2026 Mayflower Compact Quarter Features Unexpected Error
A Littleton Coin Company employee uncovers a rare struck-through error on a new 2026 quarter, sparking early collector interest.
LITTLETON, NH – A Littleton Coin Company employee has discovered an unusual production error in a bag of Uncirculated 2026 quarters from the Philadelphia Mint featuring the Mayflower Compact.
The first of five newly designed quarters to celebrate the USA’s 250th anniversary, this coin features a Pilgrim couple facing West on the front, or obverse. The Mayflower ship, on which early English settlers journeyed in search of religious freedom, is the design featured on the back (reverse).
Known as a “struck-through,” the newly discovered error occurred on the obverse of the Mayflower Compact quarter. It appears as an incuse impression between god and we in the motto in god we trust and between the dual dates of 1776 and 2026.
“I was excited by the find,” said Greg Caplan, an inventory specialist, explaining how he was preparing recently delivered bags of quarters from Philadelphia to be packaged. “There’s a thrill in finding coins like this. First thing I did was run the few I found to our coin buyers to make them aware.”
The noticeable, and unintended, impression occurred from a foreign element, according to Ken Westover, Littleton’s chief coin buyer. “It was likely stuck to the design die.”
"The U.S. Mint produces billions of coins annually,” he said. “The number of errors escaping their quality control is an extremely small number.
“Finding such an error is rare today,” Westover continued.
"With the anticipated popularity of this new design along with the scarcity of this error, this discovery will create a lot of excitement with collectors," he added.
The Mayflower Compact quarters honor the contract, or compact, signed on board the Mayflower in 1620. Historians regard it as the earliest agreement on self-governance based on mutual consent and majority rule, and the foundational document that informed the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Littleton Coin Company will be making this error coin, along with a full range of numismatic currency relating to the Semiquincentennial, available in its catalogs, on-site store, and at www.LittletonCoin.com. Serving coin and paper money collectors nationwide for over 80 years, Littleton Coin Company is 100% employee-owned. To find out more, visit the company’s website at www.LittletonCoin.com.
