On Collecting Bicentennial Quarters: Risks and Rewards - 2024 Update (2024)

By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek …..

The Bicentennial Quarter is one of the most interesting circulating coins from the 20th century still found in circulation. While it doesn’t turn up as much as it used to, roll hunters and those that still frequently pay with cash may occasionally run into one of these artifacts of a bygone America.

Most circulating specimens survive in Fine to Extra Fine condition, with About Uncirculated pieces unexpectedly popping up from time to time–no doubt hoarded coins that found their way back into circulation. It’s likely that hundreds of thousands of examples, if not a million or more, survive in Mint State as more than 1.6 billion Philly and Denver business strikes were produced over two years and released to immense public interest.

The Bicentennial Quarter was the first United States coin issued in decades that was struck as a commemorative coin. All modern United States coins commemorate something, but the practice of issuing three special coins for a two-year period would have been anathema to Congress, the Treasury Department, and the United States Mint just a decade before as collectors bore the blame for the coin shortage that gripped the nation in the mid-1960s. Several measures were undertaken to solve that problem, including removing silver from the dime, quarter, and eventually half dollar.

With the shortage solved and the Mint confident that it could produce coins at such a scale that public hoarding would not be a significant drain, Congress authorized the first circulating commemorative coin since the release of the original Washington Quarter in 1932.

Differentiating the Bicentennial Quarter from the regular issue was the dual date on the coin’s obverse and the “Drummer Boy” motif on the coin’s reverse. The reverse was designed by Jack L. Ahr, winner of a nationwide contest to design the reverse of the three circulating commemorative coins. In a Mint press release dated March 6, 1974, Ahr was described as the owner of Jack Ahr Design and Sales, a design firm he started in 1972. Ahr’s company designed awards and plaques for local businesses and was still active in the years leading up to his passing in 2017. When his website was active, Ahr barely mentioned his work on the coin. Besides attending a few coin shows and signing a limited number of labels for the grading service PCGS, Ahr did not make too much of his numismatic celebrity.

Collecting the 1776-1976 Bicentennial Quarter

There is no one correct way to collect the Bicentennial Quarter. People are driven to collect for various reasons, some rational and others seemingly irrational. In our view, it is just as “correct” to pull a circulated coin out of change and hold onto it because it has characteristics that appeal to you as it is to hunt down one of the finest known examples for your registry set or purchase a condition rarity to sell for a profit later. In the coin-collecting hobby, we see all three drives at work plus many, many more.

For collectors looking for an example in uncirculated condition, we recommend purchasing a 1975 or a 1976 Uncirculated Coin Set. If you’d like an example struck for collectors in 40% silver, we recommend that you purchase one of the three-coin sets that contain 40% silver versions of the Bicentennial Washington Quarter, Kennedy Half Dollar, and Eisenhower Dollar. All of these products are available at affordable prices on sites like eBay and can contain nice coins.

For collectors who want a Gem or better quality coin, the choices are either to buy one already graded by a leading service or to sort through enough Uncirculated Coin Sets and uncirculated rolls to find that coin. Collectors with this goal in mind usually prefer to have coins graded by either CAC, NGC, or PCGS.

If finding a premium coin is the goal, understand that registry-set-quality 1976 Bicentennial Quarters are not only free of detracting marks and scrapes but also sharply struck with good eye appeal. A clean obverse plus a fully-struck reverse equals a premium-quality coin.

What to Look for on the Obverse

A coin’s grade is determined by many factors, including some that have nothing to do with the amount of wear evident on a coin’s surface. Mint State (Uncirculated) coins are those that exhibit no wear. These coins are graded on the Sheldon Scale in increments starting at MS60 (Typical Uncirculated) and ending at MS70 (Perfect Uncirculated). The typical uncirculated coin will never grade MS60 and the perfect MS70 coin is not perfect. The fact that we have to say this explicitly speaks to the vagaries of a coin market that was built over many years by profit-seeking market makers. While this can be alienating, a workable understanding of Mint State grades can be had with a little explanation.

First, let’s talk about how the Bicentennial Quarter and other modern coins are made. Coins are mass-produced using high-speed presses for release into commerce to serve as money. The United States Mint ensures that the materials it uses to produce coins are of high quality and fall within the narrow legal tolerances of weights and measures, that the dies it uses to strike coins are in good condition, and that the coins it releases into circulation through the Federal Reserve Bank are free of defects.

