The Washington quarter is the present quarter dollar or 25-cent piece issued by the United States Mint. The coin was first struck in 1932; the original version was designed by sculptor John Flanagan. In 2021, Flanagan’s original design is to resume its place on the obverse, with a design showing Washington crossing the Delaware River in 1776 for the reverse.
About Washington quarter in brief
The Washington quarter is the present quarter dollar or 25-cent piece issued by the United States Mint. The coin was first struck in 1932; the original version was designed by sculptor John Flanagan. Since 1999, the original eagle reverse has not been used; instead that side of the quarter has commemorated the 50 states, the nation’s other jurisdictions, and National Park Service sites. In 2021, Flanagan’s original design is to resume its place on the obverse, with a design showing Washington crossing the Delaware River in 1776 for the reverse. The bust of Washington was modified and made smaller beginning in 1999; in 2010 the original bust was restored to bring out greater detail. The bicentennial of the birth of its first president, George Washington, would occur in 1932, and Congress wished to plan for the event well in advance. The Bicentennial Committee wanted a commemorative Washington half dollar, and sought to assuage Hoover’s concerns by proposing that all 1932 half dollars depict Washington instead of bearing the usual Walking Liberty design. The new silver quarters entered circulation on August 1, 1932; and continued to be struck in silver until the Mint transitioned to copper-nickel clad coinage in 1965. A special reverse commemorating the U.S. Bicentenary was used in 1975 and 1976, with all pieces bearing the double date 1776–1976; there are no 1975-dated quarters. The half dollar was seen as the largest and most prominent design—the Peace dollar was not then being struck and did not circulate in much of the country.
Other commemoratives had been sold at a premium; the Washington halfdollar would, for one year, be the normal Mint issue. The committee anticipated that the same artist would first design the committee’s medal and then the coin. By law, designs were to be based on the well-known sculpture of Washington by the French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon; artist was not restricted as to the reverse design of the reverse of the coin of that year. With a right-facing coin, Laura Gardin Fraser was a notable coin designer in her own right, having designed several commemorative coins, including the Oregon Trail Memorial coins, and the Buffalo nickel, which was struck in 1894. The design was approved by the Secretary of Treasury at that time, Andrew W. Mellon, a noted art collector and connoisseur of the right-faced coins. After reviewing the entries, the committee agreed on the designs by Laura Gard in Fraser, who was also the designer of the Buffalo Nickel, including a design by James Earle Earle, who designed the Buffalo Memorial coins in 1891. The coins were struck in August 1932; they remained in circulation until August 1965, when they were replaced by the current silver-clad coinage, which has been struck ever since. The Washington quarter was struck as part of the America the Beautiful Quarters series, which will continue until 2021. It is the last of the series to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Washington’s birth.
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This page is based on the article Washington quarter published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
