Liberty Standing Quarter

1916 to 1917 Variety I
1917 to 1930 Variety II

	The quarter was redesigned in 1916 because of the first world war. But Only 52,000 of these coins were made in that year making those issues worth thousands of dollars. Herman MacNiel placed a standing liberty on the obverse side, holding a shield to fend off the attackers of liberty. On the reverse is a flying eagle and the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and E. PLURIBUS UNUM. One of the problems with this coin was the fine detail which was raised and suffered damage from even modest wear, especially the date. To correct this, the date was changed in 1925 to be pressed into the coin instead of raised above the surface. Also, in 1917 several minor changes were made to both the obverse and reverse sides, notably adding three stars under the eagle. And one particular change was the result of what could only be described as a huge mistake at the time: the first examples of this coin revealed a plainly uncovered right breast of liberty, something that was quickly corrected. The coin at left is one of those examples.
The coin is an AU50 example of the 1917 type 1. It was certified by ANACS but I broke open the slab and photographed the coin for this web page. It is now mounted in cardboard and stored in SDB 508.		This is the reverse of the coin at left. It was cleaned by someone before it was certified. This example does not have the three stars below the eagle.
This coin is a recent acquisition I made for the D case. It is a certified MS 62 example.		This is the reverse of the coin at left.
I have three 1917 quarters in my collection, one of each variety, worth about $85 and $90 in the U.S. types album and one of type 1 in cardboard in SDB 508, and I have 33 more issues in a Standing Liberty quarter album. But I must add here that I consider this to be the ugliest design ever made into U.S. currency - a personal opinion. And some of these coins are the absolute worst for wear on the date because it was raised up and wore off very easily with circulation. Consequently I resisted collecting this set for most of my life and only recently began to put together this album. The coin above is an uncirculated example I own.		This is the reverse of the coin except that in the 1917 issue the coin was also made without the three stars under the eagle, like it was made in 1916.

1924: February 7:   The first state execution using gas in the United States takes place in Nevada. February 22:  Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President of the United States to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House. March 8: The Castle Gate mine disaster kills 172 coal miners in Utah, United States. May 10:  J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. May 21:  University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks, in a thrill killing. June 2: U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States. June 23: American airman Russell L. Maughan flies from New York to San Francisco in 21 hours and 48 minutes on a dawn-to-dusk flight in a Curtiss pursuit. November 4: Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected as the first woman governor in the United States. November 27: In New York City the first Macy’s thanksgiving Day Parade is held. Undated: U.S. bootleggers begin to use Thompson submachine guns.