2022-S Nina Otero-Warren Proof

The San Francisco clad proof Nina Otero-Warren quarter shares the 863,886-piece 2022 proof mintage figure with the other four American Women quarters of the year, distributed through the standard 2022 United States Mint Proof Set, the dedicated 2022 American Women Quarters Proof Set, and individual sales channels. Otero-Warren's election as Santa Fe County superintendent of schools, her chairmanship of the New Mexico ratification campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment, and her 1922 run for the United States House placed her at the front of Hispanic women's political organizing in the early twentieth century. The proof format honors that record with deep mirror fields and heavily frosted devices, struck twice on polished planchets at the San Francisco Mint.

The reverse design, designed by Artistic Infusion Program artist Chris Costello and sculpted by Craig A. Campbell, shows Otero-Warren in profile beside three Yucca flowers, with the inscription VOTO PARA LA MUJER below. On proof strikes, the cameo contrast brings out the layered petals of the Yucca and the engraving lines of the inscription with more depth than business strikes show. The obverse holds Laura Gardin Fraser's 1932 Washington portrait, with the S mintmark in the lower-right obverse field. Clad specifications match circulating production at 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel over a copper core, 5.67 grams in weight, 24.3 millimeters in diameter, on a reeded edge planchet.

Authentication of San Francisco clad proofs focuses on edge integrity, deep cameo coverage, and absence of milk spots, the last of which has affected early 2020s San Francisco proof output to varying degrees. Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) both award Deep Cameo or Ultra Cameo designations when frost coverage meets the threshold, and Proof-70 examples carry meaningful premiums over Proof-69 in active registry collecting. For program structure and historical context, see the Washington Quarters (American Women) series history.