1901-S Barber Quarter (1892-1916)

Intriguing History

In 1901, the United States was stepping onto the world stage: victory in the 1898 Spanish-American War brought overseas territories, President McKinley's 1901 assassination elevated Theodore Roosevelt, and his trust-busting, conservationist Square Deal began remaking the relationship between government and big business. This Barber quarter was doing steady, unglamorous work as pocket change through exactly this period. This one came from the San Francisco Mint, opened in 1854 to coin the flood of West Coast bullion.