Quarters and halves
Rare quarters: which dates were struck in the smallest numbers?
Choose a range of years: the tool ranks the quarters struck in the smallest numbers at each mint, with the figure from the Mint tables.
Lowest-mintage quarters
Lowest mintage 1932 to 1964
1932-S: 408,000
| 1932-D | 436,800 |
| 1937-S | 1,652,000 |
| 1939-S | 2,628,000 |
Number struck, from the Bureau of the Mint tables; San Francisco proof-heavy years 1965 to 1980 are left out. A low mintage is a lead, not a price: survival and condition decide what a collector pays.
The quarters most worth looking for are the ones the Mint struck in the smallest numbers, and the official tables make them easy to list. Since the Standing Liberty design of 1916, the lowest figures are 1927-S (396,000), 1932-S (408,000), 1932-D (436,800), 1927-D (976,400), 1929-D (1,358,000), according to the Bureau of the Mint. The two 1932 branch-mint Washington quarters stand out: 436,800 at Denver and 408,000 at San Francisco, in the first year of a design later struck by the hundreds of millions. In modern times the Mint created scarcity on purpose: in 2019 it released about 10 million quarters with the W mark of West Point into circulation. A low mintage is a reason to look closely, not a price: survival and condition decide what a collector pays, and this site publishes no collector prices. Every quarter dated 1964 or earlier is also 90% silver, worth about $9.76 in metal.
Washington quarter: year, mint and metal
Metal value of one 1932 coin
$9.76
| Struck at this mint | 436,800 |
| Mintage band | Very low mintage (under 1 million) |
| Metal | 90% silver quarter |
| Mint mark on the coin | D |
Pieces made in the calendar year; for most years this is also the date on the coin. At silver $53.94 per troy oz (last price read).
Mintages, metals and prices read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
The lowest numbers struck since 1916
The ranking below reads the Bureau of the Mint tables for every quarter from 1916 to 1980, and leaves out the San Francisco figures of 1965 onwards, which mostly count proof coins made for collector sets. It counts pieces made in each calendar year at each mint. The 1916 figures mix the last Barber quarters with the first Standing Liberty quarters, so the true number of 1916 Standing Liberty coins is smaller than the year total.
| Coin | Struck | Band |
|---|---|---|
| 1927-S | 396,000 | Very low mintage |
| 1932-S | 408,000 | Very low mintage |
| 1932-D | 436,800 | Very low mintage |
| 1927-D | 976,400 | Very low mintage |
| 1929-D | 1,358,000 | Low mintage |
| 1923-S | 1,360,000 | Low mintage |
| 1930-S | 1,556,000 | Low mintage |
| 1928-D | 1,627,600 | Low mintage |
| 1937-S | 1,652,000 | Low mintage |
| 1926-D | 1,716,000 | Low mintage |
| 1929-S | 1,764,000 | Low mintage |
| 1919-S | 1,836,000 | Low mintage |
Most of the list belongs to the Standing Liberty years of 1916 to 1930, when San Francisco and Denver struck quarters in small batches. The two Washington quarters of 1932 are the only ones of that design with figures under a million.
Washington quarters, year by year
From 1932 the Washington quarter took over, and production quickly rose into the tens of millions. The tool below reads the figure for any year from 1932 to 1998 at each mint. It is the fastest way to check a quarter from a drawer or an inherited roll against the official tables.
Washington quarter: year, mint and metal
Metal value of one 1932 coin
$9.76
| Struck at this mint | 436,800 |
| Mintage band | Very low mintage (under 1 million) |
| Metal | 90% silver quarter |
| Mint mark on the coin | D |
Pieces made in the calendar year; for most years this is also the date on the coin. At silver $53.94 per troy oz (last price read).
Two pages complete this one: the silver quarter page for coins dated 1964 or earlier, which are worth their silver whatever their date, and the state quarters page for the fifty designs of 1999 to 2008, none of which is scarce.
Scarcity made on purpose: the W quarters
West Point usually strikes collector and bullion coins. In 2019, according to the Mint’s page on mint marks, it struck about 10 million America the Beautiful quarters with a W and released them into circulation. Next to the hundreds of millions of Denver and Philadelphia quarters of the same years, read in the Mint’s production reports, a W quarter is worth a look and worth keeping, but it is not rare in the sense of the 1932 coins.
From a low figure to a real value
A figure from the tables tells you how many coins were made, not how many survive or in what state. Collectors pay for the combination of a low mintage, a well preserved coin and, for some types, a full strike. The grading guide explains how condition is judged, and the error coins guide covers the doubled dies and other varieties that sit outside the tables entirely. This site does not give prices, because no official or freely licensed source publishes them.
A practical order of work for a box of old quarters: first separate the silver ones, dated 1964 or earlier; then read the date and mint of each silver coin against the ranking above; finally look over the modern clad coins for a W. Anything that passes one of these filters is worth a second look under a magnifier.