Standing Liberty Quarter Design Change

The history of American coinage has long been a fascinating window into the history of our nation, offering details and perspectives about many important parts of our history that most of us never learned in school. But like most historical research that evolves over time, the common understanding of many aspects of numismatic history is replete with myths, distortions and half-truths.

One of the most glaring examples of distortion is the view that the original version of the Standing Liberty quarter used in 1916 and 1917 and known as the type 1 coin, whose obverse features a design of Liberty as a standing figure holding a shield and laurel branch, was modified due to public outcry over the partially exposed right breast of the model. With only 52,000 of the 1916 type 1 coins made, they remain the series key and an ever-popular type coin.

This view was pushed by researchers such as the late Walter Breen, who wrote extensively on American numismatic history, but it has never been supported by the historic evidence. Other researchers such as Q. David Bowers have noted that they could not find any newspaper articles from the time when the coins entered circulation starting in late 1916 or early 1917 that expressed outrage about the semi-nudity of the design.

Moreover, this was a period when nudity was common in sculpture medals and as Bowers notes, even occasionally in the silent films of the era. In fact, unlike the other two iconic American silver coins that debuted in 1916 – the Mercury, or Liberty Head, dime and the Walking Liberty half dollar – which were the subject of quite a few newspaper pieces and were covered extensively in the numismatic press, the Standing Liberty design that is today viewed as one of the greatest and most beautiful in our history received little attention.

Instead, the actual reasons the design of the quarter was changed have to do with an extensive series of requests the coin’s designer, famed American sculptor Hermon A. MacNeil, made to the Treasury department to improve the design as well as to issues having to do with production of the coins and problems stacking them.

Most significantly the decision to add a chainmail covering to that exposed breast had nothing to do with outcry about indecency and everything to do with the changed status in which the country found itself during this period in its history.

When the type 1 design was developed in 1915 following an offer to MacNeil and a select group of other artists and sculptors to prepare designs for the new dime, quarter and half dollar that had to be developed in short order, the U.S. was still at peace. The overall intent of the new obverse design, which is the only one of MacNeil’s submissions that the Treasury initially approved, was to make it a “preparedness coin” that would “typify in a way the awakening interest of the country in its own protection,” as a 1917 piece in The Numismatist noted.

On April 6, 1917, the U.S. entered World War I when it joined its allies France, Great Britain and Russia in the fight against Imperial Germany. The modified quarter design of the type 2 version included changing the obverse by adding the chainmail that covered Liberty’s breast in order to make it even more clear the country was militarily prepared for this major new undertaking than was suggested by the original inclusion of a shield. Liberty was now prepared to defend her honor and rights and those of the country but was also willing to embrace peace, which is the why design always included a laurel branch in her right hand.

Those changes were approved by the U.S Congress on July 9 just months after the U.S. entered the war and were said to have been done to improve the artistic merit of the design.

Other changes were also made to the design, including specifically to the reverse of the coin, which raised the position of the eagle and added three stars below it. The lettering was also rearranged, and a slight concavity was added, as Bowers notes.

The eagle on the type 1 coin was so low that it made its tail seem connected to the lettering below it. Besides as MacNeil noted from his study of eagles, they only tuck their talons in when they are flying at high altitude.

Another historical issue surrounding the Standing Liberty quarter is who posed as the model for MacNeil when he was developing the design. A woman named Irene MacDowell, a one-time Broadway actress, had claimed she was the model. This information was included in her obituary when she passed at the age of 92 in 1973.

But again, there is no evidence to support that claim. Instead, the evidence seems quite clear that the real model was Dora Doscher, who was born in 1882, and was known to her friends as “the girl on the quarter dollar”. She was a writer and trained nurse. Stories had claimed she was 22 at the time she posed for the artist, but that turned out to be a typical underestimation of a woman’s age as was common at the time.

As Robert R. Van Ryzin, who wrote extensively on the issue of why the quarter design was changed in articles for Coins magazine based on a review of letters and other materials and in a book called Facts, Myths and Mysteries published in 2009, has noted, it is ironic that an artist and sculptor of MacNeil’s stature is still for many collectors mainly remembered for causing a supposed stir about semi-nudity.

MacNeil, who studied sculpture in Paris and Rome, worked for decades as a leading sculpture of the time creating beautiful works displayed in major museums and created several gorgeous medals such as the popular one for the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 that is still reproduced today. He was especially fascinated by Native American culture and customs, which is reflected in much of his work.

Having a better, more accurate understanding of these matters only adds to the enjoyment that collectors can get from collecting these great classic American coins that will always be in demand.