2017-P Frederick Douglass

The 2017-P Frederick Douglass was the second of the year's five releases and one of only a handful of ATB designs that honored a specific historical individual rather than a landscape or fort. Thomas Cleveland's reverse, sculpted by Phebe Hemphill, depicts Douglass writing at his desk at Cedar Hill, the Anacostia home he occupied from 1877 until his death in 1895 and which the National Park Service preserves as Frederick Douglass National Historic Site. Philadelphia struck 206,400,000 pieces, settling into the mid-range of the year's output figures and matching the same Philadelphia 2017 George Rogers Clark total exactly.

Strike quality on the issue tracks the broader 2017 Philadelphia production: dies were generally well maintained, but the fine reverse detail on Douglass's coat, the writing desk, and the figural facial work is where graders separate gem from near-gem. Look at the face for strike grading: portrait detail on a 24.26 mm clad quarter is unforgiving, and late-die-state examples flatten visibly across the cheek and jaw. The clad composition (75% copper-nickel over a pure copper core, 5.67 grams) matches every quarter struck since 1965, so counterfeit risk is functionally nil and the high-grade market runs through PCGS (Professional Coin Grading Service) and NGC slabs. Roll hunters working original P-mint bags still recover MS65 examples readily for this date.

As a collecting target, the 2017-P Frederick Douglass is a Regular-classification entry where the portrait composition and the historical weight of the honoree give the date sustained collector interest at high grades. Certified-population data show the standard 2017 distribution at common grades, with the climb at MS68 producing one of the firmer pricing tiers in the year's group. The site itself was the first National Historic Site designated under the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., which gives the design a distinctive position in the program's federal-site coverage. Series builders chasing the full ATB run typically reserve real money for the date in MS68. For the broader story of the ATB program and the series' design arc, see the Washington ATB series history.