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When I began collecting coins as an 11-year-old kid in 1992, there weren’t many “unusual” modern coins I could find in U.S. circulation. The 11-sided and relatively novel Susan B. Anthony Dollar had originally been phased out the year I was born and was hardly even circulating back when it was nixed from the U.S. Mint’s production rolls. The Eisenhower Dollar was inconsistently available at a couple of banks and seemed harder to find than “Susie B.” mini dollars. Kennedy Half Dollars were equally scarce in pocket change, and Lincoln Wheat Cents – the coins whose chance discovery in my allowance change got me into the hobby – were unreliable as regular pocket change pick-ups. But there’s one coin I saw on occasion that didn’t look like the rest and really piqued my interest, and that was the 1776-1976 Bicentennial Quarter.
I’ll always remember the first time I noticed one with interest, and that was while helping my parents feed a parking meter at a nearby beach. Sure, I had probably seen many 1776-1976 Bicentennial Quarters (and Lincoln Wheat Cents) long before the age of 11; I had been saving and rolling up my coins since I was five or six years old, mostly with the goal of cashing them in to buy LEGO building systems or BRIO wooden railway accessories. My parents were generous in letting me use some of their spare change for this very purpose. But it was on the beach, I as a newly minted coin collector, when this sighting of a lightly worn 1776-1976 Bicentennial Quarter really gripped me. I thought the dual date of 1776-1976 on the obverse was pretty cool, and the colonial drummer motif on the reverse was artistic and patriotic. I had enough numismatic sense to know the coin wasn’t minted in 1776 – but why the dual date of 1776-1976?
I already knew the United States was founded in 1776 with the establishment of the Declaration of Independence, but the relationship to the year 1976 didn’t really register as important to me until my parents explained to me about the gala significance of the Bicentennial. In fact, they had taken a trip up to my mom’s native territory of Massachusetts in 1976 and on the way had stopped by Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to visit the U.S. Mint during the nation’s big 200th anniversary year. My dad even later showed me a special Bicentennial Medal he bought at the U.S. Mint while visiting. The 1976 Bicentennial Quarter became one of my new “special coins to look for,” at a time, remember, several years before the 50 State Quarters program or the litany of other circulating commemorative coins that came later.
As we work our way through 2026, the United States 250th anniversary known as the Semiquincentennial, those 1976 Bicentennial Quarters are appearing with far less frequency in circulation. The ones I do manage to find these days appear far more time worn than they did in the 1990s. No, 1976 Bicentennial Quarters really aren’t becoming rarer – at least not in any meaningful sense. In fact, they are still pretty much just as accessible and affordable now as they were in the early 1990s. And this is a good thing for the many collectors who want to add the now-classic Bicentennial coins to their collections. It’s not that the 1976 Bicentennial Quarter is a valuable rarity, or that anyone reading this article in the 2020s may live to see these coins become such. But what is great about the 1976 Bicentennial Quarters is that they offer collectors who specialize in late-20th century U.S. coinage something different – something exciting – to punctuate their runs of Washington Quarters with a coin that celebrates our nation in a special way.
The 1976 Bicentennial Quarter remains popular with coin collectors a half century after it was released. It thankfully still appears frequently enough in circulation to get people who find them curious, asking questions. Some of these folks even become coin collectors because of that “cool 1976 quarter” that snuck into their pocket change one day. And this is one of the things that numismatics is all about: sparking curiosity about the past. Yes, coins really are “history in our hands,” as so many say. As for me, finding that 1976 Bicentennial Quarter while dropping coins in the parking meter opened my eyes to an exciting and jubilant chapter of American history. It also compelled me to keep looking for more “cool” coins that may be floating around in circulation.
*The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Professional Coin Grading Service or its subsidiaries.