1966 quarter no mint mark: the law, and what it's worth

Your 1966 quarter has no mint mark (the small letter that shows which mint made a coin) because Congress banned mint marks in 1965, and no U.S. coin dated 1965, 1966 or 1967 carries one. The blank spot is normal and is not an error. A 1966 quarter is not silver, and a worn one carries no premium over its 25-cent face value: CoinWeek writes that worn Washington quarters "carry no numismatic premium", and NGC's retail guide lists $0.30 for one (updated 24 March 2022). Only a coin that was never used, in top condition, sells for real money.

The ban is Section 204 of the Coinage Act of 1965. It barred mint marks for five years, with one exception: coins Denver was already authorized to strike could keep their D, which in practice meant the 1964-dated coins it was still making. That exception never reached a 1966 coin. The Mint's press release of 4 January 1968 says the 1968 coins "carry mint marks for the first time since the 1964 dated coins", and it gives the reason for the ban: the Act "prohibited the use of mint marks because of the coin shortage". Congress wrote the ban for five years and repealed it after three, in 1967, so 1968 quarters have the mint mark again, on the front to the right of Washington's portrait. The quarter mint mark hub covers where to look on every other date.

How many 1966 quarters there are, and whether they are silver

PCGS and NGC are the two big companies that grade coins; Heritage and Stack's Bowers, named further down, are auction houses. PCGS puts the number of quarters dated 1966 at 821,101,500 (read 20 October 2026). They have no mint mark, so no one can tell from the coin which mint made yours.

Graders score a coin's condition on a scale from 1 to 70. MS, short for mint state, covers grades 60 to 70, the grades given only to coins that never went into circulation. PCGS estimates that about 205 million 1966 quarters survive and that about 12.3 million of them are MS65 or better. Nobody counted them: those figures are PCGS's own estimate.

None of them is silver. They are clad: a copper center covered on both faces by a layer of 75% copper and 25% nickel, which is why you see a copper-colored stripe on the edge. The recipe is written into the Coinage Act itself, and the Mint's annual report for the year to June 1966 describes the same three layers. Silver quarters were still being struck in early 1966, but they carried the date 1964; the 1965 quarter page has that story.

How to check your 1966 quarter

A 1966 quarter should weigh 5.67 grams on a scale that reads two decimal places and measure 24.3 millimeters across (0.955 inch, just under an inch), with grooves (reeding) all the way around the edge. Between the grey faces the edge shows copper. CoinWeek, writing about the first clad quarters of 1965, puts it this way: "As struck, the top and bottom edges will appear grey, while the center will appear copper colored." The 90% silver quarters, dated 1964 and earlier, weighed 6.25 grams. If a 1966 quarter is far off 5.67 grams, has a smooth edge, or looks clearly different in size or color from the rest of your change, have it weighed again and looked at by a dealer or a grading service in person; a photo will not settle it. Do not clean it in the meantime, because cleaning lowers the price. The 1967 quarter page covers the last year of the ban.

1966 quarter value: what each condition is worth

The prices below are guide prices from PCGS and NGC. Only the first row covers a spent coin. Worn grades run from Good up to VF and XF (very fine and extremely fine: worn, but with clear detail); every other row is a coin that was never used. A plus, as in MS67+, marks a coin at the top of its grade.

Guide prices are what a dealer would ask, not what a dealer will pay you. NGC's $0.30 for a worn coin is a retail price over a counter; in your change a worn 1966 quarter still spends as 25 cents. The last column is the number of coins PCGS has graded in that condition (its population report).

Real money starts at MS67. The sales on record are the top two grades plus the one priced doubled die:

Heritage hides its prices from signed-out visitors, so every Heritage figure here is the one PCGS CoinFacts reports. Coin World's Steve Roach (27 December 2023) confirms the top two and that they are one coin: the Stack's Bowers piece, he writes, "when offered at Heritage in May 2023, sold for $21,000." That coin is the only 1966 quarter PCGS has graded MS68+. Heritage's own description of it opens: "Nothing about the 1966 Washington quarter is rare ... except the MS68 grade." We found no sale of a 1966 mint error in the auction records we read.

