Isabella quarter
United States | |
Value | 25 cents (.25 US$) |
---|---|
Mass | 6.25 g |
Diameter | 24.3 mm |
Edge | reeded |
Composition |
|
Silver | .18084 troy oz |
Years of minting | 1893 |
Obverse | |
Design | Queen Isabella I |
Designer | Charles E. Barber |
Design date | 1893 |
Reverse | |
Design | Kneeling female with distaff and spindle, symbolizing women's industry. |
Designer | Charles E. Barber after a sketch by George T. Morgan |
Design date | 1893 |
The Isabella quarter or Columbian Exposition quarter was a
The Board of Lady Managers, headed by Chicago socialite Bertha Palmer, wanted a woman to design the coin and engaged Caroline Peddle, a sculptor. Peddle left the project after disagreements with Mint officials, who then decided to have Barber do the work. The reverse design, showing a kneeling woman spinning flax, with a distaff in her left hand and a spindle in her right, symbolizes women's industry and was based on a sketch by Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan.
The quarter's design was deprecated in the numismatic press. The coin did not sell well at the Exposition; its price of $1 was the same as for the Columbian half dollar, and the quarter was seen as the worse deal. Nearly half of the authorized issue was returned to the Mint to be melted; thousands more were purchased at face value by the Lady Managers and entered the coin market in the early 20th century. Today, they are popular with collectors and are valued in the hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on condition.
Legislation
In August 1892, Congress passed an act authorizing the first
Authorization for the Board of Lady Managers had been included in the 1890 law giving federal authority for the Exposition at the insistence of women's advocate, Susan B. Anthony, who was determined to show that women could successfully assist in the management of the fair. To that end, the Lady Managers sought a coin to sell in competition with the commemorative half dollar at the Exposition, which Congress had approved in 1892.[3] Passage of the half dollar legislation had been difficult, and the Lady Managers decided to wait until the next session of Congress to make their request. When the half dollar appeared in November 1892, the Lady Managers considered it inartistic and determined to do better. Palmer wanted the Lady Managers "to have credit of being the authors of the first really beautiful and artistic coin that has ever been issued by the government of the United States".[4]
In January 1893, Palmer approached the House Appropriations Committee, asking that $10,000 of the funds already designated to be paid over to the Lady Managers by the federal government be in the form of souvenir quarters, which they could sell at a premium. On March 3, 1893, Congress duly passed an act authorising the souvenir coin, which was to be to the specifications of the quarter struck for circulation, and with a design to be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury. Total mintage of the special quarter would be limited to 40,000 specimens.[3][4]
Inception
Desiring a beautiful coin to sell, Palmer asked artist
After Congress authorized the souvenir quarter, the
Palmer, by letter, hired Peddle to do the design work in late March. She instructed the artist that the coin was to have a figure of Isabella on the obverse, and the inscription "Commemorative coin issued for the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition by Act of Congress, 1492–1892" on the reverse, as well as the denomination and the name of the country. The chairwoman did not request that Peddle provide the Lady Managers with the design before sending it to the Mint. Palmer informed Carlisle and Leech of her instructions. Carlisle had no objection to a coin being designed by a woman, or to the use of Isabella's head. The secretary told Palmer that the reverse, with its long inscription, would appear like a business advertising token, and he asked that it be revised.[7] Leech sent a note to Superintendent Bosbyshell informing him that the Lady Managers would likely have an outside sculptor create the obverse and asking him to have Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber create some designs for the reverse for possible use.[7]
Obedient to Palmer's instructions, Peddle sent Leech sketches of a seated Isabella, with the long inscription on the reverse; she hoped the Mint Director would allow her to shorten it. Leech was unhappy with the reverse, and decided that Barber would design that side of the coin. Barber and Bosbyshell wrote to Leech that Isabella's legs would appear distorted if the seated figure were used and advocated a head in profile. Carlisle agreed, stating that he had only given permission for a head of Isabella. Peddle was informed that Barber would produce the reverse, though the design would be sent to her for approval, and she would have to change her obverse. Meanwhile, Palmer was growing increasingly anxious: with a timeline of two months from design approval to the availability of the actual coins, she feared that the pieces would not be available for sale until well into the fair's May to October run. Under pressure from all sides, Peddle threatened to quit the project,[8] writing that she "could not consent to do half of a piece of work".[9]
