Semiquincentennial 2026 coins: the new quarters, dime, half, and dollar, and are any worth more than face?

The 2026 coins people are pulling from change are a one-year set for the 250th anniversary. The quarters, the dime, and the half dollar are the ones the Mint put into commerce. The dollar is a Mint roll-and-bag coin with a circulating finish. A video that prices the whole group in the thousands is talking about a different object than the one in a cash drawer. This note stays with the Mint, Treasury, and the statute. It does not price your change.

The series pages are the charts. The five quarters are the Semiquincentennial quarters. The dime is the Semiquincentennial dime. The half is the Enduring Liberty half. The dollar is the 2026 dollar. The rest of the catalog is the series index.

What Congress allowed, and what the Mint shipped

Public Law 116-330, the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, was signed on January 13, 2021. 31 U.S.C. § 5112(y) lets the Secretary change designs on coins minted for the one-year period beginning January 1, 2026. It allows up to five quarter designs that year, and it allows a 2026 dollar emblematic of the semiquincentennial, in addition to the dollar programs already on the books. Beginning in 2027, a coin redesigned under that subsection goes back to the design it had before, except the quarter and the half dollar, which move to the sports designs in subsection (z).

The same section says the coins are legal tender. It also bars a portrait of a living person on the reverse of a coin issued under subsection (y). The restriction is the reverse. It is not a sentence about the obverse.

On January 14, 2026, the Mint said it had begun shipping the new circulating coins on January 5. That first shipment was the dime, the half dollar, and the first of the five quarters.

The Emerging Liberty dime shows Liberty facing the British monarchy, with a liberty cap in stars and stripes. The reverse is an eagle in flight carrying arrows. The reverse inscription is LIBERTY OVER TYRANNY. The dual date is 1776 ~ 2026. It is not a Roosevelt dime.

The Enduring Liberty half is a close view of the Statue of Liberty. The reverse is Liberty passing the torch. The reverse carries James Madison’s line, KNOWLEDGE IS THE ONLY GUARDIAN OF TRUE LIBERTY. The Mint’s later West Point presentation says the ordinary half, the one without a privy, entered circulation at the beginning of 2026 and is struck at Denver and Philadelphia. It is not a Kennedy half.

The Mayflower Compact quarter was the first of the five. Two Pilgrims are on the obverse. The Mayflower, under full sail, is on the reverse, with the words MAYFLOWER COMPACT.

CoinNews reported that the Revolutionary War quarter entered circulation on March 23, 2026. The Mint’s description, repeated on the 2026 Silver Proof Set page, puts George Washington on the obverse and a Continental soldier at Valley Forge on the reverse.

The Mint’s May 25, 2026 release says Declaration of Independence quarters would start moving to the Federal Reserve on June 1. Thomas Jefferson is on the obverse. The reverse is the Liberty Bell, crack visible, with THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

CoinNews reported that the Constitution quarter started toward Federal Reserve Banks on August 10, 2026. The Mint’s proof-set page shows James Madison on the obverse and Independence Hall on the reverse, with WE THE PEOPLE.

The Gettysburg Address quarter is the fifth design, and it is still ahead of this page. The Mint’s proof-set description puts Abraham Lincoln on the obverse and two hands grasping, with A NEW NATION CONCEIVED IN LIBERTY, on the reverse. On October 8, 2026, Gettysburg National Military Park set a public ceremony for October 21, 2026, at 11 a.m., with the Mint and the Gettysburg Foundation. This note is dated October 9. A Gettysburg quarter is not yet the coin in today’s change. The park’s notice is a ceremony and a local exchange. It is not a promise that every bank has the design that morning.

Read the reverse before you read the date. Five backs do not look alike. A ship, a soldier in the snow, a bell, a building, and two hands are five coins. The quarter page keeps them as one program.

The nickel is a separate 2026 update. The Mint’s program page lists it with the dime, quarters, and half. This note does not chart it. The cent is a different story again. Circulating cent production has stopped, which the penny note covers. The Mint’s silver-proof page says numismatic cents continue in annual sets.