Nowhere in this process is there any effort to keep circulating coins from coming into contact with one another after they are struck, dropped into large bins, put through counting machines, or shipped off for distribution. It is this incidental contact and any additional post-production handling that has the greatest impact on a coin’s grade.

Hypothetically, these coins could grade MS70 the instant they were struck, so long as the struck coin was free of defects under 3x to 5x magnification. Because these coins are not struck individually, carefully removed from the press, and then put into an inert storage media, “perfect” MS70 examples do not exist.

Nicks and scratches are imparted upon coins shortly after they are ejected from the die and piled into the hopper, and the potential for more nicks and scratches exists each time the coin is processed or handled after that. These impairments can range from minuscule and largely imperceptible to glaringly obvious. Coins with minimal hits and nicks grade higher on the scale, while those that exhibit more obvious marks grade lower.

Obverse scratches can happen anywhere, but the area high on Washington’s cheekbone tends to be the most susceptible to serious grade-limiting abrasions. Annealing chatter is another factor. This is caused during planchet preparation; when not fully struck, a coin will have areas of literally thousands of tiny scratches, resembling a star field. These aren’t contact marks or scratches that happened to the coin after it has been pressed but rather abrasions to the planchet that occurred before pressing. Annealing chatter impairs eye appeal and can impact a coin’s grade.

Coins graded MS65 will appear exceptional at first glance but reveal their flaws upon closer study. In this grade, marks are minimal and found mainly in non-focal areas.

Circulation Strikes Typically Lack a Fully Struck Reverse

On the reverse, you’ll find that most Bicentennial Quarters are not fully struck, specifically near the top of the drum. The fact that the drum details are seldom fully stamped will be no secret to Washington Quarter specialists.

A few years ago, we surveyed more than a hundred 1976 and 1976-D Washington Quarters to measure the completeness of the drum. In our exploration, we established four categories of fullness: 100% Full (well-defined top clasp and top drum rim); 90-99% Full (drum rim and clasp are there, clasp is flattened to various degrees); Flattened Drum, Some Detail (the barest elements of the clasp are present; drum is not washed out but not well-defined); and Incomplete Drum (top rim details are completely washed out).

While using fresh coins pulled from Uncirculated Coin Sets, we found that few of the coins had full drums. Nearly all of the coins were attractive and well-made and some had bold luster and “knock-your-socks-off” eye appeal. But even these coins didn’t have 100% full drum, so we imagine finding a blazingly nice coin that’s free of scratches and bag marks PLUS a full drum might be an impossible task. That said, we cannot take too seriously high Mint State grades attributed to coins that don’t show at least most of the drum detail, as collectors typically frown upon weak centers of classic U.S. coins.

What Do Others Think About the Bicentennial Quarter?

Q. David Bowers’ approach outlined in A Guide Book of Washington and State Quarters (2007; revised 2017), holds that collectors of modern material should “buy certified examples of the rarer issues” and “acquire ‘raw‘ specimens of the usual inexpensive varieties” [p. 69]. Bowers cites the cost of coin certification, the amount of extra space certified coins require for storage, and the low value of Washington Quarter issues struck from the 1940s onward.

This approach shows a bias towards classic United States numismatics, which is understandable as Bowers is certainly a well-regarded expert in this area. Modern coins are highly speculative as the issues themselves are not rare and can be sourced easily. This is different than is the case with many classic U.S. coins.

The value proposition of certified modern coins relies on the theory that selectively taking from an enormous population of coins can create a smaller pool of more valuable collectible coins. This is the driving principle behind strike-based attributions like “Full Bell Lines” for Franklin Half Dollars, “Full Bands” for Mercury Dimes, “Full Torch” for Roosevelt Dimes, and “Full Steps” for Jefferson Nickels.

For the Bicentennial Quarter, it is clear that collectors favor the smaller pool of collectible “certified” coins and are willing to pay a premium for grades over MS66. However, as Bowers points out, the cost associated with submitting these coins for encapsulation greatly reduces the financial incentive to submit the coins in the first place. This results in population data that reflects the number of coins submitted under these circ*mstances and is not reflective of the number of coins that are in the market. CAC, NGC, and PCGS have combined to grade 7,500 1976 and 1976-D Washington Quarters through July 2024. This is not even 0.01% of the total number of coins the Mint sold to collectors upon release.

Grading Trends for 1976 and 1976-D Washington Bicentennial Quarters

Given the financial considerations at play when submitting low-value modern coins for grading, it stands to reason that collectors and dealers are incentivized to submit only coins that would be profitable if resold.

