2024-P Mary Edwards Walker

Mary Edwards Walker remains the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor, a distinction earned through Civil War surgical service that included treating wounded after the Battle of Bull Run and enduring four months as a Confederate prisoner of war in Richmond. Beyond the operating tent, she championed dress reform, wore trousers in defiance of nineteenth century convention, and lectured for women's suffrage well into her eighties. The 2024 quarter honoring her arrived as the third release of the American Women Quarters Program's penultimate year, with Philadelphia striking 141,200,000 pieces for general circulation. The Philadelphia mintage sits in the middle of the program's range, neither scarce nor abundant, and most examples entered commerce immediately through Federal Reserve channels rather than collector bag and roll sales.

The reverse, sculpted by United States Mint Medallic Artist Renata Gordon from a design by Artistic Infusion Program designer John P. McGraw, presents Walker in three quarter profile wearing her Medal of Honor with crossed surgical references and the inscription DR. MARY E. WALKER. Laura Gardin Fraser's 1932 Washington portrait fills the obverse, retained for every entry in the series. The coin follows standard clad construction with copper nickel cladding bonded to a pure copper core, weighing 5.67 grams and measuring 24.3 millimeters across a reeded edge. Authentication challenges are minimal at this stage, though collectors evaluating high grade submissions should examine the fields around Walker's collar and the medal ribbon for the strike weakness that occasionally surfaces on early Philadelphia production. Counterfeiting pressure on a circulation quarter remains negligible.

Registry interest currently centers on superb gem grades from Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC), with MS67 and finer pieces drawing modest premiums while circulated examples trade at face value. The American Women set retains broad appeal among thematic collectors building biographical type collections. For the full series timeline and design lineage, see the Washington Quarters (American Women) series history.