Standing Liberty Quarters (Get weekly email)

That same year, the coin’s reverse was also tweaked to return to MacNeil's preferred design—the eagle was moved up a bit to make room for three stars. Except for placing the date in a protected recess from 1925 on, 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 them clearly show that the "8" in 1918 has been struck over the "7" in 1917. Today, this "over-date" 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.

Quarters dated 1919 are also scarce in most conditions. The only other year in the series that includes a rare issue is 1927. Although 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 quarters, making 1927-S an expensive hole to fill in one’s collection.

No Standing Liberty quarters were struck in 1931 or '32 due to a lack of demand during the Great Depression. Standing Liberty quarters were replaced with the George Washington design in 1932.

About our sources | Got something to add?