State quarter · 2004 · Denver

2004 Wisconsin Extra Leaf Quarter: What It’s Worth and How to Spot One

A 2004-D Wisconsin quarter with an extra leaf on the corn sells for about $80 to $110 lightly worn and $130 to $315 in uncirculated grades (2025–2026 sales). Only top-grade coins bring more: $1,100 for an MS67, and a reported record of $6,000. Look at the lower left of the ear of corn for a leaf that shouldn’t be there.

Updated October 22, 2026 · 10 sources

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2004-D Wisconsin, Extra Leaf High · Photo: PCGS

Year and mint: 2004, Denver only (D on the heads side)
What’s different: An extra leaf at the lower left of the corn, High or Low
How many: Up to 50,000 released (Treasury Inspector General estimate)
Where found: Mostly around Tucson, Arizona and San Antonio, Texas
Variety: High: FS-5901, PCGS #914033 · Low: FS-5902, PCGS #814033
Out of: 226,800,000 2004-D Wisconsin quarters

What it’s worth

These are real sales from Heritage and eBay including fees where the venue charges them. The High Leaf usually sells for a little more than the Low.

Condition	Price	Sale
AU58, barely worn · Low Leaf (PCGS)	$82	eBay, September 2025 · source
AU55, lightly worn · High Leaf (PCGS)	$90	eBay, October 2026 · source
MS65, uncirculated · Low Leaf (PCGS)	$134	Heritage, April 2026 · source
MS65, uncirculated · High Leaf (PCGS)	$228	Heritage, December 2025 · source
MS66, uncirculated · High Leaf (PCGS)	$315	eBay, July 2026 · source
MS67, top uncirculated · Low Leaf (NGC)	$1,100	DLRC, March 2023 · source

$6,000The reported record: an Extra Leaf Low, January 2020. The High Leaf’s reported record is $2,530 (July 2006). Both per PCGS, as reported by Fox Business. · source

Prices were higher when the coins were new: before the news spread one sold on eBay for $1.65, and after it they briefly brought a few hundred dollars each (NGC, 2005).

How to tell if you have one

Check it’s a 2004 Wisconsin quarter with a D mint mark on the heads side. The extra leaf has only been seen on Denver coins.
Turn it over to the cow, the wheel of cheese and the ear of corn. Look at the lower left of the corn, where the husk leaves are.
Extra Leaf High: an extra leaf sticks straight up at a sharp angle, higher on the stalk.
Extra Leaf Low: an extra leaf runs roughly flat, angled down toward the top of the cheese wheel.
Use a magnifier. A real extra leaf is raised metal, part of the coin. A scratch is a groove cut into it.
To sell one, have it attributed by PCGS or NGC (High is FS-5901, Low is FS-5902).

Extra Leaf High: an extra leaf pointing up from the corn — **Extra Leaf High.** The extra leaf points up. Photo: PCGS

Extra Leaf Low: an extra leaf running across toward the cheese — **Extra Leaf Low.** The extra leaf runs across. Photo: PCGS

Coins that fool people

A normal 2004 Wisconsin quarter

No extra leaf at the lower left of the corn. Philadelphia (P) coins aren’t known with the variety.

A scratched-in leaf

Someone has cut a line into the coin: a groove with raised edges. A real extra leaf is raised metal with the same surface as the rest of the coin.

Damage and dings

Random marks don’t form a raised, leaf-shaped spike in exactly the right spot.

The story

On December 11, 2004, a collector in Tucson, Arizona found Wisconsin quarters with an extra leaf on the ear of corn and took them to a local coin shop, which reported them. Local news set off a coin hunt, and most were found around Tucson and San Antonio, Texas.

A Treasury Inspector General investigation found that a Denver press operator had stopped a press making “leaf up” coins and gone on a meal break. When he came back the press was running again, and it ran for about another hour and a half.

The report blamed “machine or product deficiencies, not an intentional act” and estimated that as many as 50,000 reached circulation. It never explained the Low Leaf.

Not everyone accepts it was an accident. NGC wrote that the leaves looked “too perfect for coincidence”, and some experts point out that two dies were damaged in nearly the same spot.

Check every Wisconsin quarter

Extra Leaf quarters were spent like any other quarter in 2004, and some are still in jars and change. Scan the back of every 2004-D Wisconsin.

Open AnyCoins and photograph the heads side, then the tails side, in good light.
AnyCoins identifies the coin and checks it for known errors and varieties.
You see its condition estimate, a price range by condition and what the same coin has sold for.

Why collectors use AnyCoins

Photograph both sides and it names the coin: country, year, mint and denomination.
Values from real sales: a price range by condition and recent sales of the same coin, not a guess.
A condition estimate from your photos, so you know which row of the price table you’re in.
Checks the coin for known errors and varieties, the kind that turn a cent into thousands.
Melt value for silver and gold, and the mint that struck it on the Mint Map.

Questions people ask

How much is a 2004 Wisconsin quarter with an extra leaf worth?

Lightly worn ones sell for about $80 to $110, and graded uncirculated ones for about $130 to $315 in 2025 and 2026 sales. Only top-grade MS67 coins have brought $1,000 or more.

Which is rarer, High Leaf or Low Leaf?

Sources disagree. PCGS calls the High Leaf the scarcer of the two; Littleton Coin says roughly equal numbers exist. The High usually sells for somewhat more.

How many extra leaf quarters were made?

No one knows exactly. A Treasury Inspector General report estimated as many as 50,000 entered circulation.

Was it done on purpose?

The Inspector General found no evidence of an intentional act and blamed machine or product deficiencies, but the exact cause was never proven, and NGC has argued deliberate die damage is more likely.

Sources

Prices are public auction results including the buyer’s premium unless marked as a price guide. A coin’s value depends on its exact condition and on having it certified by a grading service such as PCGS or NGC.