Home > News, Articles & Multimedia > Blog Entry > Errors in the State Quarters are Worth Lots of Money
Errors in the State Quarters are Worth Lots of Money
by Will Seippel (03/23/08).
2003 Waffled Missouri State Quarter that Escaped Mint Destruction
2004 Florida State Error Quarter on 5 Cent Planchet
Arkansas State Error Quarter on Nickel Planchet
2000 Virginia State Error Quarter Missing Reverse Clad
1999 Connecticut State Quarter Error 35% struck Off Center
Virginia State Error Quarter 2000 Double Clipped 11%
Maryland 2000 State Error Quarter on Nickle Planchet
2000 Maryland error Quarter 15% Clipped
South Carolina Quarter Missing Reverse Clad
Tennessee Quarter on a Nickel Planchet

I have always liked coin collecting. When I was a kid, there was not a lot to do in the tiny town I grew up in. I think there were 100 people in town, when everyone was home on Sunday. One of the things we would do, is get our parents to take us to the neighboring town, where there was a bank, to get rolls of coins from the tellers, to search through. My favorites were the dimes, where it was quick and easy to pull out the Mercury dimes, from the Roosevelts and refill the rolls and go back and get new rolls.

Today, coin collecting, in the United States, has been revived by the US Mint issuing the state quarters. We are almost through the 50 state quarters, and the US government relizes they have a good thing going with coin collectors. I have seen 1 statistic where there are now 140 million collectors of these things. That includes me, I have made a set for all 5 of my children, including the silver ones.

I noticed bacck in 1999, an error in the Delaware quarter, that was sitting on the desk, in my office. I could not figure out at first, what was the matter with the coin, until I noticed after several days that the “e” was missing off of the words “The First Stat”e”". That was to be the first of many errors the Mint was to make on these coins. The Delaware error is common, and was caused by grease. It is worth about $20.

I am collecting a set of error quarters, for myself, as a different project, to complement the sets I made for my kids. I am not worrying about Mint marks,and such. I am just trying to get a good error coin for each State. The Mint does a pretty good job on quality, so these coins are difficult to find in change, but they are out there. I have included pictures of some of my favorites. These include; a Maryland, Tennessee, Arkansas and Florida struck on a 5 cent planchet; Maryland and Virginia with clips from the coins; South Carolina and Virginia with a missing layer of “silver” from the reverse; Conneticut that was mistruck, and my favorite, Missouri, that the Mint caught the error and then cancelled the coin by waffling it. Somehow, the coin then escaped from the Mint and made it out into circulation, where I saved it from destruction.

No one knows how many of these errors the mint makes, or, how many coins escape from the waffle machine. They are scarce, and you should be on the look out for these and other error coins. The payoff can be high. The ones I pictured are worth up to $5,000. Not a bad deal if you are getting change back for a dollar. The lucky finder can then start their own collection or,with a membership, will soon be able to sell it to collectors on WorthPoint, or through one of our auction house partners.

Good hunting! I will continue to show, in future blogs, other error coins from the US Mint.

86 Responses to “Errors in the State Quarters are Worth Lots of Money”

  1. Dora Featherstone says:

    I have a 1985 quarter. It looks like it is an error quarter. It is missing part of it. If you look at it whith heads up it is the top left side. There are the grooves all around it even in the part that is missing. About how much is this worth?

  2. i have a new jersey state quarter with the “R” from crossroads missing.looking for a collector to purchase

  3. l have the back half of a new Iowa quarter…

  4. I have a Delaware Quarter with no e on the state.

  5. brinda says:

    In 2000 the South Carolina state quarter came out, months later we saw that very few of the quarters had been misprinter on the back with a flag over the palmetto tree. Does anyone know about this? My mom found one and has had it for years.

    • al says:

      I am not aware of any such “error” or misprint. The flag would need to have been placed in the die and many of them produced. As I have not heard of any such occurance, I can only assume a flag was “added” on yours. If any one else has any information to the contrary, please chime in.

    • holly says:

      I have a 200 south carolina quarter with thew flag over top of the tree

  6. Peggy says:

    I have a Virginia State Quarter that is missing the mint mark and has a die crack. I believe it is also missing some letters on the back and part of the water. Have you ever seen this

  7. Hope says:

    I have a 1918 quarter. in the phrase in god we trust trust is spelled with a v. trvst! can you please tell me how much this is worth?? thank you

  8. hi i have a delaware coin with error on it were can i find the value off the coin

  9. Can you tell me if a Vermont 2001 state quarter w/ 2 tails is worth anything?

  10. Mark Mills says:

    I also have a virginia quarter from the Philly mint that appears to be missing the copper clad in the middle. The edges are silver. Has anyone also found one of these?

    • Nina in Anchorage says:

      Hey, Mark: I’ve been doing a lot of research on state quarters and it sounds like what you have is from a set sold by QVC that somehow got into general circulation. They sold/sell sets with extremely thin layers of gold or platinum, IIRC. I’ve seen this question a lot on other sites and that is the usual answer.

  11. Gina says:

    I have a gold colored 1999 delaware quarter i have never seen one this color were they made this way

  12. Ron Flores says:

    I have a 2005 Florida state quarter that is misprinted…or shall I say mis-dyed. It has the same coloration as a new dollar coin. Is this worth anything?

  13. joann says:

    I have a wyoming quarter that has the horse facing the opposite way with the normal one right on top, almost like a mirror image, as well as a small part on the front of the quarter in front of Georges nose.
    Where do I take it to see what its value is?

  14. olivia lagorio says:

    i have a tennessee state quarter with honeycone markings on the side with the head how much is it worth.

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