1820 Small 0

The 1820 Small 0 quarter completes the year's three-variety set and gives Capped Bust collectors one of the most rewarding identification puzzles in the series. The full 1820 mintage was 127,444 quarters, split unevenly across Large, Medium, and Small 0 obverse dies, with the Small 0 historically considered the scarcest of the three in higher grades. The variety came about because Philadelphia engravers, working in a year when fewer than 130,000 quarters were planned, punched dates digit by digit and reached for whatever 0 punch was on the bench. The result is a date where the two final zeros are visibly smaller than the leading 1 and 2, sometimes mistaken for filled or worn digits but in fact deliberate.

The coin retains every Type 1 specification: 27 millimeters in diameter, 6.74 grams in weight, 89.24 percent silver and 10.76 percent copper, reeded edge. The Small 0 diagnostic is clearest at high magnification. The two zeros sit perceptibly shorter than the 2 immediately to their left, with narrower interior openings and thinner walls. The lower curve of each zero pulls back from the denticle line, leaving a noticeable gap that the Large 0 punch closes. Browning attributions associated with the Small 0 obverse give variety specialists a path to confirm strikes by checking the reverse leaf and arrow positions. Authentication still rests on a 6.74-gram weight, original surface character free of tooling, and crisp lettering across LIBERTY and the reverse legend.

PCGS and NGC populations for the Small 0 are reliably the smallest among the 1820 trio, particularly in EF and AU grades. Heritage Auctions has cataloged numerous Small 0 appearances in long-form variety sets, and Stack's Bowers handles the variety regularly. Background on punch usage and design history sits in the Capped Bust Quarter series history.