The privy is a mark, not the dual date

A privy mark is a small extra device. The dual date 1776 ~ 2026 is the date the program uses. Section 5112 encourages a unifying inscription, privy, or symbol. It does not put that mark on every coin.

Three marks are the ones the Mint and Treasury have actually described.

On June 23, 2026, the Mint said it would produce 250,000 Declaration of Independence quarters with a July 4th privy and no mint mark. They were to be mixed at random with other Declaration quarters and sent to banks in time for the Fourth of July. The ordinary Declaration quarter still carries a P or a D. The privy piece is the one with the mark and no letter. A Declaration quarter that simply has a mint mark is the regular issue.

The dollar’s July 4th privy is a different pile of metal. CoinNews, on the September 2, 2026 sale, says the Mint struck 250,000 of the dollars at Philadelphia on Independence Day with a JULY 4th privy and no mint mark, and mixed those into the rolls and bags. The ordinary dollar in those same products also has no mint mark. On that coin you have to see the privy. A missing letter does not identify it, because the whole issue has no letter.

The half dollar has two 9/11 marks, and they are not pocket change of the same kind.

On August 21, 2026, the Mint presented 2,983 Enduring Liberty halves to the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum. The count matches the names from the September 11, 2001 attacks and the February 26, 1993 bombing. The privy is 9-11-01 inside ALWAYS REMEMBER. The Mint says those coins were struck at West Point. CoinNews reports the W mint mark. The Mint’s release does not offer them for sale.

On September 10, 2026, Treasury announced a separate special-issue half whose privy is the date of the attacks encircled by NEVER FORGET, offered as a pre-sale on the Mint’s site. That is the public product. It is not the museum set of 2,983.

A Liberty Bell privy with the numeral 250 shows up on other 2026 products. The Mint’s program page names it on the 2026 American Innovation dollars. That mark is not the July 4th privy, and it is not the ordinary semiquincentennial quarter.

Circulation, proof, and silver are three different things

Section 5112(b) makes the half dollar, quarter, and dime clad coins. Two outer layers are 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel. The inner layer is copper. The weights in subsection (a) are 2.268 grams for the dime, 5.67 grams for the quarter, and 11.34 grams for the half dollar. The Mint’s quarter page says Denver and Philadelphia make the circulating and uncirculated quarters, and San Francisco makes the proofs. Hold a circulating piece on edge. The copper core is the brown line in the reeding. That line is the clad coin the statute describes.

The 2026 Silver Proof Set uses the same anniversary designs and a different planchet. Each coin has an S. The Mint says the half dollar, the five quarters, and the dime in that set are 99.9 percent fine silver, at 0.399, 0.199, and 0.079 troy ounces. A proof in a Mint lens is a proof. The glossary is where the grade words live. Do not call a coin from a register a proof because the fields look bright.

CoinNews reported on July 7, 2026, that the Mint also struck 250 oversized Declaration pieces at Philadelphia, 2.5 ounces each, .999 fine silver, with a July 4th privy, no mint mark, and plain edges numbered 1 through 250, for a later auction. Section 5112(u) is the authority for silver bullion that borrows the quarter and half designs. A coin that size is not a quarter you were handed at a store. If the piece in your hand is the normal diameter, it is the clad quarter, privy or not.

The dollar is base metal with a gold color. The Mint’s August 4, 2026 design release credits Chief Engraver Joseph Menna for the obverse, from a White House photograph by Daniel Torok, and former Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro for the Presidential Seal on the reverse, with 250 in the shield. CoinNews gives the September 2 product as Philadelphia only, plain edge, no mint mark, 8.100 grams, 26.49 millimeters, and 6 percent zinc, 3.5 percent manganese, 2 percent nickel, balance copper. The same account says the coins have a circulating finish and have never been placed into circulation, and that they remain legal tender. CoinNews also notes a planned 24-karat one-ounce gold proof with no release date or specifications on that page. The roll coin is not that gold piece. The dollar page keeps them apart.

