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Rare, 1893 Isabella Quarter with Choice Brilliant Uncirculated features.
1893, Columbian Isabella Quarter Commemorative with Almost Uncirculated features. The mintage is a mere 24,214.
In January 1893, well after the Columbian half dollar was a reality, Mrs. Potter Palmer, well-known Chicago socialite, patron of the arts, and grande dame of the Exposition,[1] suggested to the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives that $10,000 of the money earmarked for the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Exposition be given in the form of a special issue of souvenir (as they were called) quarter dollars. This was translated into a law approved March 3, 1893, which stated that the production of these quarters would not exceed 40,000 and that the pieces would be of standard weight and fineness. Like the Columbian half dollars, the quarters would be made from metal taken from uncurrent silver coins held by the Treasury Department.
The Board of Lady Managers had been formed at the insistence of Susan B. Anthony, who has determined that women should be adequately represented in the administration of the Exposition. Interestingly, there was also a Board of Gentlemen Managers, but this did not get much publicity, as it was taken for granted. The Board of Lady Managers took complete charge of the quarter-dollar project and stated that the coins were to have female motifs. Kenyon Cox, a well-known illustrator, was commissioned to prepare sketches, apparently furnishing motifs that were eventually modified by Charles E. Barber at the Mint. However, another artist, Caroline C. Peddle, one of Cox's former art students, was also heavily involved and furnished sketches, all of which were eventually rejected.[2] For the obverse, a depiction of Queen Isabella of Spain was suggested, for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella furnished the financing for Columbus' voyage of discovery, Isabella vowing to pledge her crown and jewels if necessary (according to popular legend).
In April 1893 the Treasury Department responded by submitting its own two obverse designs to the Board of Lady Managers, one sketch showing Isabella as a young queen (this was eventually chosen) and the other with a facing head of Isabella as an adult. Thus the Isabella quarter, as it was soon to be designated, became the first legal tender United States coin to depict a foreign monarch.[3]
The sketch for the reverse design depicted a woman kneeling, holding a distaff, showing woman's industry, although an alternative suggestion was that an illustration of the Woman's Building at the fair would be appropriate. The models and dies for the Isabella quarter were prepared by Charles E. Barber, chief engraver of the Mint, who also designed the obverse of the Columbian half dollar.
The American Journal of Numismatics in October 1893 reviewed the design: "Of its artistic merit, as of the harmony of which is reported to have prevailed at the meetings of the [Board of Lady Managers of the Woman's Department at the Exposition], 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 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 buildings, for instance, on the other, is painful.
"If these coins really represent the highest achievements of our medalist and our mints, under the inspiration of an opportunity without restrictions, the like of which has never been presented hitherto in the history of our national coinage, we might as well despair of its future, and we should be forced to believe that the merely mechanical side of the art of coining was all that was thought worthy of attention. We are not ready to admit this to be true."
Further from the same quotation: "Washington Irving once said, 'In America literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity.' The latter, surely, have not languished; the cultivation of the former, we firmly believe, is destined to reach as high a standard; but we must admit that we shall search in vain in our national coinage for evidence to sustain our confidence."
The account went on to note that the figure on the reverse of the Isabella quarter was "mournfully suggestive of the old antislavery token, AM I NOT A WOMAN AND A SISTER."
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ZC1955 RM
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