April 5 is scheduled as the official launch date from the U.S. Mint throughout the Federal Reserve of a 2021 Washington quarter dollar bearing a new reverse layout illustrating Gen. Washington crossing the Delaware River with his troops during the American Revolution.
Issuance of the Washington quarter dollar follows from a provision of the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008, Public Law 110-456.
The 56-coin America the Beautiful Quarters Program also instituted beneath the 2008 legislation is set to conclude with the January 2021 launch of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site quarter dollar representing the state of Alabama.
2021 layout
The reverse for its post-parks 2021 rendering portrays Washington at left foreground, facing right, with a sword in his extended right hand pointing the way for troops at a following boat.
On Christmas 1776, Washington, along with 2,400 troops and artillery, started his historic crossing of the Delaware River in preparation for a surprise attack on British and Hessian soldiers during the American Revolutionary War in the Battle of Trenton.
The Sowards reverse is paired, under Public Law 110-456, using sculptor John Flanagan’s authentic portrait of Washington that appeared on the Washington quarter from its debut in 1932, through 1998.
Back in 1999, Flanagan’s Washington portrait — predicated on French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon’s bust of Washington — was reduced proportionally in size by 15 percent from the first by subsequently U.S. Mint Sculptor-Engraver William Cousins to accommodate inscriptions shifted from the reverse. The decrease, employed for the 50 State Quarters Program from Cousins’ rendition, has appeared on all million bucks since.
The 2021 designs will also be implemented as a 3-inch, 5-ounce .999 fine silver bullion coin.
Second rendering
The 2021 Washington quarter dollar will be the second U.S. Mint quarter dollar release to keep a reverse layout illustrating Washington crossing the Delaware.
The 1999 New Jersey State quarter dollar inverse by subsequently U.S. Mint Sculptor-Engraver Alfred Maletsky depicts another view of George Washington in the bow and also members of the Continental Army because they cross the Delaware on Christmas night 1776 led toward Trenton.
The 1999 rendering relies on Washington Crossing the Delaware, three 1851 oil-on-canvas paintings by the German-American artist Emanuel Leutze.
The 2021 reverse is set to be the permanent layout for its denomination, but legislation placed before Congress could result in its replacement in 2022 with a new collection of 56 circulating commemorative coins, one for each state, the District of Columbia and territory. The coins, if accepted, would celebrate the achievements and contributions of women in U.S. history.
The Senate added an amendment to this bill, which means the House must approve the amended version.
