2023-P Jovita Idar

Jovita Idar carried a printing press into a fight that most newspapers of her era refused to enter, and the 2023 Philadelphia quarter honoring her work places that courage into circulation across every cash drawer in the country. Born in Laredo, Texas in 1885, Idar trained as a teacher before turning to journalism at her family's bilingual paper La Cronica, where she documented lynchings, segregated schooling, and the violent abuses of Texas Rangers against Mexican American communities. She co-founded the League of Mexican Women in 1911 and helped launch El Estudiante to defend Spanish-language education. In 1914, when Rangers arrived to shutter El Progreso for an article critical of President Wilson's border policy, she physically blocked the doorway and turned them away. Philadelphia's strike of 190,600,000 pieces gave her this commemorative coin one of the largest mintages in the 2023 American Women Quarters lineup.

The reverse, designed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program artist Phebe Hemphill, frames Idar in profile against a banner of folded newspapers. The composition reads almost as a printer's mark, with type masthead lines breaking behind her shoulders. Obverse work belongs to Laura Gardin Fraser's 1932 Washington portrait, restored under the American Women program after decades of revision. Specifications follow standard clad construction at 91.67% copper-nickel cladding bonded to a pure copper core, weighing 5.67 grams across a 24.3 millimeter planchet with a reeded edge. Authentication on circulation strikes focuses on rim fidelity around the masthead text and clean separation between the newspaper folds, areas where worn dies produce mushy detail.

Mint-state examples remain inexpensive given the production volume, though Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) populations in MS-67 and MS-68 have begun thinning as registry collectors chase high-end clad sets. Roll hunters still pull these from bank-wrapped quarters in Texas and the Southwest. See the Washington Quarters (American Women) series history.