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In 1916, the United States had not yet entered World War I, but its new Standing Liberty quarter appeared to send a message to the various combatants. Designed by Hermon MacNeil, the quarter featured Lady Liberty standing between the words "In God We Trust." A shield is in her left hand, and an olive branch is in her right, as if to say that the nation was ready for anything, war or peace.
That not-so-subtle political message was not what made the 1916 Standing Liberty quarter so controversial. Rather, it was Lady Liberty’s lack of clothing from the waist up. Only 52,000 of the coins were minted, so before the "obscenity" got out of hand, the coin was redesigned. By 1917, Lady Liberty was clad in a sleeveless top of tightly linked chain mail—modesty, and Liberty’s virtue, had prevailed...
That same year, the coin’s reverse was also tweaked; the eagle was moved up a bit to make room for three stars. Except for a minor change to the way in which the year was displayed in 1925, the design remained unchanged until the coin’s last year of issue, 1930.
Even though the 1916 coin had a small run, it is not the most prized Standing Liberty for collectors. That would be the 1918 quarter minted in San Francisco. The San Francisco Mint struck more than 11-million quarters that year, but some of the early ones clearly show that the "8" in 1918 has been struck over the "7" in 1917. Today, this coin is not only the most sought-after coin in the Standing Liberty series, it is one of the most coveted U.S. coins, period.
The only other year in the series that’s considered rare is 1927. There are plenty of Philadelphia coins from 1927 (almost 12 million) and a decent number of Standing Liberty quarters from Denver (just under a million), but the San Francisco Mint only produced 396,000 of the coins, making that version an expensive hole to fill in one’s collection.
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$255.00 Ends Monday 5 bids 
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