JULY 9
1917•Standing Liberty Quarter Type II — Redesign Authorized
2026•Morgan & Peace Dollars
Congress Authorizes the Standing Liberty Quarter Redesign
On July 9, 1917, federal legislation authorized changes to one of America’s newest coins: Hermon A. MacNeil’s Standing Liberty quarter. The original design had been in circulation for only months, yet officials were already arguing that it needed modification. Public Law 27 permitted changes to the coin’s relief, inscriptions, eagle, and stars. The resulting Type II quarter became one of the most recognizable mid-series redesigns in U.S. numismatics—raising the eagle, placing three stars beneath it, changing the fields, and clothing Liberty in chain mail as the United States entered World War I.
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A New Quarter That Almost Immediately Changed
The Standing Liberty quarter had barely begun its public life when the federal government moved to alter it.
The first 1916-dated coins were struck at Philadelphia late in that year, with only 52,000 produced. The new quarter entered wider circulation in January 1917.
By July, Congress had approved legislation permitting significant modifications.
That sequence makes the Standing Liberty quarter unusual. Many American coin designs remained essentially unchanged for years before receiving noticeable revisions. MacNeil’s quarter underwent a major transformation during its first full year of production.
Collectors now divide the early coins into two major forms: Type I, representing the original design, and Type II, representing the revised 1917 version.
The master calendar uses July 9 because it is a firm documentary anchor.
The United States government’s July 1917 catalog of public documents records H.R. 3548, “an act for modification of designs of current quarter dollar,” as approved July 9, 1917. It became Public Law 27 of the 65th Congress.
The annual report of the Director of the Mint likewise stated that, under the act of Congress approved July 9, the recently adopted quarter-dollar design had been modified.
This distinction matters.
July 9 is not necessarily the exact day the first Type II quarter came off a press. Surviving records do not establish a single unquestioned first-production day with the same certainty.
What July 9 gives us is something stronger for a historical calendar: the exact legal authorization for the redesign.
The Standing Liberty Quarter Begins
The quarter that Congress was modifying had emerged from a sweeping redesign of American silver coinage.
In 1916, the Barber dime, quarter, and half dollar had reached the point at which Treasury officials believed they could be replaced without further congressional authorization under the long-standing interpretation of the 25-year design rule.
Three new designs resulted.
Adolph A. Weinman created the Winged Liberty Head dime—better known as the Mercury dime—and the Walking Liberty half dollar. Sculptor Hermon A. MacNeil created the new quarter.
Together, the three coins became some of the most celebrated designs of the twentieth-century American coinage renaissance.
MacNeil was an accomplished American sculptor whose work included monumental and architectural sculpture as well as medals.
His quarter presented Liberty as a full-length standing figure rather than a traditional portrait bust.
On the original obverse, Liberty stands within a gateway or opening. She holds a shield in her left hand and an olive branch in her right. The imagery combines readiness to defend the nation with a preference for peace.
LIBERTY appears above her. IN GOD WE TRUST is divided across the sides, and the date appears below.
The original reverse shows an eagle in flight surrounded by thirteen stars, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, and QUARTER DOLLAR completing the design.
It was unlike any previous United States quarter.
The Rare 1916 Standing Liberty Quarter
The series began with one of the great twentieth-century key dates.
Only 52,000 Standing Liberty quarters dated 1916 were struck, all at Philadelphia.
Production occurred late in the year, and the coins were not broadly released until early 1917.
That tiny mintage immediately separated the 1916 from the far larger production that followed.
Today it is one of the classic rarities of twentieth-century regular-issue U.S. coinage. Even heavily circulated examples command substantial collector interest.
The 1916 also preserves the original Type I design in its first form.
The redesign story is often reduced to a simple tale: the public objected to Liberty’s exposed breast, so the Mint covered it.
The historical record is more complicated.
MacNeil himself was dissatisfied with the way the Mint had translated portions of his design into coinage. Early in 1917, he sought permission to revise the quarter.
Among the desired changes were adjustments to the fields, the placement of the eagle and stars, and other artistic details.
By mid-February, his revised concept also showed Liberty wearing chain mail.
Thus the chain-mail revision cannot safely be explained solely as a last-minute response to public outrage after the coin reached circulation. The design’s evolution was already underway.
Nevertheless, the Type I quarter’s exposed breast became the source of one of American numismatics’ most persistent legends.
For generations, collectors repeated stories that moral reformers were scandalized by the design and forced the Treasury to cover Liberty.
Organizations associated with the anti-obscenity movement, including the Society for the Suppression of Vice, appear in many retellings.
There was contemporary sensitivity to the design, but historians have challenged the simplistic version in which a nationwide public scandal alone caused the redesign.
MacNeil had artistic reasons for revising the coin, and the formal legislation discussed technical and design issues rather than simply ordering that Liberty be clothed.
The chain mail remains visually dramatic, but the historical path to it was more complicated than the popular story suggests.
The Stacking Complaint
A more official explanation centered on the coin’s physical characteristics.
Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo communicated concerns to Representative William A. Ashbrook of Ohio, chairman of the House Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures.
During the legislative process, supporters of the change asserted that the existing quarters did not stack properly.
The claim has been questioned by later numismatic researchers.
But whether the stacking problem was genuine, exaggerated, or simply a convenient justification, it became part of the congressional argument for allowing modifications before the design had completed the normal statutory period.
