The 2004 State Quarter That Could Be Worth A Ton Of Money

With all payments increasingly moving toward digital, it's easy to forget that approximately 25 years ago, the United States Mint embarked on a very special project to commemorate each state of the union with its own themed quarter. Per the US Mint, "Launched in 1999, the 50 State Quarters Program was a 10-year initiative that honored each of the 50 states. The U.S. Mint issued five new quarters each year in the order that the states ratified the Constitution or were admitted into the Union."

In reality, the mint wound up producing 56 designs altogether. The extra six designs that were added in 2009 commemorated U.S. territories like the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. More than 34 billion of the state quarters were produced in total, so it's quite likely that you might have at least one in your change jar or lurking between your couch cushions. 

In most cases, stumbling across a state quarter isn't exactly cause for celebration. While neat, most circulated state quarters are only worth their face value of 25 cents. That said, some examples with subtle quirks and noticeable errors can be worth big bucks, including one from Wisconsin.

In 2004, it was "The Badger State's" turn to get its commemorative quarter. Of course, the coin's design highlighted the state's rich dairy-producing heritage with both a cow and a wheel of cheese prominently featured. What you might not know is that, besides dairy, Wisconsin claims about 15,000 corn farmers. Fittingly, its state quarter also features an ear of corn alongside the cow and cheese. It's within this ear of corn where the potential error lies that could make your Wisconsin state quarter worth $30 — or possibly much more. 

Indeed, some ears of corn have an extra leaf added. At first, this extra leaf was thought to be an unintentional flaw, such as a tiny scrap of metal trapped during the stamping process. However, another theory that's accepted by many numismatists (coin collectors) is that the extra leaf flourish was added intentionally to certain coins by a worker at the Denver Mint in Colorado. That's where the coins were produced. 

Two variations of the extra leaf exist: a high extra leaf and a low extra leaf. To be specific, we're speaking of the area to the left of the corn ear, above the wheel of cheese. A small extra leaf in this area pointing upward is obviously considered the high extra leaf. Meanwhile, a small drooping leaf that sags to touch the wheel of cheese is the low extra leaf. In the featured image above, there is no extra leaf.

Unlike the infamously rare 1976 "quarter" than was stamped on a dime, the extra leaf Wisconsin quarters are valuable coins that you actually could have lying around. Now that we've established what to look for, let's discuss price. According to the site coinauctionshelp, an extra low-leaf Wisconsin quarter is worth about $55 in mint condition, while its high-leaf cousin is worth $100 in mint condition. To be clear, mint condition can be a coin which has been circulated, but with minimal signs of use.

Another collecting site, The Spruce Crafts, values circulated extra leaf Wisconsin quarters at between $30 and $50 each. Meanwhile, uncirculated (unused) examples can fetch $100 to $130, per that site. However, in reality, auction values have exceeded the valuation estimates provided here. For example, in the heat of bidding during a 2021 GreatCollections auction, a highly-graded (MS67) extra high leaf specimen sold for $551.

In 2023, an MS67-graded low extra leaf counterpart, raked in $410 for the coin's lucky owner at another GreatCollections auction. If one truly wants to get aspirational, one extra leaf low Wisconsin quarter sold for a whopping $6,000 in a 2020 Heritage Auctions sale, although that price is certainly an outlier. Supposedly, as many as 50,000 of the Wisconsin quarters have the extra leaf flaw in some form, making this an attainable find. And to think we may never know whether the quirk was indeed a tooling accident or a mischievous prank by a mint employee.