1806 1806/5 Overdate

The only overdate in the entire Draped Bust quarter series lives on this coin. When the Philadelphia Mint pulled an obverse die left over from 1805, an engraver punched a fresh 6 directly into the existing 5 rather than discard a serviceable tool. The result is an "overdate," meaning a date numeral struck on top of an earlier one, and on a well-preserved 1806/5 the lower curve of the underdigit 5 (the original number still showing beneath the new one) is plainly visible at the lower left of the 6. Even worn examples often retain enough of the trace to permit attribution under modest magnification, which is one reason the variety has stayed popular with early-quarter specialists for well over a century.

Only one die marriage exists for the overdate, catalogued as Browning B-1 in the standard reference for early quarters (a "die marriage" is a specific pairing of obverse and reverse dies that produced a known group of coins). That single-marriage status simplifies authentication because every genuine 1806/5 must match the published B-1 plates for both sides, and tooled fakes produced by altering a regular 1806 typically fail at the date: raised metal in the wrong place, no curving line below the 6, or a "5" that sits where it could not physically have been punched. A genuine piece weighs 6.74 grams in .8924 fine silver and carries TPG attribution on the holder label as "1806/5" (TPG meaning third-party grader, primarily PCGS and NGC, the two major U.S. certification services that authenticate and grade coins). A raw coin offered as a regular 1806 with the overdate "thrown in" deserves immediate suspicion; the variety carries a substantial premium and a real example would virtually always travel in a slab.

PCGS estimates roughly 1,250 examples survive across all grades, but Mint State (MS, an uncirculated grade on the 70-point Sheldon scale) is another matter entirely. Only about two dozen pieces have made it to MS60 or finer, most clustered in the MS62 to MS64 range, and the condition census (the running list of finest-known specimens) is anchored at the top by the T. James Clarke / D. Brent Pogue piece graded MS66 by PCGS. Choice circulated coins in EF and AU routinely bring multiples of comparable regular 1806 prices at Heritage and Stack's Bowers, and the gap widens sharply at the gem level. For collectors building a date set of Draped Bust quarters, this is the sixth slot that turns a five-coin run into a complete one, and the only place in the series where an overdate appears at all. For deeper background on the broader type, see the Draped Bust Quarter series history.