The Mint could not freely make major changes to a recently adopted coin design.
Federal law limited how often coin designs could be altered without congressional approval. Because the Standing Liberty quarter had just been introduced, the Treasury needed legislative authority for modifications that went beyond ordinary die maintenance.
McAdoo approached Ashbrook in April 1917.
Legislation moved through Congress during the spring and early summer. The Senate debated the proposal on April 30. The House took it up in June.
On July 9, the measure became law.
The law permitted modifications while attempting to preserve the essential design.
It allowed the Mint to alter the surface so that the fields had a slight concavity, to adjust the lettering and stars, and to change the position of the eagle.
The statute did not simply grant unlimited permission to redesign the quarter from scratch.
That is important when comparing the legislation with the finished Type II coin.
The most famous visual change—Liberty’s chain-mail covering—is not the clearest feature of the statutory language. The final production design therefore reflects both the authorized technical modifications and additional artistic development occurring around the same time.
Type I Versus Type II
The easiest way to understand the result is to place the two types side by side conceptually.
On the Type I obverse, Liberty’s upper body is partially exposed.
On the Type II, chain mail covers her torso.
The reverse changed noticeably as well. The eagle was raised higher, and three of the thirteen stars were moved beneath it. The arrangement created a clearer division between the bird and the star field.
Other details of the obverse, fields, lettering, and relief were adjusted.
Collectors can therefore distinguish the two types instantly even without checking the date.
The timing gives Liberty’s new armor additional resonance.
The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
The quarter redesign was already developing, but by the time Congress approved it in July, America was mobilizing for World War I.
A Liberty figure wearing chain mail and carrying a shield naturally appeared more martial than the original version.
MacNeil’s symbolism had always balanced defense and peace: shield in one hand, olive branch in the other.
In 1917, that balance had become painfully relevant.
The year 1917 is particularly appealing to type collectors because both major versions of the Standing Liberty quarter were produced.
Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco struck Type I quarters before the redesign. The mints then produced Type II coins after the change.
That gives 1917 a distinctive place in the series: collectors can assemble same-year examples showing the quarter’s transformation.
The mintmarks D and S appear near the lower left area of the obverse, while Philadelphia pieces carry no mintmark.
The result is a compact numismatic record of a federal design controversy unfolding in real time.
Full Head: The Great Standing Liberty Quarter Challenge
Standing Liberty quarters are also famous for a grading designation: Full Head.
MacNeil’s design could be difficult to strike sharply, particularly at Liberty’s head and other high points.
Coins showing the required full head detail receive the FH designation from major grading services.
On many dates, sharply struck Full Head examples are substantially scarcer and more valuable than coins of the same numerical grade without the designation.
This strike problem became one of the defining characteristics of the series.
The redesign did not solve every weakness.
On early Standing Liberty quarters, the date stood in a relatively exposed position and wore away quickly in circulation.
Many surviving examples are found with weak or completely missing dates.
In 1925, the Mint modified the obverse again by recessing the date below a protective ledge.
Collectors sometimes call this later configuration Type III.
The 1925 change dramatically improved the date’s durability without transforming the overall design as radically as the 1917 Type II revision.
Despite all the effort devoted to revising it, the Standing Liberty quarter had a relatively short life.
It was produced from 1916 through 1930, with no quarters struck in 1931.
In 1932, the Washington quarter appeared to commemorate the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth.
What began as an anniversary design became a permanent replacement.
MacNeil’s quarter therefore lasted only about fifteen years, yet it generated three major design configurations, famous strike rarities, a key-date 1916, an important overdate, and an enduring collector following.
The 1918/7-S Overdate
One of the great rarities of the series emerged soon after the Type II redesign.
The 1918/7-S Standing Liberty quarter shows an 8 punched over a 7 in the date.
The overdate resulted from a working die prepared with elements from two different years.
Because the date area wore rapidly, many circulated examples lost the detail needed to identify the variety.
Well-preserved examples are highly prized.
The 1918/7-S reinforces how intensely collectors study the short Standing Liberty series: even a single altered digit can transform an otherwise ordinary quarter into a major rarity.
Type collecting is one of the simplest ways to appreciate the Standing Liberty quarter.
A collector can seek a Type I example, a Type II example, and perhaps the later recessed-date Type III.
That small group tells nearly the entire design story.
The Type II is especially significant because it reflects an unusual combination of artistic revision, technical concern, legislation, wartime symbolism, and Mint production.
It is not merely a minor hub change visible only to specialists.
It visibly changed Liberty and reorganized the reverse.
The Standing Liberty quarter is remembered as one of America’s most beautiful coins, but its beauty did not emerge through a simple, uninterrupted design process.
The original coin lasted only months before officials, legislators, and its own sculptor became involved in changing it.
On July 9, 1917, Congress supplied the legal authority that allowed the Mint to move forward with those modifications.
The result became the Type II Standing Liberty quarter: Liberty in chain mail, the eagle flying higher, and three stars positioned beneath it.
That revised design would define most of the series.
The date therefore captures something collectors often forget when admiring a finished coin. Coin designs are not static works of art. They are products of artists, machinery, laws, politics, manufacturing problems, public reaction, and institutional compromise.
Few coins demonstrate that process more clearly than the Standing Liberty quarter—and few dates mark it more precisely than July 9, 1917.
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