2006-D Nebraska

Denver's 2006 Nebraska quarter carries Charles L. Vickers's "Chimney Rock" reverse: a Conestoga wagon hauling a pioneer family across the open prairie, the spire of Chimney Rock National Historic Site rising on the right horizon, and a setting sun behind the formation. Nebraska's April 3, 2006 release placed the Cornhusker State as the second 2006 issue. Denver struck 318,000,000 pieces, outproducing Philadelphia's 273 million on the same design and continuing the year-8 pattern where Denver ran higher numbers than Philadelphia. Chimney Rock served as the single most-named landmark in surviving Oregon Trail diaries from the 1840s and 1850s migration era, and Vickers used it as the design's geographic anchor and identity marker.

Strikes on Denver Nebraskas come up cleanly defined more often than not, with the wagon cover's drape lines and Chimney Rock's spire detail serving as the natural detail registers. Weak strikes show up first as softness along the wagon's wheel rims and along the figures inside the wagon bonnet, where the relief sits deepest. Washington's cheek and hair-above-ear remain the obverse weak points for grading, and 2006-D bag handling typically caps many candidates at MS66. PCGS and NGC populations run deep at MS66, narrower at MS67, and meaningfully scarce at MS68 in the population reports kept by the two major third-party grading services (TPGs). No FS-listed varieties anchor to the issue.

The 2006-D Nebraska sits as the higher-output side of the Chimney Rock design and offers strong display appeal in Oregon-Trail, Great-Plains, and pioneer-history topical sets. Roll searchers continue to pull premium strikes for full-detail gems, and MS67 examples remain available for collectors completing a top-grade run on a working budget. The design pairs naturally with North Dakota's badlands reverse in topical Great-Plains subsets. For wider context, see the 50 State Quarters series history.