Washington Crossing the Delaware Quarter Values & Mintages

Grading tips

Graded mainly on luster, strike and surface marks.

A design written into law in 2008

The 2021 design was not chosen at the last minute. The America's Beautiful National Park Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008, which created the national park series, also specified what should follow it. After the last park design, the quarter's reverse was to show General George Washington crossing the Delaware River before the Battle of Trenton. Benjamin Sowards' design was selected to meet that requirement.

The obverse kept John Flanagan's portrait of Washington, which had been on the quarter since 1932. It was the last year for that portrait, because in 2022 the obverse changed to Laura Gardin Fraser's portrait for the American Women Quarters.

The crossing of December 1776

By December 1776 the Continental Army had lost New York and retreated across New Jersey into Pennsylvania. On the night of December 25 Washington led about 2,400 soldiers back across the ice-choked Delaware River at McConkey's Ferry. Early on December 26 they attacked the Hessian garrison at Trenton and captured much of it. The victory was small in numbers but restored confidence in the army at a very low point.

The most famous image of the crossing is Emanuel Leutze's 1851 painting, with Washington standing in the bow of a boat. The New Jersey state quarter of 1999 used that painting as its model. Sowards' 2021 design is a new composition rather than a copy of the painting and carries the inscription CROSSING THE DELAWARE.

What to collect

The coin was struck for circulation at Philadelphia and Denver and for collectors at San Francisco in clad and silver proof versions. Circulation coins are common in change, so the goal for most collectors is a well-struck, mark-free example of each mint. Look at Washington's face and the figures in the boat, where contact marks and weak strikes are easiest to see. Uncirculated coins from Mint sets are usually cleaner than coins pulled from rolls.

Because it is a one-year design, the coin is popular in type sets that follow the quarter's reverse from the 1932 eagle through the state, park and women series. Some collectors pair it with the 1999 New Jersey quarter to show two treatments of the same event.

Checking for errors

Like other modern clad coins, the 2021 quarter turns up with off-center strikes, clipped planchets, struck-through debris and die cracks. Weigh any coin that looks unusual. A genuine clad quarter weighs 5.67 grams. A coin far outside that may be struck on the wrong planchet or may simply be damaged after leaving the Mint.

Where it sits among modern quarters

The final America the Beautiful design, the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Alabama, was the only park quarter of 2021. The Crossing the Delaware quarter followed later the same year, so 2021 has two different quarter reverses. The silver proofs of 2021 are 99.9% silver, the standard the Mint adopted for its silver proof coins from 2019, rather than the 90% silver of earlier proof quarters.

Trenton was the start of a short campaign. A week later, on January 3, 1777, Washington won again at Princeton. The two victories held the Continental Army together through the winter and revived recruiting.

Frequently asked questions