2006-S North Dakota, Silver Proof

2026-03-22, The 2006-S North Dakota Silver Proof was struck at San Francisco to a mintage of 1,054,008, distributed exclusively through the year's Silver Proof Set. Donna Weaver's reverse renders a pair of grazing American bison in the foreground with the eroded buttes of the North Dakota Badlands rising behind them, the layered sedimentary banding of the buttes giving the design a strong horizontal rhythm against the open prairie field. On a 90% silver planchet, the bison's coarse winter coats and the striped sediment lines of the badlands both read with a fine-line precision the clad strike cannot replicate, the bright white metal giving the prairie subjects a luminous depth against the deeply mirrored sky field that the copper-nickel cast simply cannot deliver at the same magnification.

Authentication of a genuine 2006-S North Dakota Silver Proof begins at the scale. A silver example weighs 6.25 grams; the clad proof weighs 5.67 grams. That 0.58-gram difference is the most efficient diagnostic available and rules out altered or counterfeit pieces with a single measurement. The 90% silver, 10% copper alloy produces a silvery-white reflective surface that contrasts visibly with the slightly grayer cast of copper-nickel clad, and viewing the 24.3mm edge straight on reveals a solid silver color rather than the copper-cored sandwich stripe characteristic of clad coinage. Squared, sharp rims and heavily frosted Cameo or Deep Cameo devices set against deeply mirrored fields provide the final visual confirmation. The bison's shoulder hump and the sediment banding on the badlands buttes should display heavy frost under angled light.

None of the 2006 North Dakota silver proofs entered circulation; all were sold in collector packaging, and survival rates remain very high in pristine grades. Modern market value reflects both the silver content and the proof finish, with Deep Cameo and PR70 examples carrying the strongest premiums. The bison-and-badlands subject pairs the issue naturally with the year's South Dakota reverse for a two-state Dakotas set on the silver tier, and the design also draws topical interest from Western-animal and Theodore-Roosevelt-National-Park collectors who recognize the badlands as the landscape that shaped the future president's conservation ethic. For more on the program that turned the quarter into a fifty-state design canvas, see the 50 State Quarters series history.