metal value.
If you have a whole jar of 1776-1976 quarters, the answer is quick: with no S among them, they are worth their face value, and you can spend them or keep them as souvenirs of the anniversary. A single S coin in the lot is worth weighing before it goes anywhere.
The Kennedy half dollar page covers the Bicentennial half, and the state quarters page the quarters that followed in 1999.