You may be, at this very moment, carrying some history in the making in your pocket and not even know it.
An image of Former First Lady, and US delegate to the United Nations Eleanor Roosevelt, is now featured on US quarters that have been showing up in change since June.
That coin breaks historic new ground on a number of fronts.
In my view, it is one of the most significant developments in the recent history of US coin production, I say that as someone who has followed news about US coins for decades, and as a long time US coin enthusiast.
First, a little background:
When I was growing up in Dallas County, I discovered the hobby of coin collecting.
This was back when I was in 6th grade, which would have been, let’s see, approximately “umpty-ump, mumble, mumble” years ago. Let’s just say Shenandoah’s Everly Brothers were still one of the hottest national acts in “rock and roll,” and Van Meter’s Bob Feller was still settling in and getting comfortable as a new member of Baseball’s Hall of Fame, which he had joined less than five years earlier.
Coin collecting, in those days, was a great hobby for a kid with lots of time, but little money.
You could put together a pretty decent coin collection just by sifting through your pocket change and checking dates and mint marks of circulating pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and even half dollars that crossed your path during trips with your parents to the grocery store, from the change you received when you bought a pack of bubble gum & baseball trading cards, or from the local “Ben Franklin” Five & Dime store where we bought school supplies.
Some banks - the one in nearby Earlham was one I recall - even carried silver dollars dated from the 1880s to the 1920s. You had to ask for them, but once you did, the bank tellers would sell them to you at face value. One paper dollar for one very old silver dollar. A dozen if you wanted them and had the money. Which I never did.
It was quite a deal and nobody thought it was any big thing.
Around 1963, however, silver prices began to rise rapidly. The ability to find old silver coins in change came to screeching halt. People were hanging on to silver coins, and either hoarding them or melting them down. Silver dollars - which now contained significantly more than a dollar’s worth of silver - disappeared over night. The value of the silver content of the even dimes, quarters and half dollars far exceeded their face value, too.
Congress responded by passing the Coinage Act of 1965. It changed the metallic composition of the coins, and we switched to the “clad” coins we still use today. The older “silver” coins vanished from every day circulation.
A design change in Lincoln pennies in 1959, hastened the demise in every day circulation of the old “wheat ear” pennies at about the same time. They contained more copper than they do today. The Lincoln Memorial first appeared on the “tails” side of the penny in 1959. As copper prices started to rise higher than the face value of a penny, the classic “wheat ears” made the older pennies easier to spot and hoard, which is exactly what happened. So, at the same time silver coins were disappearing, “wheat ear” pennies pretty much vanished from circulation, as well.
At that point, it became pretty hard to be a coin collector - especially for a kid. Finding anything in your pocket change worth collecting, or even more than a few years old, became pretty much impossible.
With the exception of the Franklin half dollar, which had a pretty short run from 1948-1963 (it was replaced by the Kennedy half dollar in 1964) basic coin designs hadn’t even changed in decades, so coin collecting wasn’t even all that interesting any more.
After several years of collector doldrums, the US Mint decided to stimulate interest in coin collecting. It stepped up its production of commemorative coins - made to be sold to collectors, at a profit, and not intended for general circulation.
It also launched some initiatives which put temporary new designs on the “tails” side of some circulating coins, hoping to re-engage the kind of collector I had been when I was a kid - casual collectors who collected what they could find; who couldn’t afford to buy the pricier direct to collector coins the Mint was churning out; and who enjoyed the “thrill of the hunt” looking for coins in your change that you needed for your collection.
You may recall the series of quarters that honored the 50 states. Iowa’s quarter appeared in 2004 with a “tails” design that honored Arbor Day, and Grant Wood. In 2017, another series of quarters “America the Beautiful - National Parks” featured Iowa’s Effigy Mounds National Monument.
Both of these coins were minted to generally circulate. They were the work horses of American coinage. You can still find them in change today.
The Eleanor Roosevelt quarter, released this past June, is also a widely circulating coin. You may have come across one already. It’s part of the “American Women Quarters” series, authorized by Congress in 2020. Coin releases under the program started in 2022, and continue at the rate of five new coins per year, honoring different American women of great achievement. George Washington remains on the “heads” side of the coin. Eleanor Roosevelt is on the “tails” side.
Here’s why the Eleanor Roosevelt quarter is not only special, but historic:
Her husband, President Franklin Roosevelt’s image already appears on the US dime, as it has since 1946. Eleanor Roosevelt now appearing on a generally circulating US quarter, makes Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt the only spouses in US history to both be honored with their likeness on widely circulating US coins. Both are so honored for their own accomplishments, in their own right.
President Roosevelt is honored by the dime’s design, of course, for leading the country through the Great Depression and World War II. He also was a powerful leader in showing what people with “disabilities” can accomplish, despite their physical circumstances.
Eleanor Roosevelt is honored for her untiring work to bring about greater social justice, and for her leadership after leaving the White House, as a US delegate to the United Nations, to enact the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I make the distinction that both Roosevelts now appear on widely/generally circulating coins that can show up in your change at Starbucks, because other Presidents and First Ladies have been honored - for those roles, and in tandem - on high ticket, precious metal medals - usually gold - and coins that were never intended to circulate among the general population
Investors may see them, but average folks, not so much.
Anybody can have a Franklin Roosevelt dime or an Eleanor Roosevelt quarter in their pocket, and given enough time, no doubt everybody will.
Fishing a coin out of your pocket - in this case, a Franklin Roosevelt dime - that features the image of a President isn’t that unsual.
Four other Presidents are featured on widely circulating US coins - Lincoln on the penny, Jefferson on the nickel; Washington on the quarter; and John F. Kennedy, if you count the half dollar which is primarily minted for collectors these days, tough some older Kennedy half dollars are still in circulation.
Eleanor Roosevelt, however, stands alone as a First Lady with her image on a U.S. coin in wide circulation. She got there in her own right, for her own accomplishments as a leader of great distinction, beyond her remarkable and also historic record as First Lady.
That the Roosevelts are the only spouses in American history to be so honored - as individuals, no less - makes this an even greater moment in the history of US coins.
You can buy an Eleanor Roosevelt quarter at your local bank or credit union at face value, or order them by the roll or bag directly from the US Mint with a surcharge: catalog.usmint.gov.
By the way, sharing Eleanor Roosevelt’s story and accomplishments with your kids or grandkids would be a great idea - and this shiny new quarter might just be a timely and terrific way to get their attention.
In the meantime, check your change. You likely have some history happening right there in your pocket.
Barry Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains is a weekly column that is part of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative. The Collaborative links some of Iowa’s best thinkers and writers directly with readers to help fill the gap left as many of Iowa’s traditional newspapers cut back on opinion, analysis and even reporting on a wide range of topics. Please review the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative columns listed below and consider subscribing - either for free or with a paid subscription - to help ensure that readers continue to have access to informed and thoughtful opinion, analysis, commentary, and reporting. Your subscriptions, especially paid subscriptions, are what makes this effort work and allow these columns to be available.
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