This 1806 Quarter Has 10 Hidden Varieties and One “Good-4” Sold for $7,200
At first glance, the 1806 Draped Bust Quarter looks like a simple piece of early American silver.
Look closer.
Behind Robert Scot’s portrait of Liberty sits a story about a denomination Americans barely wanted, a dramatic redesign of the national eagle, an overdate created from an old 1805 die, and 10 different die marriages that collectors still hunt today.
There is even an 1806 quarter so rare that a worn example graded only Good-4 brought $7,200 at auction in March 2026.
Yet the regular 1806 quarter remains one of the most practical ways to own a major early United States silver type. That combination makes the date especially appealing. It offers history, rarity, varieties, and genuine accessibility within a series where the great rarities can cost six or seven figures.
The illustrated CACG AU58 coin captures that appeal especially well. It sits just below Mint State while preserving much of the detail, character, and visual impact that make this early quarter so impressive.
When America Barely Needed a Quarter
Congress authorized the quarter dollar in the Coinage Act of 1792. However, the Philadelphia Mint did not strike the denomination until 1796.
Even then, demand remained weak.
During this period, private depositors supplied much of the silver that the Mint converted into coins. Those depositors generally preferred half dollars and silver dollars. Meanwhile, Spanish colonial 2 reales pieces already filled much of the commercial role that a federal quarter might otherwise have served.
As a result, early quarter production became remarkably erratic.
The Mint struck just 6,146 quarters dated 1796. Then no new quarter date appeared from 1797 through 1803. Production finally returned in 1804.
That return also introduced a dramatically different reverse.
The Mint produced only 6,738 quarters in 1804. Production jumped to 121,394 in 1805 and then surged to 206,124 pieces in 1806. Only the final Draped Bust issue of 1807 exceeded that figure, with 220,643 coins.
Therefore, the often-repeated claim that 1806 had the largest mintage of the series is incorrect. It had the second largest.
Still, those 206,124 coins made 1806 unusually plentiful by early-quarter standards.
Then the denomination disappeared again.
After the 1807 issue, the Mint struck no more quarters until 1815. When production returned, the new coins carried the Capped Bust design.
The Eagle Changed Everything
The difference between the 1796 quarter and the 1806 quarter goes far beyond the date.
The 1796 quarter carries what collectors call the Small Eagle reverse. A relatively naturalistic eagle faces right while perched on clouds. Branches form a wreath around it. Significantly, the reverse carries no numerical denomination.
When quarter production returned in 1804, the Mint abandoned that design.
Instead, Chief Engraver Robert Scot used the far more imposing Heraldic Eagle, also commonly called the Large Eagle reverse.
This eagle drew heavily from the Great Seal of the United States. A shield covers its breast. The eagle holds arrows and an olive branch. A ribbon carries the motto E PLURIBUS UNUM. Stars and clouds appear above, while 25 C. finally identifies the denomination below.
The distinction matters.
“Large Eagle” does not simply describe a bigger bird. It represents a completely different approach to American national symbolism. The modest eagle of 1796 gave way to a formal heraldic emblem of the young republic.
Consequently, the 1796 Small Eagle quarter stands as a one-year type. The 1804-1807 coins form the second and final Draped Bust quarter type.
What Does a Browning Number Mean?
Collectors who study early quarters quickly encounter designations such as B-1, B-3, B-8, and B-10.
The “B” refers to Ard W. Browning, whose landmark 1925 book The Early Quarter Dollars of the United States created the attribution system that collectors still use today.
A Browning number identifies a particular die marriage. In other words, it identifies the specific combination of an obverse die and a reverse die that produced a coin.
It does not describe the grade. It does not indicate a mintmark. It also does not automatically tell collectors how rare a coin is.
Instead, specialists compare such details as the positions of numbers, letters, stars, arrows, leaves, berries, and the denomination. Die cracks, repunching, and other tiny characteristics can provide additional clues.
PCGS still defines a “B number” as the Browning designation for a particular early-quarter die marriage.
Today, specialists recognize 10 die marriages for quarters dated 1806: B-1 through B-10.
However, there is a fascinating twist.
Browning’s original work described only nine. The B-10 pairing came to light while Browning’s book was already at the printer, so it never appeared in the original edition. Walter Breen later identified another B-10 specimen in the 1958 ANA auction.
That makes the Browning system more than a catalog. It also records the continuing process of discovery within early American coinage.
The 1806/5 Quarter: An Old Die Gets Another Life
Browning-1 provides perhaps the most obvious variety.
It is the famous 1806/5 overdate.
Mint workers took an obverse die originally dated 1805 and punched a 6 over the final 5. In fact, Browning identified both the obverse and reverse as dies previously used for the 1805 B-4 quarter.
The underlying 5 remains visible beneath the 6.
More importantly, the 1806/5 represents the only overdate in the Draped Bust quarter series. PCGS notes that collectors can usually see the overdate without magnification, even on circulated examples.
The finest PCGS-certified example carries an MS66 grade.
