Was it a mistake or prank? In 2004, "The Badger State" received its own commemorative quarter. Naturally, the currency included a cow and a wheel of cheese to honor the state's dairy tradition.
Wisconsin has 15,000 maize farmers in addition to dairy. The state cent includes a maize ear beside the cow and cheese. This ear of corn may contain the flaw that might make your Wisconsin state cent worth $30 or more.
Indeed, some corn ears have additional leaves. This extra leaf was once assumed to be a random imperfection, like a metal piece trapped during stamping. Some coin collectors believe that a worker at the Denver Mint in Colorado purposefully added the extra leaf flourish to specific coins. They made the coins there.
There are two types of additional leaves: high and low. The space to the left of the corn ear, above the cheese wheel.A little upward-pointing extra leaf is the high extra leaf. Low additional leaf is a little drooping leaf that touches the cheese wheel. The photo above shows no extra leaf.
Exact values vary. In contrast to the uncommon 1976 "quarter" on a dime, extra leaf Wisconsin quarters are expensive coins that can be found in circulation. Now that we know what to look for, let's talk price.
Extra low-leaf Wisconsin quarters are worth $55 in mint condition, while high-leaf ones are worth $100, according to coinauctionshelp. A coin in mint condition has been circulated but shows little usage.
Extra leaves Wisconsin quarters were valued at $30–50 at The Spruce Crafts, another collection site. That site lists uncirculated examples at $100–130. In reality, auction values exceeded these valuation projections. During a 2021 GreatCollections auction, a highly-graded (MS67) extra high leaf specimen sold for $551 amid intense bidding.
The owner of an MS67-graded low additional leaf coin won $410 at a GreatCollections auction in 2023.One extra leaf low Wisconsin quarter went for $6,000 in a 2020 Heritage Auctions sale, but it is an exception.
Up to 50,000 Wisconsin quarters have the extra leaf defect, making this a possible find. To think we may never know if the peculiarity was a tooling accident or a mint staff prank.