A Rare Quarter From The 1790s Is Worth At Least $10,000 In 2025

Anyone who has ever used a coin laundromat or a cart while shopping and saving money at Aldi knows that quarters can often be worth their weight in gold. While that old idiom is usually meant metaphorically, sometimes a quarter can quite literally hold gold-like value. At least, this is the case when it comes to a certain rare quarter from the late 18th century.

The Type 1, 1796 Draped Bust, Small Eagle quarter bears a small eagle and a big price tag. Values for these coins graded in merely good condition can start at around $10,000, with better grading often coming with much higher price tags. One specimen, graded as MS66 (meaning it is an uncirculated gem status coin) fetched the absolutely staggering sum of $1,740,000 at auction in 2022.

While the chances of spotting valuable coins in your spare change might already be slim, the chances of finding this 1796 quarter in your couch cushions are slim to none. Still, any surprised coin collector lucky enough to come across this 1796 quarter holds a piece of history — and a small fortune — in their hands.

Some coins are coveted by collectors because of valuable die error defects or missing mint marks. These blunders in coin production can create the appearance of an extra tree in a state quarter's forest design, or a buffalo's third leg on a rare nickel. There aren't any such tricks of the mint that make the 1796 Draped Bust quarter so valuable; just a sterling spot in the country's coinage history.

The 1796 Draped Bust quarter is the very first quarter dollar piece ever minted by the United States Mint. Back in 1796, the U.S. Mint was a fledgling operation, argued for fervently by Alexander Hamilton himself in order to establish and regulate official U.S. currency. Before the Coinage Act of 1792, Americans exchanged all manner of state-issued currency and foreign coins for their purchases. This initial U.S. quarter dollar coin was inspired by Spain's then-popular milled dollar coin, which was often split into eight easier-to-spend parts.

The 1796 Draped Bust quarter, designed by Robert Scot, features a bust of Lady Liberty with flowing hair and nearly-bared décolletage on the obverse, or "heads" side. On the reverse, or "tails" side, a pipsqueak of an eagle spreads its wings. The earliest minting of this quarter bears no mint mark or denomination, mainly because the coin's size, and the weight of its actual silver material, would have loudly announced the coin's value without needing words.

The early days of the U.S. Mint were slow-going and error-heavy, and the new federal currency system faced criticism for design and material issues. For example, the little eagle on the 1796 Draped Bust quarter's obverse was changed to the more dramatic, heraldic eagle in 1798, only to be updated again in 1804. The chaos of the early U.S. Mint is more than a little understandable, and is ultimately a driving factor in this 1796 Draped Bust's timeless value among collectors. The new country, new Mint, and new federal U.S. currency were all still finding their footing on the cobbled streets of Philadelphia. 

Only 6,146 of the 1796 Draped Bust quarters were minted. Of that already-small mintage, it is thought that only 10% of these first quarters still survive today, with the rest lost to time and metal melting. Prices will vary depending on the grade of specimen, but even the low range of auction prices for authenticated 1796 quarters is still significant in 2025, and will likely only continue to be. Serious coin collectors prize this piece of U.S. coinage history, and often struggle to find excellent specimens, although not for lack of trying. According to coin grading professionals PCGS, two 1796 quarter sales have occurred so far in 2025, for auction amounts of $9,000 and $24,000.