That coin passed through the T. James Clarke and Knoxville collections before entering the D. Brent Pogue Collection. Stack’s Bowers and Sotheby’s sold it for $188,000 on May 19, 2015.
Heritage also sold the famous Eric P. Newman-Oliver Jung PCGS MS65+ example for $176,250 in August 2014.
Those results show how dramatically condition can change the market for an otherwise collectible early quarter.
The B-8: When a Good-4 Becomes a Major Rarity
Then there is Browning-8.
For serious 1806 variety collectors, B-8 changes the entire equation.
Stack’s Bowers calls it by far the rarest of the 10 known 1806 die pairings. Collectors can identify its distinctive reverse partly through a misplaced or repunched element at the lower-left portion of the C in 25 C. The olive branch stem also touches the C.
The 2010 Early Quarter Dollars of the United States Mint reference recorded just 11 examples known to its authors at that time. That figure should not serve as a fixed current population, since additional examples can surface. However, it demonstrates the variety’s extraordinary rarity.
Auction results make the point even more clearly.
In March 2026, Stack’s Bowers sold an 1806 B-8 graded just PCGS Good-4 CAC for $7,200.
That coin had seen heavy circulation. Yet collectors cared deeply about the dies that struck it.
That is the magic of early American variety collecting. Sometimes the tiny position of one letter matters more than 20 or 30 grading points.
How Rare Is the Regular 1806 Quarter Today?
A mintage above 200,000 may sound substantial for an early United States coin.
Survival tells a different story.
PCGS currently estimates that roughly 4,750 regular 1806 quarters survive in all grades. It estimates only about 55 in MS60 or finer and just two in MS65 or better.
Moreover, early Mint technology created its own challenges.
The Mint struck these quarters in an open collar. Therefore, rims often developed unevenly. The Mint’s early 19th-century striking quality also varied significantly. Central weakness appears frequently on Heraldic Eagle quarters, and fully struck examples can prove difficult to locate.
That makes originality, strike, surfaces, and eye appeal especially important.
Among the regular-date coins, the major auction benchmark remains a Browning-9 PCGS MS65 CAC from the celebrated Louis E. Eliasberg and Jim O’Neal pedigrees.
Heritage sold that coin for $102,000 on January 4, 2018. At the time, Heritage described it as tied with two other PCGS MS65 coins at the top of the regular 1806 population.
GreatCollections later sold a PCGS MS65 CAC 1806 quarter for $81,562.50 in December 2023.
Those figures illustrate the enormous jump between a collectible high-grade example and the tiny number of surviving Gems.
Why AU58 Can Be the Collector Sweet Spot
That scarcity helps explain the appeal of the illustrated CACG AU58 example.
AU58 often occupies an attractive position for collectors of early federal silver. A strong coin can retain substantial mint luster and nearly complete design detail. At the same time, light circulation places it below the costly Mint State tiers.
The difference can become dramatic.
For example, Stack’s Bowers sold an 1806 B-3 graded PCGS AU58 for $9,000 in June 2025. The auction house noted its frosty surfaces, unusually strong strike, and pleasing overall appearance.
That result does not establish a value for every AU58. Browning variety, strike, surfaces, originality, certification, color, and eye appeal all matter.
Still, it demonstrates why an attractive AU58 can make such a compelling collector coin.
It looks and feels remarkably close to an uncirculated early quarter without entering the rarefied market occupied by the finest Gems.
1806 Draped Bust Quarter Specifications
- Denomination: Quarter Dollar – 25 Cents
- Year: 1806
- Mint: Philadelphia
- Mintmark: None
- Mintage: 206,124
- Designer/Engraver: Robert Scot
- Composition: 89.24% silver, 10.76% copper
- Weight: 6.74 grams
- Diameter: 27.5 mm
- Actual Silver Weight: Approximately 0.1934 troy ounce
- Edge: Reeded
- Reverse Type: Heraldic Eagle / Large Eagle
- Strike: Business Strike
- Known Browning Die Marriages: 10, B-1 through B-10
An Early Quarter With More Than One Story
The 1806 Draped Bust Quarter succeeds on several levels.
A collector who wants a single Heraldic Eagle quarter can pursue it as a type coin. A specialist can hunt the 10 Browning die marriages. An overdate collector can chase the 1806/5 B-1. Meanwhile, the exceptionally rare B-8 can challenge even an advanced early-quarter specialist.
Most importantly, the coin comes from a moment when the United States still struggled to establish its own circulating money.
Spanish silver remained familiar. Depositors dictated much of the Mint’s workload. Quarter production came and went. Dies remained valuable enough to reuse, modify, crack, clash, and sometimes work nearly to destruction.
The 1806 quarter carries that history directly on its surfaces.
More than 206,000 entered production. PCGS estimates only about 4,750 regular-date pieces survive today. Among them, every remaining coin represents an artifact from an American monetary system that was still finding its footing.
That makes a sharp AU58 more than a substitute for a six-figure Gem.
For many collectors, it may represent exactly what an early American coin should be: historic, lightly circulated, visually impressive, and close enough to Mint State to show Robert Scot’s design as Americans saw it more than two centuries ago.