1976-P Bicentennial Quarter Values: Q. David Bowers 2007 Market Values vs. 2019 Mega Red vs. 2024 CoinWeek Values.

The table in Bowers’ 2007 Guide Book did not include prices for the Superb Gem grades of MS67 and MS68 and instead focused on coins in the typically encountered grades of MS63 to MS66 and the abstract “typical” uncirculated but rarely encountered grade of MS60. The 2019 Mega Red, which has Washington Quarters as its focus, eschews the grades MS60 and MS64 due to space considerations and provides market data on grades more logical to the market. To tabulate our CoinWeek 2024 pricing, we evaluated data from leading auction companies and current and completed listings on eBay. The value of the 1976-P Washington Quarter has remained fairly constant since 2007, even though the dollar has lost 30% of its value over this same period. Not good from an investment standpoint.

It’s also worth noting that the current Modern Economy submission prices are $20 for CAC, $19 for NGC, and $17 for PCGS. These costs simply cannot be recovered for coins graded lower than MS67.

The charts below show the grade distribution of 1976-P Washington Quarters submitted to NGC and PCGS. CAC submission data has not yet reached a sufficient level where such a chart would prove beneficial, so we omit their data set for the time being.

Based on PCGS and NGC population data, 1976 Bicentennial quarters at MS65 account for between 28.3% and 29.1% of the total graded between MS63 and MS67. This is an increase of about 3% from 10 years ago when we first analyzed the pop reports. MS66 coins hold a much larger share at NGC and are the dominant grade from that service. MS66 coins account for 28% of the total graded at PCGS, but MS64 is the most frequent grade given by that service. The top 7.7% of coins grade MS67 or higher at PCGS, while at NGC that number is 19.1%.

Neither service’s population data reflects a significant percentage of the available inventory, therefore one cannot make a conclusive argument as to why the two services differ so much in their grading breakdowns. Three possibilities (among many) are differences in grading philosophy, differences in submitter goals, and stated minimum grades on bulk submissions.

Since the majority of professional dealers do not make two-way markets in certified modern coins, one should exercise a great degree of caution when speculating on ultra-high-grade modern conditional rarities as record-high prices may give a false impression of the permanence of value. In our pricing table, the $5,000 value we set at MS68 reflects the 2023 GreatCollections sale of a toned PCGS MS68 1976-P Washington Quarter that is a top pop, pop one coin. When a second, third, or fourth coin in this grade is made, buyers may not be so motivated to pay $5,000. Also, the current owner of that coin outbid the only other person willing to pay nearly as much!

We see this in prices realized for coins in the same grade but certified by NGC. NGC has graded 10 coins at the MS68 level and auction results for these specimens fall in the $550 to $700 range.

1976-D Bicentennial Quarter Values: Q. David Bowers 2007 Market Values vs. 2019 Mega Red vs. 2024 CoinWeek Values.

The price differential between the 1976-P and the 1976-D Washington Quarters outlined in Bowers and Mega Red does not make sense. The 1976-D Washington Quarter is a better-made coin, as are most 1970s Denver Mint coins.

1976-Ds are better struck, more lustrous, and more frequently encountered in Gem or better. When we look at the market, we see pricing levels that are consistent with the Philadelphia issues up to MS67, where Denver Mint coins – while more plentiful – sell on average for $10 more. The frequency with which the better coins appear may likely allow for a more fluid market than for coins that only pop up from time to time and are poorly marketed. At MS68, NGC has certified 15 coins, while PCGS has certified 12. The current valuation reflects the price trend for auctions of PCGS coins that have taken place within the last 12 months. NGC coins have sold for an average price of $1,600 in the same period.

Is “1975 the Lost Year” A Real Thing?

A 2023 post by Redditor AltaVista103 on the r/coins subreddit posed the question “Is 1975 The Lost Year a real thing?” The Redditor posted an image of the front and back of a PCGS slab containing a 1976-S Bicentennial Quarter. The user looked online for information about the supposed “lost year” but found nothing on the PCGS website, and we assume that the information that they found online was not structured in such a way as to make the label’s assertion about a lost year make sense.

The query got three responses, two of which answered the question directly. The third offered an interesting statement of collector sentiment to which the industry would be well-advised to listen.

