United States Mint candidate designs for the 2021 and beyond quarter dollar were reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) and the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA). The selected design will appear on quarter reverses following the conclusion of the U.S. Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters® Program.
That program, which launched in 2010 and features changing reverses honoring national parks and other national sites in each state, District of Columbia and five U.S. territories, ends with the one and only 2021 design honoring Alabama’s Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. Going forward from there, Public Law 110-456 directs a non-changing quarter reverse depicting George Washington crossing the ice-choked Delaware River prior to the Battle of Trenton.
Seventeen Designs Reviewed
Seventeen candidates highlighting the crossing were developed by U.S. Mint artists who collaborated with curators at Mount Vernon.
The CCAC reviewed them on Oct. 15 and CFA looked them over on Oct. 17. Both panels recommended the same design imaged topmost, numbered #12, showing a right-standing Washington with a sword in his hand directing another boat of Continental Army soldiers as it passes through chunks of ice in the Delaware River. The CFA supplemented its recommendation with the suggestion of "adding more dramatic ice floes to the depiction of the river."
U.S. Mint images of all 17 candidate designs follow. Mount Vernon curators favored designs #1, #1a, #2, and #12.
The Treasury Secretary will approve the final design which will be paired with an obverse featuring the traditional portrait of Washington that was introduced on quarters in 1932.
No Five-Ounce Silver Version
The U.S. Mint is not required and at present has no plans to strike 3-inch diameter, 5-ounce silver editions of George Washington Crossing the Delaware River quarters.
10 and 12 year series are just too long.
All I can say is You are correct!
Yes like the pointless Innovation dollars.
All of these proposed designs seem too busy for as small a coin as a quarter dollar. Even the original 1999 NJ State Quarter reverse (which was what I thought was supposed to be used with modified legends and maybe a zooming in of the design to better fit the frame) was too much being asked of a coin that size but at least seems more suitable as it created a natural exergue.
A permanent design change on a denomination really should look better than any of these proposed designs…
Also, CROSSING THE DELAWARE should be removed. If I can’t tell what’s being depicted on the coin, it can’t possibly be a good design (looking at you, MONTICELLO, on the nickel reverse)
All I can say here is I doubly agree….
Ditto here.
All can say is , I agree
Mike Unser –
This change in design is not 100% set in stone yet as legislation is pending in Congress that could require a different quarter dollar program altogether.
NumisdudeTX
All I can say here is,
Lets hope not! NOT another rotating Quarter design stretching on for decades. We are all getting older and might not out live the next series.
Sheesh!
Personally liked the bicentennial design on the quarter…. that should have been made permanent, but yes they just need to redesign the basic designs… all of them..penny nickel dime quarter have had excessive runs
Agree but somehow they are now ”political” too. It would almost be better to go back to generic Liberty Head designs.
Each denomination now has a constituency that’ll defend it to the death. Remember what happened when the preliminary Lewis and Clark designs were shown? The VA congressional delegation went ballistic, claiming that the proposals “dishonored” Jefferson. They held everything up for so long that the program missed its actual bicentennial by a year.
It’ll never happen, but Congress has to be taken out of the design loop.
I honestly would not mind that!
Are these part of a series?