2016-S Fort Moultrie Proof

San Francisco closed the 2016 ATB proof slate with Richard Masters's Fort Moultrie design at 1,093,510 pieces, the figure matching the U.S. Mint Clad Proof Set sales total because the five 2016 quarters shipped as a packaged product. The reverse renders Sergeant William Jasper at Fort Sullivan during the June 28, 1776 British naval attack on Charleston Harbor, holding aloft the blue-and-crescent palmetto flag he restored to the parapet after British cannon fire severed its staff. The composition is the program's only depiction of a Revolutionary War flag rescue and one of only a handful of single-figure historical scenes across the entire 56-design run. Jasper was killed three years later at the September 1779 Siege of Savannah. The issue is the fifth and final 2016 release and honors Fort Moultrie, part of Fort Sumter National Monument in South Carolina.

Proof finish on the issue is the standard San Francisco style: mirrored fields struck from polished planchets against dies frosted in chemical baths before each press run. Cameo (CAM) and Deep Cameo (DCAM) are the contrast designations PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, apply on top of the numeric grade, with DCAM the default outcome rather than an upgrade tier. The single-figure historical composition makes strike quality diagnostic: graders watch Jasper's facial profile, the folds in the flag, and the uniform detail when separating PR69 from PR70. Worn dies flatten the fine drapery folds and the facial features first. The clad composition (75% copper-nickel over a pure copper core, 5.67 grams, 24.26 mm) matches every Washington quarter struck since 1965, so counterfeit risk is essentially nil.

The issue trades at the upper end of the lower price band among 2016 ATB proofs because the Revolutionary War subject draws cross-disciplinary interest from Charleston-area, Revolutionary War, and South Carolina state collectors. A raw certified PR69-DCAM example moves for a small premium over the cost of breaking up a sealed 2016 Clad Proof Set, and PR70-DCAM examples in NGC or PCGS holders sit at a modestly higher tier. The single-figure flag-rescue composition is among the most distinctive in the ATB proof market and pairs structurally with the 2015 Saratoga issue as one of only two Revolutionary War-anchored designs in the series. For the broader story of the ATB proof program and the series' production arc, see the Washington ATB series history.