For the 200^th anniversary of the birth of George Washington, a commemorative quarter was planned.  An open competition was held, and even though the Fine Arts Commission recommended the design of Laura Gardin Fraser, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon was having none of it, and overrode their recommendation and selected a design by John Flanagan.  This injustice was finally rectified in 2022 with the adoption of Fraser’s obverse design on the quarter, at least through 2025.

In production now for just over ninety years, the Washington quarter has undergone several changes.  In 1965, the alloy was changed from 90% silver to a “sandwich” design with a copper-nickel outer layer bonded to an inner core of pure copper.  In 1976, a special Bicentennial reverse by Jack Ahr featured a military drummer.  In 1999, several programs got underway featuring a series of reverses that featured states and territories (1999-2009), national parks and shrines (2010-2020), and Washington’s crossing of the Delaware (2021).  The most recent is the American Women series, and is currently running.

Most of the regular Washington Quarters are quite available, with the mintmarked issues of 1932 being the traditional “keys”.  However, some of the Doubled Die obverses are quite costly – seen on the 1937, 1942-D, 1943 and 1943-S.  The two over-mintmarks in 1950 are also scarce.  Needless to say, ultra-high grade (MS67 and higher) coins are also much prized and can get quite expensive.