Hi
I have a 2006 S Clad Colorado Proof Quarter that has a die crack. I sent it to NGC, they listed it as "Reverse Die Crack @7:00 Mint Error PF69 Ultra Cameo". I have been trying to find out how rare this is and nobody seems to know. Any ideas? Thanks for any help.

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A die crack propogates slowly during the lifetime of the die. The die goes through thousands and thousands and thousands of impacts before being retired, so there is plenty of time for these cracks to grow. The reason you don't see them often is because the mint's quality control replaces most of the worn dies before you see failures on our coins.

Yours is quite special because it's a high grade cameo proof coin - the dies used to make it are very well controlled and coin lower numbers to preserve quality.

So, to answer your question: it isn't common to find a die crack on a circulating coin but if I looked hard at every coin that went through my hands every week, I'd guess I could find one minor cracks. They aren't exclusively rare.

But your coin is a special case, and so a die crack, especially one with that length, is much rarer. I can't put a value on it, but if there are people out there collecting die cracks in the state quarter series, I can see them paying $100 in an auction.

That's an awesome die break !!!

Nice!

That's a great treasure.