Redditors thatburghfan and Roamer56 both pointed out that the slab’s theme relates to the fact that Washington Quarters, Kennedy Half Dollars, and Eisenhower Dollars struck in 1975 used the dual date 1776-1976 to honor the nation’s bicentennial. Coins dated 1975 coins were struck for the Lincoln Memorial Cent, the Jefferson Nickel, and the Roosevelt Dime. These designs were left unchanged, while the quarter, half dollar, and dollar were issued with a commemorative reverse and the dually dated obverse.

The purpose of this insert design is to create a sense of rarity and excitement around common coins issued in the 1975 Uncirculated and Proof Sets.

The third Redditor, Bob-Doll, shared his thoughts this way:

Label designs like this have become more commonplace in recent years as marketers increasingly rely on collectible labels to drive sales and create arbitrage that does not exist based on the grade alone. We have seen the approach taken by attributing certain American Silver Eagle bullion issues with parenthetical mintmarks to denote the facility where the coins were struck, even when the coin was struck at only one mint location.

From a collector’s perspective, there is some merit to being curious about the Bicentennial issues struck in 1975 and 1976. The dollar coins are easily differentiated, but half and quarter dollars underwent no known design changes during their production cycles. Also, we would not discount the 1975 Uncirculated Coin Set, simply because three of the coins are struck with the same 1776-1976 dual dating found in the 1976 set. As for this particular slab, we don’t have a problem with the marketing of coins in this manner, so long as collectors are provided a clear understanding of what is meant by “1975 The Lost Year”.

A Realistic Viewpoint

Ten years ago, when we first analyzed this favorite coin from our childhoods, we focused on things like strike quality, the fullness of the coin’s drum, the NGC and PCGS condition census, and Q. David Bowers’ assertion that within each coin series existed an Optimum Collecting Grade. These facets informed our understanding of the coin market at the time. We also considered the fact that the circulation strike Bicentennial Washington Quarter was minted for two years with a combined mintage of 1,669,902,855 -an enormous quantity of coins that ensures they will never be rare in our lifetimes.

We never anticipated that “Bicentennial Quarter” would become one of Google’s most searched coin-collecting terms, or that a cottage industry of “fake news” articles would crop up and spread via the Google algorithm claiming that certain Bicentennial Quarters were rare and worth millions of dollars or that marketers would work with a grading service to create hype labels for the lost year coinage of 1975.

Despite the hoopla, we like the Bicentennial Quarter as a coin and a symbol of falling in love with coin collecting. Much like the $2 bill, upon receiving one the immediate internal question was whether to save it or spend it. When other means to pay for things were available, perhaps the Bicentennial Quarter was set aside for study and admiration. When you were down to your last quarter, however, the Bicentennial slid right into the arcade machine to load up the next session of Golden Axe.

None of the 1776-1976 Bicentennial issues held a candle to Jack Ahr’s Drummer Boy design, and no circulating commemorative coin that has come since will likely have the same pull on a generation of collectors. One could argue that some of the American Women Quarters issued recently are among the most beautiful and interesting circulating commemorative designs ever issued, but our society’s relationship to coins has changed, irreversibly.

The total face value of all of the Bicentennial Quarters issued for circulation was a staggering $417,475,713.75. The 2000 Virginia State Quarter had a higher overall mintage, as did a handful of dates in the 1990s. Nearly 50 years after its issue, uncertified uncirculated examples can be purchased for about $2 each.

Most of that face value served its intended purpose and flowed through commerce, 3.8 million circulation strikes were set aside to be sold in the 1975 and 1976 Uncirculated Coin Sets; 4.9 million were struck in 40% silver-clad with an Uncirculated finish and sold in three-coin silver sets; and nearly four million 40% silver-clad coins were struck as Proofs. Copper-nickel clad Proofs account for an additional seven million coins. These coins were sold to the United States Mint’s customers and on the secondary market. Still, millions more circulation strikes from Philadelphia and Denver were put away by collectors and non-collectors alike. All of this impacts the availability of the Bicentennial Quarter now and for decades into the future and why no honest coin expert will ever label the 1776-1976 Washington Quarter a rare coin.

Should you bother to collect them? That depends. Do you like coins? Do you like Americana? Do you like good design? Do you have a connection to the date or era or know somebody who does? An affirmative answer to any of these questions is sufficient for us to recommend that you collect the Bicentennial Quarter. However, if your goal is investment-oriented or you were led to this article in the hope that we would affirm some of the nonsense that spreads online, then we have an obligation to tell it like it is. Bicentennial Quarters are marketed to the general public because they are cheap and easy to source and because the story of their creation is largely beyond the public’s memory. We hope that many collectors who come into the hobby this way decide to stick around like we did.

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