Bicentennial Quarter Worth is an independent reference focused on the 1776-1976 Bicentennial quarter — written for owners trying to determine what their coin is actually worth, sourced from PCGS, NGC, Greysheet, and recent realized auction prices, not viral video claims.
Who We Are
This reference started after one of us spent an afternoon trying to verify whether a relative's uncirculated Bicentennial quarter was genuinely worth the figures being thrown around in social media videos. Every site either parroted an inflated number without a source or buried the real answer under affiliate links and speculation. We decided to build something narrower and more careful: a single reference that focuses on the 1776-1976 Bicentennial quarter specifically and checks every value against primary sources before publishing it. The Drummer Boy reverse — designed by Jack L. Ahr — is one of the most recognizable coin designs in American history, which also makes it one of the most frequently misrepresented. Our editorial perspective for this reference is balance: we cover both what a typical circulated Bicentennial quarter is realistically worth to a dealer today and what a certified top-pop example has achieved at major auction. We do not flatten the answer in either direction.
Methodology
Values published on this site are drawn from four primary sources: the PCGS Price Guide, the NGC Price Guide, Greysheet and CDN wholesale bid sheets, and recent realized prices at Heritage Auctions, Stack's Bowers, and GreatCollections. For each grade band we check, we pull figures from all four sources and flag any disagreement before settling on a published range. For Bicentennial quarter research specifically, we also consult PCGS CoinFacts for population report data, mintage figures from the US Mint's official records, and auction lot archives for the 40% silver clad issues (the S-mint proof and uncirculated silver sets) separately from the standard copper-nickel clad circulation strikes. When sources disagree, we report the range rather than picking one number and presenting it as settled. When an auction record appears more than 18 months old or was achieved by a single anomalous sale, we note that clearly. We re-check values after every major Heritage Signature sale that includes a Bicentennial quarter lot, and we conduct a broader quarterly review each time Greysheet revises its bid sheets for modern clad coinage.
Our Standards
Our standard for this reference is that every published value for a Bicentennial quarter is traceable to at least one named primary source, and any top-end figure is tied to a specific auction result rather than an estimate. The Bicentennial quarter is ground zero for viral coin misinformation: videos claiming circulated examples are worth hundreds or thousands of dollars surface constantly, and they are almost never grounded in any auction archive or dealer wholesale sheet. We do not repeat those figures. We also frame the retail-to-wholesale gap honestly — a coin a PCGS or NGC price guide lists at a given retail figure will typically net 60 to 75 percent of that in a dealer transaction, and we say so plainly wherever it is relevant. For any Bicentennial quarter value above roughly $200, condition and third-party certification matter significantly, and we explain exactly why: a difference of one grade point in MS-65 versus MS-66 can shift the PCGS population from common to conditionally rare, which is where genuine premiums appear. We cover both the practical owner question and the ceiling cases, with equal care for each.
Disclosure
We do not buy, sell, or appraise coins — this site is a reference, not a dealer, and nothing published here constitutes an offer or a professional appraisal; we do not accept paid placement for coin valuations or auction-house promotion, and no value band on this site reflects a commercial relationship with any buyer or seller; we do not flatten the realistic value range for circulated Bicentennial quarters upward to suggest that ordinary pocket-change examples are routinely worth meaningful premiums — the honest answer for most circulated 1976 quarters is face value, and we say that plainly; we do not certify coins, which is the role of PCGS, NGC, or CACG, and we do not speculate on what a coin might grade before it has been submitted to a third-party grading service.
Contact
If you have spotted a value that appears outdated, a realized price we have missed, or an auction result that contradicts something published here, the team wants to know. Use the contact form on the site to send us the details. Recent auction comps with lot numbers are especially useful and will be reviewed for inclusion in the next update cycle.