2013-S Mount Rushmore, NIFC

The 2013-S Mount Rushmore, NIFC closed the second year of San Francisco business-strike ATB production, the fifth and final 2013 design sold direct to collectors. Don Everhart's reverse depicts a worker on scaffolding rappelling across the partly carved face of Thomas Jefferson during the monument's 1934 construction phase, an unusual choice that captures process rather than the finished granite tableau most collectors picture when they think of Mount Rushmore. The Mint produced 1,232,104 pieces, matching the uniform 2013 NIFC figure and rounding out a second-year run that totaled roughly 6.16 million S-mint business strikes across all five designs.

Authentication runs through finish category. The coin is a business strike with cartwheel luster, distinct from the 2013-S clad and silver proof versions that share the same design and S mintmark but carry mirrored fields and frosted devices. The Everhart composition, with the worker mid-rappel and a partly emerged Jefferson face behind him, depends on fine line detail in the suspension cables and the rough granite texture, and on a NIFC business strike those elements read with the slightly soft definition typical of Mint State production rather than the sharp, frosted relief a proof shows. The clad composition (75% copper-nickel over a pure copper core, 5.67 grams, 24.26 mm) matches every Washington quarter since 1965, so authentication is finish identification rather than metallurgical testing.

This is a Regular-classification issue whose strong design draws crossover interest beyond NIFC completists. Everhart's choice to depict construction rather than the finished monument has made the Mount Rushmore quarter one of the more distinctive ATB designs, and the issue trades a hair above the typical NIFC norm because of that broader appeal. Population reports at MS67 are well-supplied, MS68 examples come up regularly, and pricing follows the NIFC pattern of small premiums for raw examples and modest step-ups at certified gem grades. Set builders working through the 45-entry NIFC run pick the issue up from broken Mint Sets or dealer inventory at retail-floor pricing. For the broader story of the ATB program and the NIFC collector-only product line, see the Washington ATB series history.