Originally, the Treasury Department proposed to mark the 200th anniversary of President and Founding Father George Washington’s birth with a commemorative half-dollar and held a design competition to find a suitable design. Exercising its authority in coinage matters, Congress changed the denomination for the commemorative from the half dollar to the Washington Quarter. But it was Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon who most compromised the process. Mellon refused to accept the Laura Gardin Fraser design chosen by the Washington Bicentennial Commission not once but twice, instead favoring the submission of sculptor John Flanagan.
Upon their release, Washington Quarters proved popular with the public. Instead of being a one-year commemorative issue as originally intended, production of the coin continued beyond 1932. This decision marked the end of the Standing Liberty design.
Silver Washington Quarters were not produced in 1933, but production resumed in ’34 and continued until 1964, after which the denomination’s composition was changed to copper-nickel clad.
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