The one catalogued 1966 variety: the doubled die reverse, FS-801

A die is the steel stamp that strikes the coin. A doubled die is one made with part of its design doubled, so every coin it struck carries the same doubling, and collectors catalogue those dies one by one. NGC's VarietyPlus list (its catalogue of recognized varieties), read on 20 October 2026, holds exactly one Washington quarter variety dated 1966: a doubled die on the reverse, the back of the coin. It is FS-801, its number in the Fivaz-Stanton variety catalogue (CONECA, a variety collectors' club, calls it DDR-001). NGC's description in full: "Extremely strong doubling is seen on UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM and QUARTER DOLLAR."

Few have been graded. PCGS has graded six: two VF30, one VF35 and three XF45, all worn, none in mint state. PCGS's own page for the variety lists $920 for a PCGS XF45 at Heritage on 18 April 2012 (auction 1169, lot 9676). The sale was part of Heritage's auction of 18 to 22 April 2012, and Heritage hides the price from anyone not signed in, so the $920 is PCGS's figure and nobody else prints it. A second one went through Heritage on 24 April 2018 (auction 131817, lot 27359) with no published price; it was labelled PCGS Genuine, the label for a real coin with a problem (here a scratch) that keeps it from a number grade.

If the lettering on yours looks doubled, a PCGS or NGC grading label naming FS-801 is what proves it is this variety. Lettering can also look doubled through damage, and how to tell an error from damage shows the difference.

1966 SMS quarter (Special Mint Set)

There were no proof sets for 1965 through 1967. Proofs are mirror-finished coins struck for collectors, and NGC's explanation is that dropping them let the Mint put more of its resources into coins for circulation. In their place the Mint sold Special Mint Sets, made at the San Francisco Assay Office: a cent, a nickel, a dime, a quarter and a half dollar, 91 cents of face value in all. The Mint's 1968 release is careful about what they were: "Although these sets are better in quality than any of the regular uncirculated coin sets previously packaged by the Mint, they are not of proof quality." Like every other 1966 coin, the set quarter has no mint mark. NGC counts 2,261,583 of them and PCGS says 2,200,000; neither cites the Mint, so call it a little over two million.

Wikipedia says the set coins "were struck with a satin-like finish", and PCGS, writing about the 1967 coins of the same series, warns that "to the untrained eye, SMS coins can be mistaken for business strikes" (a business strike is the everyday coin). If a 1966 quarter came to you loose, the grading services settle it: PCGS labels a set coin SP, for specimen (a coin made with extra care for collectors), with SMS on the label, and NGC writes SMS in the description.

PCGS CoinFacts, read 20 October 2026. Nothing has been graded above SP68. The highest price PCGS records for the coin is $450 for an SP68 on 6 September 2022, and PCGS lists that as an eBay sale. The other SP68 sales it lists, at Heritage, GreatCollections and David Lawrence between 2005 and 2020, run from $51 to $150. NGC prices coins it designates Cameo (a frosted design standing out against the flat, mirror-like background) much higher: $600 in MS68 Cameo (guide last updated 2 October 2019) and $2,400 in MS67 Ultra Cameo, its strongest form of that contrast (last updated 31 October 2014). Both are retail guide figures.

What Buck can and cannot tell you

We make Buck, so read the next part with that in mind. Photograph the front and then the back, one coin per shot, and it will tell you the coin is a Washington quarter and show an estimate for that type, a range where the price guide has one and never an offer to buy. It holds no figure for one particular year, so the 1966 numbers on this page are not in it, and it cannot grade a coin from a picture, which is the one thing that separates 25 cents from thousands of dollars here (what it costs).

What this page is based on: the Coinage Act of 1965 (Government Publishing Office), the U.S. Mint's 1968 press release, Mint Marks page and fiscal 1966 annual report, PCGS CoinFacts, NGC Coin Explorer and VarietyPlus, Heritage Auctions lot pages, Coin World, CoinWeek and Wikipedia, all read 20 October 2026 unless a date in the sources says otherwise.