Rainbow toned 1917 Type 1 25¢

Standing Liberty quarter dollars don’t typically come with rainbow coloration like this 1917 Bared Breast example graded Mint State 67 full head by Numismatic Guaranty Corp that sold for $7,200 at Heritage’s Jan. 9 Session 1 FUN auction.

That price was more than double what a brilliant PCGS MS-67 full head example brought just two months ago, showing that buyers were willing to pay top-dollar for this beautifully toned representative. 


1936 Lincoln, Doubled Die Obverse centInside Coin World: 1917 and 1936 Lincoln, Doubled Die Obverse cents: Among the columns and features exclusive to the Feb. 11 issue of Coin World is “Coin Values Spotlight,” which this week focuses on two Lincoln, Doubled Die cents.


Sculptor Hermon MacNeil’s Standing Liberty quarter dollar was first released in 1916 and the design, depicting a striding, topless Liberty, was slightly modified in 1917. Later that year the design changed more dramatically, with Liberty’s top covered up with chain mail and the reverse stars repositioned.

The 1917 quarters with the partially nude Liberty are sometimes called Type I, while the Mailed Breast version is called Type II. 

There is little in the public record to suggest that the public’s concern with nudity was at the core of the design change; rather it is likely that the addition of protective chain mail had symbolic concerns related to World War I and MacNeil’s modification of the design improved striking.

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