Draped Bust Quarters 1796-1807

About This Series

Only 6,146 quarters were struck in 1796 — the first year of American quarter dollar production — making the inaugural Draped Bust quarter one of the rarest regular-issue U.S. coins by original mintage. Paired with the delicate Small Eagle reverse for that single year, the 1796 quarter has long been a cornerstone target for type collectors and early American coin enthusiasts. From 1804 onward, the Heraldic Eagle replaced the Small Eagle, though production remained sporadic: no quarters at all were struck in 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, or 1803, a seven-year gap that reflected both limited public demand and the Mint's prioritization of other denominations. Struck in .8924 fine silver at 6.74 grams, the 27.5mm Draped Bust quarter saw heavy circulation in an era when Spanish two-real coins still dominated commerce at the same nominal value. All surviving dates are scarce to rare, with the 1804 and 1805 among the more obtainable. The Browning reference catalogs die varieties, though the small production runs limited the total number of die combinations. Completing a date set of Draped Bust quarters represents one of the more formidable challenges in early American silver collecting, as the combination of low mintages, heavy circulation, and two centuries of attrition has left a genuinely thin surviving population across every year of issue.

Series Information