1966 Quarter Value: Clad, No Mint Mark, SMS and Top Grades

A circulated 1966 quarter is worth 25 cents as of October 2026. It is copper-nickel clad with no silver, and the Mint struck 821,101,500 of them, none with a mint mark. The money is at the very top: a gem MS65 sells for roughly $15-50, MS67 coins bring hundreds, and the single finest known, a PCGS MS68+, sold for $21,000 at Heritage in May 2023 and $20,400 at Stack's Bowers that November.

The missing mint mark is not an error. The Mint left mint marks off every quarter dated 1965, 1966 and 1967, and the 1966 is also not a silver coin, so there is no transitional silver blank story here the way there is with 1965. If you want to know whether a 1966 in your hand is the rare one, the test is a scale and a loupe, not the date alone.

Quick answer

• Circulated 1966 quarter: 25 cents. Clad, no silver, no mint mark on any of them.
• Uncirculated: roughly $3-8 in MS60, $15-50 in MS65, hundreds in MS67+.
• Record: the finest known PCGS MS68+ sold for $21,000 (Heritage, May 2023) and $20,400 (Stack's Bowers, November 2023).
• Doubled die reverse (FS-801): Greysheet's retail guide range tops out around $275 in mint state.
• Special Mint Set quarters: about $10-20 in typical grades, more with cameo contrast.
• Silver 1966 quarter: none are documented. Weigh anything unusual (clad is 5.67 g).

How do I check a 1966 quarter, step by step?

Confirm the date, the missing mint mark, the edge and the weight, then look for doubling and judge the wear. That takes about two minutes and answers almost every question.

1. Read the date. On Washington quarters of this era the date sits at the bottom of the obverse, below the bust. Make sure the last digit is a 6 and has not been altered from a 4 or a 5.
2. Look for a mint mark and expect none. For 1965 to 1967 the Mint struck every quarter without one, whichever mint made it, to discourage hoarding during the coin shortage. Mint marks returned in 1968. A 1966 with no letter is normal and adds nothing.
3. Check the edge. A clad quarter shows a copper-colored stripe between two silver-gray layers when you look at the reeded edge. A solid silver-gray edge on a 1966 is a reason to weigh it, but dirt and toning can hide the stripe.
4. Weigh it. A clad quarter weighs 5.67 grams and a 90 percent silver quarter 6.25 grams. A kitchen scale reading to 0.1 gram is enough to tell them apart. Check the scale against a modern quarter first.
5. Look for doubling. With a 5x to 10x loupe, look at the reverse lettering and the eagle's feathers for a distinct second outline. Flat, shelf-like doubling is machine doubling and is worth nothing.
6. Judge wear. Look at Washington's cheek and the hair over his ear, and at the eagle's breast. Any flat spots or dull rub mean circulated, and a circulated 1966 is 25 cents.
7. Look at the finish. A frosty, satin look with sharp edges, especially if the coin came in a plastic holder from a family set, may be a Special Mint Set coin.

How much is a 1966 quarter worth?

A 1966 quarter in circulated condition is worth 25 cents, and uncirculated coins are worth a few dollars up to hundreds of dollars only at the top of the grading scale. The table combines dealer guide figures with public sale records. Sales in high grades are thin, so treat the ranges as guides.

According to Gainesville Coins, the 1966 quarter in MS60 runs about $3-8, MS65 about $15-50, and MS67+ about $500 and up, and the population is one coin at PCGS MS68+ and 23 at NGC MS68. Coin World reported that the PCGS MS68+, the sole finest known, sold for $21,000 at Heritage in May 2023 and for $20,400 at Stack's Bowers in November 2023. That gap between a $50 MS65 and a five-figure MS68+ is why this coin is a condition rarity and not a date rarity.

Greysheet lists the doubled die reverse as FS-801, a variety in the Fivaz-Stanton numbering, with a retail guide range that tops out around $275 in mint state. Gainesville Coins reports a $920 Heritage result for an XF45 in 2012, which we could not confirm in an auction archive and which sits well above the guide, so treat it as an outlier. Grade-by-grade figures sit behind a subscription.

Why are top-grade 1966 quarters worth so much more?

Because almost none survived without marks. A 1966 quarter is a clad issue of more than 800 million coins, bagged and moved by the truckload, and clad coins show every small scratch. Coins that spent decades in a drawer are more likely to be MS63-65 than MS67. Each step up from MS65 to MS66, MS67 and MS68 shrinks the population by a large factor, and the price climbs steeply at each step in the top grades. Two collectors competing for the last one or two coins in a registry set set the price, not the metal or the date.

A common mistake is to assume that a shiny quarter is a high-grade one. Grading looks at marks, strike and luster together. A coin can look bright and still carry enough small contact marks on the cheek to grade MS63. Our coin grading scale guide explains the difference between the 60s and the 67s.

Is there a 1966 quarter struck on silver?

