2023-S Bessie Coleman Proof

The 2023-S Bessie Coleman clad proof quarter delivers the San Francisco Mint's mirror-finish interpretation of the design honoring the pioneering aviator who became the first Black and first Native American woman to earn a pilot's license. Coleman's path led her to Le Crotoy, France in late 1920 after every flight school in the United States refused her admission, and she earned her Federation Aeronautique Internationale license on June 15, 1921 before returning to barnstorm across the country until a mechanical failure during a test flight took her life over Jacksonville in April 1926. San Francisco struck 829,526 clad proofs for collector distribution through the 2023 United States Mint Proof Set and the dedicated American Women Quarters Proof Set, with sales running through the standard subscription and on-demand windows during the calendar year.

Laura Gardin Fraser's 1932 Washington portrait covers the obverse. The reverse, designed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program artist Chris Costello and sculpted by Eric David Custer, shows Coleman in flight cap and goggles with her biplane banking past clouds at her shoulder. Specifications hold to the program's clad standard at 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel over a pure copper core, 5.67 grams, 24.3 millimeters, with a reeded edge. Proof finish derives from polished mirror fields contrasting frosted, cameo devices created on laser-treated dies that the San Francisco Mint operates under multiple slow-speed strikes per coin. Authentication relies on field reflectivity across the open reverse sky, evenness of frost on the biplane's fuselage, and a clean, crisp S mintmark below "IN GOD WE TRUST" on the obverse.

Premiums concentrate at the Proof 70 Deep Cameo tier from Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Proof 70 Ultra Cameo from Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), where population reports thin substantially below the 829,526 original mintage due to handling and packaging defects. Read more on our Washington Quarters (American Women) series history.