What finally wore down Peddle's patience were two letters dated April 7. One, from Leech, asserted his right as Mint director to prescribe coin designs, and told Peddle that the obverse would be a head of Isabella, while the reverse would be based on sketches by a Mint engraver which she would be free to model. The second, from Bosbyshell, imposed the additional requirement that Isabella not wear a crown, which he deemed inappropriate on an American coin. On April 8, 1893, Caroline Peddle withdrew from the project.[10]
Following Peddle's resignation, Leech wrote a conciliatory letter to Palmer, who responded regretting that the three of them had not worked together, rather than at cross-purposes. Palmer had written to suggest an alternative to the inscription reverse: that the coin depict the Women's Building at the fair. Barber prepared sketches and rejected the idea, stating that the building would appear a mere streak on the coin in the required low relief. Instead, he favored a sketch prepared by Assistant Engraver
Bosbyshell informed Leech by letter that Stewart Cullin, curator at the
Design and reception
The obverse of the Isabella quarter depicts a crowned and richly clothed bust of that Spanish queen. According to art historian
Numismatic historian Don Taxay, in his study of early U.S. commemoratives, dismissed contemporary accounts (such as in the fair's official book) that Kenyon Cox had provided a design for the quarter; he noted that the artist's son had strongly denied that his father was involved in the coin's creation. Taxay deemed the design "commonplace" and "typical of Barber's style", stating that "the modeling, though somewhat more highly relieved than on the half dollar, is without distinction".[20]
The American Journal of Numismatics had other criticisms of the quarter:
Of its artistic merit, as of the harmony which is reported to have prevailed at the meetings of those [Lady] Managers, perhaps the less said the better; we do not know who designed it, but in this instance, as in the Half Dollar, the contrast between the examples of the numismatic art of the nation, as displayed on the Columbian coins, on the one hand, and the spirited and admirable work of the architects of the [Exposition's] buildings, on the other, is painful. If these two coins really represent the highest achievements of our medallists and our mints ... we might as well despair of its future ... We are not ready to admit this to be true.[19]
Release and collecting
Minting of what Barber dubbed "showy quarters" began at the Philadelphia Mint on June 13, 1893,
The pieces did not sell well at the exposition. They were for sale only at the Women's Building at the fair, or by mail; the half dollar could be purchased at several outlets.[23] Some 15,000 quarters were sold to collectors, dealers, and fairgoers, including several thousand of them purchased by the Scott Stamp and Coin Company. Fairgoers viewed the quarter as not as good a deal as the half dollar, as both sold for the same price of $1. Of the remainder, approximately 10,000 quarters were bought at face value by Palmer and other Lady Managers; 15,809 were returned to the government for melting. After deducting pieces returned for melting, a total of 24,214 coins were distributed to the public.[25][26]
The large quantities possessed by the Lady Managers made their way into the market through dealers and other vendors in the 1920s. By 1930, prices had risen to the original issue price; by 1955, uncirculated specimens sold for $20.
See also
- Columbian half dollar – The half dollar commemorative also minted for the exposition.
- Early United States commemorative coins
References
- ^ Lange, p. 126.
- ^ Swiatek & Breen, pp. 113–114.
- ^ a b c Bowers Encyclopedia, Part 8.
- ^ a b Moran, p. 87.
- ^ Moran, pp. 87–91.
- ^ Moran, p. 88.
- ^ a b Moran, p. 91.
- ^ Moran, pp. 92–93.
- ^ Taxay, p. 10.
- ^ Moran, p. 93.
- ^ Moran, pp. 91, 94.
- ^ Moran, p. 94.
- ^ Taxay, p. 11.
- ^ a b Moran, p. 97.
- ^ Taxay, pp. 11–13.
- ^ Vermeule, p. 92.
- ^ Yeoman, p. 1047.
- ^ Vermeule, pp. 92–93.
- ^ a b Vermeule, p. 93.
- ^ a b Taxay, p. 13.
- ^ Moran, p. 98.
- ^ Bowers Encyclopedia, Part 1.
- ^ a b Bowers, p. 42.
- ^ a b Bowers Encyclopedia, Part 10.
- ^ a b Bowers, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Moran, p. 113.
- ^ Yeoman, p. 1048.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-7948-2256-9.
- Lange, David W. (2006). History of the United States Mint and its Coinage. Atlanta, Ga.: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-1972-9.
- Moran, Michael F. (2008). Striking Change: The Great Artistic Collaboration of Theodore Roosevelt and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Atlanta, Ga.: Whitman Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7948-2356-6.
- OCLC 1357564.
- Swiatek, Anthony; ISBN 978-0-668-04765-4.
- ISBN 978-0-674-62840-3.
- Yeoman, R.S. (2018). A Guide Book of United States Coins 2014 (4th ed.). Atlanta, GA: Whitman Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-0-7948-4580-3.
Other sources
- Bowers, Q. David. "Chapter 8: Silver commemoratives (and clad too), Part 1". Commemorative Coins of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia. Retrieved October 3, 2012. For further information on source, see here.
- Bowers, Q. David. "Chapter 8: Silver commemoratives (and clad too), Part 8". Commemorative Coins of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 30, 2012. For further information on source, see here.
- Bowers, Q. David. "Chapter 8: Silver commemoratives (and clad too), Part 10". Commemorative Coins of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 30, 2012. For further information on source, see here.