We found no documented silver 1966 quarter. The silver transitional error belongs to 1965, when leftover 90 percent silver blanks from 1964 were occasionally fed into the presses with the new clad dies; see our 1965 quarter value guide for those prices. By 1966 the old blanks were gone and the Mint was striking only clad coins.

That does not mean you should ignore weight. A 1966 quarter that weighs 6.2 grams or more on a checked scale could be an altered older silver coin, a counterfeit or a scale error. If a weight reading looks unusual, check the scale with a nickel (5.00 g) and a modern quarter (5.67 g), then look at the edge. Anything that still looks wrong should go to a dealer and then to PCGS or NGC. We could not confirm any sale record, so we will not put a price on it.

What errors and varieties exist for the 1966 quarter?

The only generally recognized variety is the doubled die reverse, listed as FS-801. It is rare at auction. The other things people find are mint errors, and they are usually damage or ordinary quirks.

• Doubled die reverse (FS-801). A distinct second outline on reverse lettering. It is the one worth sending to a grading service if you see clear doubling.
• Off-center strikes. A coin struck partly off the planchet, with the design shifted. Value depends on how far off center and whether the date shows. Our error coins worth money guide covers how this is priced.
• Clipped planchets. Curved or straight missing pieces at the rim. They bring a modest premium and are common enough that the premium is small.
• Broadstrikes and die cracks. Struck outside the collar, or with a raised line from a cracked die. These are worth a dollar or two at most unless dramatic.
• Machine doubling. Flat, shelf-like doubling on the edges of letters. It is not a variety, and it is the most common false alarm in this series.

A worked example

Say you find a bright 1966 quarter in a dish of change and wonder if the shine means something.

You turn it to the light and see the copper stripe on the edge. You weigh it on a kitchen scale that reads to 0.1 gram: 5.7 grams, and the same scale reads 5.7 for a modern quarter you tried first. It is clad. You look at the cheek and hair with a loupe and see small flat spots, and at the bottom of the front there is no mint mark, which is normal. There is no doubling on the reverse lettering. It is a circulated 1966 quarter, worth 25 cents.

Had the coin looked untouched, with full luster and no marks even on the cheek, the next step would be a close photo and a visit to a dealer who can say whether it is likely to grade MS65 or above. Only then does paying for a grade make sense.

Common mistakes

• Thinking the missing mint mark is an error. None of the 1966 quarters have one.
• Judging silver by shine. Clad coins can be bright, gray or toned. Weight and edge decide.
• Using an uncalibrated scale. Check it with a 5.00 g nickel before believing a surprising weight.
• Cleaning the coin. Cleaning leaves tiny hairlines and wipes out the chance of a high grade. See should you clean old coins.
• Paying for grading on a worn coin. The grading fee costs more than the coin is worth.
• Mixing up 1966 and 1965. Only 1965 has the documented silver blank error.

How WorthPic reads 1966 quarter photos

WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. From a photo of a 1966 quarter it reads the date and design, notes the absence of a mint mark, looks at the edge for the copper stripe, checks the lettering for doubling you can see, and judges wear on the cheek, hair and eagle. It gives an honest value range with a most likely figure, which for most 1966 quarters is 25 cents. What it cannot know from a photo is the weight, the exact grade or whether the surface has been cleaned, so it will ask for a photo on a scale when that matters. It identifies and estimates, but it does not authenticate, grade or appraise.

What to photograph

• Both sides straight on, in even light, filling the frame.
• The edge, tilted toward a light so a copper stripe would show.
• The coin on a digital scale, with the grams reading in the same shot.
• The reverse lettering and eagle up close, for doubling.
• Washington's cheek and hair up close, to show wear or luster.

When should I get a 1966 quarter looked at in person?

Take it to a coin dealer if it looks completely uncirculated with no marks at all, if the reverse shows clear doubled lettering, or if the weight does not match 5.67 grams. A dealer can tell you whether it is likely to grade high enough for PCGS or NGC to be worth the fee; only a coin in a graded holder brings the top prices. For a worn 1966, no expert is needed. For other quarters to watch for, see what quarters are worth money, and for the year after, our 1967 quarter value guide. If you are not sure it is clad at all, our guide to telling if a coin is silver covers the checks.

Sources

• Coin World, market analysis of the MS-68+ 1966 quarter: the PCGS MS68+ as sole finest known, $21,000 at Heritage in May 2023 and $20,400 at Stack's Bowers in November 2023.
• Gainesville Coins, 1966 Washington Quarter Values: mintage of 821,101,500, grade ranges and population counts.
• Greysheet, 1966 Washington quarter values: retail guide ranges for the 1966 and the doubled die reverse, FS-801.
• Greysheet, 1966 Special Mint Set quarter: the 2,261,583 set mintage, retail values and sale records.
• Wikipedia, Washington quarter: clad quarters struck without mint marks in 1965 to 1967, regardless of mint.