1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter
The 1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter is a Canadian quarter struck for circulation with 135 million made. Value band: face value. Here is how to recognize it, what makes one worth more and what to check on yours.
- Year
- 1973
- Circulation mintage
- 134,958,587
- Value band
- Face value
- Composition
- Nickel (99.9%)
Original illustration of the coin's shape and metal. Tap to flip. Not a picture of the actual design.
Face value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is a 1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter worth?
With 135 million made, the 1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter is common and worth face value in circulated condition. Only uncirculated coins with full luster, recognized varieties and genuine errors interest collectors.
What would make yours worth more:
- Full uncirculated luster
- A recognized variety or genuine error
- Coins from a specimen or proof set
For market prices, look at recent sold results for the same coin in the same condition, not asking prices.
Quick answers
- Is the 1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter rare?
- No. 135 million were made, so circulated examples are worth face value.
- How many 1973 Small Bust Canadian quarters were made?
- 134,958,587 were struck for circulation (a combined figure for the Small Bust and Large Bust varieties).
- What is the 1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter made of?
- Nickel (99.9%). It weighs 5.05 g and measures 23.88 mm.
- Is the 1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter still legal tender?
- Yes. Every Canadian quarter is legal tender at 25 cents.
The 1973 quarter in context
The 1973 quarter celebrated a hundred years of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, founded in 1873 as the North-West Mounted Police. Paul Cedarberg designed the reverse, a Mountie on horseback with the dates 1873 and 1973. It replaced the caribou for one year and the mint struck 134,958,587 quarters with the design, a huge run that put the RCMP into nearly every Canadian pocket. The force's famous March West came the following year, in 1874, so the dates on the coin mark its founding rather than that journey.
The small bust is the standard coin of the year. The mint introduced a reduced version of Machin's portrait for 1973 and almost all RCMP quarters carry it. Only a small number were struck with the earlier, larger portrait, which collectors call the large bust. The published mintage covers both together. So if you have a 1973 quarter, the odds are strongly that it is a small bust, but compare the portrait before you spend it. Few modern quarters are as instantly recognizable as this one and few hide a better variety.
How to recognize it
Cedarberg's design shows a Mountie in uniform riding a horse, with CANADA, 25 CENTS and 1873 1973 around it. The obverse is Machin's tiara portrait of the queen, ELIZABETH II D·G·REGINA, in the smaller size introduced that year, leaving a clear gap between the portrait and the legend. Set it next to a 1972 caribou quarter and the small bust will look slightly smaller. Like other nickel quarters, it is 5.07 g and 23.88 mm. It sticks to a magnet, like every nickel quarter of the period. Wear shows first on the rider and the horse's head. The edge is reeded.
1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter by the numbers
The published 134,958,587 for 1973 covers both the Small Bust and Large Bust varieties together, so neither can be ranked on its own. As a date, 1973 sits 129th lowest among Canadian quarter dates by output.
Compared with the dates around it, the 1973 output was 3.1 times the 1972 figure and 1.4 times fewer than 1974. Other 1973 quarters: 1973 Large Bust Canadian Quarter.
Over the 1970s the Mint produced 1.06 billion quarters across 10 dates and varieties; the 1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter accounts for 13% of that.
What to check on your 1973 Small Bust Canadian Quarter
- Try a magnet. Nickel (99.9%) is magnetic, so a genuine 1973 coin sticks; a silver one would not.
- Confirm the variety: small bust. Use a magnifier and compare with a reference picture before you assume you have the scarcer one.
- Never clean it. Rubbing or polishing leaves fine scratches and an unnatural shine that collectors avoid.
- Look for full luster and no scratches. Modern quarters only interest collectors in uncirculated condition or with a recognized variety.
With well over 100 million struck, the small bust RCMP quarter is a face value coin in circulated condition. Bright uncirculated pieces are pleasant to own and carry only a small premium. The coin's real collecting interest is as a checkpoint: every 1973 should be examined for the large bust. Commemorative collectors also like it as the first circulating Canadian quarter with a special design after the centennial bobcat. Coins with damage or heavy wear are simply pocket change. Keep the best one you find.
Nickel quarters, 1968 to 2000
From 1968 the quarter was pure nickel, 5.07 g and 23.88 mm, a hard metal that wears well and is attracted to a magnet. Machin's portrait of the queen continued until 1989 and Hahn's caribou was back on the reverse. Mintages became enormous, with 133,037,929 in 1969 and 192,360,598 in 1974. The one regular break in the caribou came in 1973, when a Mountie on horseback marked the centennial of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
A few years stand out for low output. Only 10,302,010 quarters are dated 1970 and 13,162,000 are dated 1983, but the real oddity is 1991, with just 459,000. In 1990 Dora de Pédery-Hunt's crowned portrait replaced Machin's; she was the first Canadian artist to design the royal effigy for Canada's coins. The 1992 quarters were a 125th anniversary set with one design for each province and territory, so there is no regular 1992 figure. Neither 1997 nor 1998 has one either.
The century closed with the millennium program: twelve designs for 1999, one for each month, then twelve more for 2000, drawn from ideas sent in by Canadians. Alongside them the caribou kept going with huge runs. For collectors, the coins to set aside are the 1973 large bust variety, the 1991 and to a lesser degree 1970 and 1983. Nearly everything else from these years is a face value coin, though bright uncirculated pieces are pleasant to keep.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Country | Canada |
|---|---|
| Denomination | 25 cents |
| Issuer | Royal Canadian Mint |
| Year | 1973 |
| Circulation mintage | 134,958,587 (with the Large Bust variety) |
| Composition | Nickel (99.9%) |
| Weight | 5.05 g |
| Diameter | 23.88 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Reeded |
Other 1973 Canadian quarters
| Coin | Circulation mintage | Value band |
|---|---|---|
| 1973 Large Bust Canadian Quarter | 134,958,587 | Collector premium |
Frequently asked questions
Is the 1973 RCMP quarter rare?
The regular small bust version is not. 134,958,587 were struck in total, almost all with the small portrait. Only the large bust variety, struck in a small number, is rare.
What does the 1973 Canadian quarter commemorate?
The hundredth anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, founded in 1873 as the North-West Mounted Police. The reverse shows a Mountie on horseback with the dates 1873 and 1973.
Mintage figures: Quarter (Canadian coin) (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from Royal Canadian Mint figures. How we build these pages.