The U.S. Mint also produced a series of bicentennial quarters to commemorate the event — and many of those now command great sums of money as the country approaches its 250th birthday.
The Mint produced the bicentennial coins between 1975 and 1976 as a special edition. They were notable for being the first U.S. quarters in more than 50 years to feature a special reverse design.
The most valuable of those coins — a 1976-S Bicentennial Silver Quarter that came in with a very high grade — sold for $19,200 at auction a few years ago,
according to the Chronicle Collectibles website. But that’s not the only bicentennial quarter that fetches a big price. Plenty of others have as well.
Most of these coins were “clad,” meaning they were made of multiple metals such as nickel, copper and zinc that are layered together like a sandwich, according to the U.S. Mint.
But as Chronicle Collectibles noted, some of the bicentennial quarters were composed of 40% silver — an important distinction because the silver coins are rarer
The bicentennial quarters were minted at three different locations in different mintages: Philadelphia (809,784,016 coins), Denver (860,118,839 coins), and San Francisco