Quarter is a United States coin worth 25 cents, or a quarter of a dollar. The government issued the first quarters in 1796. The Washington quarter was first minted in 1932, the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth. Washington’s head appears on one side, and an eagle is on the other side. Quarters of several other designs were used before the Washington quarter. In 1999, the government began issuing quarters that replaced the eagle with one of 50 designs that each commemorates a U.S. state. In 2010, the U.S. Mint began issuing a series of quarters with designs depicting 56 different national parks and other national sites on the back. The Mint’s American Women Quarters program, begun in 2022, honors exceptional women from U.S. history on the back of the coin.
Until 1965, quarters contained 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper. Because of a shortage of silver, the Coinage Act of 1965 eliminated silver from the coin. Since then, it has consisted of a layer of copper between layers of a copper-nickel mixture.