This note does not print an annual mintage. The year is not closed, Gettysburg has not had its ceremony, and a production cell from the summer is not a finished total. The series charts stay empty for that reason.

Face value, unless the coin is actually something else

A 2026 dime, quarter, or half from change spends at face value. The Mint shipped those designs to the banking system so they would be used. A new picture on a clad planchet does not make a common coin scarce. The July 4th quarter is the narrow hunt the Mint described: 250,000 pieces, no mint mark, mixed into a design that was already being sent out for commerce. That count is a special issue. It is not a reason to price every Declaration quarter, and this page will not invent a premium for the privy piece either.

The same rule fits the dollar. Legal tender at one dollar is the number in the statute. A Mint product price is what the Mint charged for a roll or a bag. It is not a grade, and it is not what a bank owes you for one coin. The 250,000 privy dollars sit inside those products. They are not a second denomination.

Genuine errors and high-grade pieces in grading holders are the leftover cases. This note does not list an error, and it does not type a price from memory. If a seller needs a number for the silver proof, or for any other silver, the calculator reads a spot price. It is not an offer. It does not apply to the clad coin, and it does not apply to the manganese-brass dollar.

If you want someone to look

Name the coin before you carry it in. Which reverse, whether there is a mint mark, whether there is a privy you can see, and whether the piece is loose, in a Mint roll, or in a proof lens. The public shop list is the coin dealer directory, including Ohio. If you would rather walk it past a room of tables, the public list is coin shows.

This is general information, not legal or financial advice.

People Also Ask

What are the five 2026 semiquincentennial quarters?

Mayflower Compact, Revolutionary War, Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address. Each is a one-year design with the dual date 1776 ~ 2026. The Mint began shipping Mayflower on January 5, 2026, with the new dime and half dollar. Revolutionary War followed on March 23. Declaration shipping to the Federal Reserve began June 1. CoinNews reported Constitution shipping on August 10. Gettysburg’s public release ceremony is October 21, 2026, at Gettysburg National Military Park.

Are 2026 quarters worth more than face value?

A circulating 2026 quarter is a quarter. The design is new. The planchet is the ordinary clad quarter in 31 U.S.C. § 5112. A story that every one is worth thousands does not describe the coins the Mint shipped to banks. The exception the Mint has named is narrower. On June 23, 2026, it said it would strike 250,000 Declaration of Independence quarters with a July 4th privy mark and no mint mark, and mix them into circulation. This page does not print a price for that privy, or for an error, or for a high-grade holder.

Which 2026 coins have a privy mark?

An ordinary 2026 dime, quarter, or half does not get a privy just because the date is 1776 ~ 2026. That dual date is the inscription. The Mint has named three special marks. A July 4th privy, with no mint mark, is on 250,000 Declaration quarters mixed into circulation, and on 250,000 dollars mixed into the Mint’s rolls and bags. A 9-11-01 privy reading ALWAYS REMEMBER is on 2,983 West Point halves the Mint gave the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum. A separate half, announced by Treasury on September 10, 2026, uses NEVER FORGET around the same date and was offered on the Mint’s site.

Is a 2026 dime or half dollar silver?

The one from change is not. Section 5112 makes the circulating half dollar, quarter, and dime clad coins, with copper-nickel outer layers and a copper core. The 2026 Silver Proof Set is a different object. The Mint’s product page says the half dollar, quarters, and dime in that San Francisco proof set are 99.9 percent silver. Use the calculator for a metal figure on the silver piece. That figure is not a bid, and it does not belong on the clad coin.

Is the 2026 dollar gold, and is it in pocket change?

No to the gold. CoinNews, reporting the Mint’s September 2, 2026 sale, gives the roll coin as 6 percent zinc, 3.5 percent manganese, 2 percent nickel, and the balance copper, with a plain edge and no mint mark. The same report says those Philadelphia coins have a circulating finish and have never been placed into circulation, and that they remain legal tender. A golden color is the alloy. A separate 24-karat gold proof has been discussed. It is not this dollar.