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This is a 2019-W Lowell National Historical Park quarter from the West Point Mint. Circulating America the Beautiful issue, copper-nickel clad, and one of the first W mint-mark quarters the United States ever put into pocket change.
The reverse shows a mill girl at a power loom. The circular bobbin battery sits in the foreground. Through the window behind her are the Boott Cotton Mill clock tower, smokestack, and mill buildings.
Legends read LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, 2019, and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
Designer and sculptor initials are on the reverse. The obverse has the restored Flanagan portrait of Washington with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, QUARTER DOLLAR, and the W mint mark under the motto. Reeded edge.
History & Significance:
Lowell was America’s first large planned industrial city. In the 1820s the Boston Associates built brick mills on the Merrimack River, cut canals, and hired young women from New England farms to run the looms. Those “mill girls” lived in company boarding houses, drew cash wages, and later pushed for shorter hours, better conditions, abolition, and education. The park preserves that mill system. It was established June 5, 1978.
The quarter is that story in one room: the worker, the machine, and the mill outside the window.
This is the 46th coin in the America the Beautiful program and the first 2019 design. Official circulation date was February 4, 2019. Launch ceremony in Lowell on February 6, 2019.
Why this coin hits:
In 2019 the U.S. Mint did something it had not done on circulating quarters. West Point struck 2,000,000 of each design with a W mint mark and mixed them into Philadelphia and Denver bags headed for banks. Not sold in mint sets. Not released to dealers in bulk. You found them in change.Lowell was the first design of that hunt.
Who made it, why, and the artists:
Struck at the United States Mint, West Point, New York. Obverse is John Flanagan’s Washington, restored by William Cousins. Reverse designed by Joel Iskowitz of the Mint’s Artistic Infusion Program and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. Issued to honor Lowell National Historical Park and to put a scarce W quarter into circulation on purpose.
How It Was Made & Full Specs:
Business strike for circulation. Copper-nickel clad: 75% copper / 25% nickel over a pure copper core. No silver. No privy mark. That starts on the 2020-W coins. This is W only.
Country: United States
Mint: West Point (W)
Year: 2019
Denomination: Quarter Dollar / 25 cents
Metal: Copper-nickel clad copper
Weight: 5.67 g
Diameter: 24.3 mm
Edge: Reeded
Strike: Circulating business strike
KM#: 694
Obverse designer: John Flanagan / William Cousins
Reverse designer: Joel Iskowitz
Reverse sculptor: Phebe Hemphill
Theme: Lowell National Historical Park, Massachusetts
Series: America the Beautiful Quarters
W mintage: 2,000,000
Philadelphia mintage: 165,800,000
Denver mintage: 182,200,000
Special features: First-year circulating W mint mark, first 2019 W design, mixed into bank bags
Shipping: Fast via USPS with tracking.
Check out the shop for more West Point quarters and other low-mintage circulating hunts.
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