The standing Liberty quarter was a 25-cent coin that was struck by the United States Mint from 1916 to 1930. It succeeded the Barber quarter, which had been minted since 1892. Featuring the goddess of Liberty on one side and an eagle in flight on the other, the coin was designed by American sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil. In late 1916, Mint officials made major changes to the design without consulting Mac Neil.
About Standing Liberty quarter in brief
The Standing Liberty quarter is a 25-cent coin that was struck by the United States Mint from 1916 to 1930. It succeeded the Barber quarter, which had been minted since 1892. Featuring the goddess of Liberty on one side and an eagle in flight on the other, the coin was designed by American sculptor Hermon Atkins MacNeil. In late 1916, Mint officials made major changes to the design without consulting Mac Neil. The standing Liberty quarter was discontinued in 1931, a year in which no quarters were struck. By Congressional act the Washington quarter, featuring the first president’s profile, was introduced in 1932 to celebrate the bicentennial of his birth. The Barber coinage had been introduced in 1892; dimes, quarter dollars, and half dollars with similar designs by Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber. The Mint obtained special legislation to allow MacNeil to redesign the coin as he desired. In January 1915, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury William P. Malburn sent McAdoo a memorandum about the silver subsidiary coinage. The same day, the Solicitor’s Office requested the Mint’s view that it could strike three new designs for the three denominations in 1916. At the time, the Mint was intensely busy producing the Panama-Pacific commemorative coin issue and could not immediate issue the new designs. In April 1915, Robert W. Woolley took office as Director of the Mint. On April 14, Superintendent Joyce asked the Mint to prepare new designs, then in his 36th year in his office, for the Barber dime, quarter and half dollar.
In June 1915, Woolley requested that the Mint strike the new design for the half dollar, quarter, and dime. In November 1915, the mint struck the new coin for the quarter and dime for the first time in its history. The coin was withdrawn from circulation in January 1916. The mint’s date wore away quickly, and Mint engravers modified the design in 1925 to address the issue. In February 1916, the U.S. Congress passed an act providing that no change in the design or die of any coin shall be made oftener than once in twenty-five years from and including the year of the first adoption of the design … But the Mint shall nevertheless have power to engage temporarily the services of one or more artists, distinguished in their respective departments of art, who shall be paid for such service from the contingent appropriation for the mint at Philadelphia. All resulted from the desire by the government to mint coins to the satisfaction of artists and not practical coiners. The buffalo nickel and the Lincoln penny are also faulty from a practical standpoint. The Mint may therefore, be adopted, and a new design may, therefore, being adopted can be done any time in the year. In reply to Woolley’s request, McAdo wrote that anyone else could submit designs before anyone else in the mint tried to submit designs on the mint’s behalf. In March 1915, Mcadoo wrote that the mint could change the designs before the Mint could change them.
You want to know more about Standing Liberty quarter?
This page is based on the article Standing Liberty quarter published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
