2024-S Mary Edwards Walker Proof

The 2024 San Francisco clad proof honoring Mary Edwards Walker represents the standard collector format for one of American medicine's most defiant pioneers. Walker survived four months at Richmond's Castle Thunder prison, won the Medal of Honor in 1865, and spent decades afterward lecturing on dress reform and women's suffrage. She was arrested multiple times in later life for wearing men's clothing in public, a stance she defended as both practical and constitutional. The San Francisco Mint produced 800,000 clad proofs for distribution within the 2024 United States Mint Proof Set and the America the Beautiful style quarters proof set, with no separate single coin packaging offered at issue. Production levels for this format have held remarkably consistent across the American Women Quarters Program.

Clad proof specifications mirror the circulation strikes in metal content, with 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel cladding bonded to a pure copper core, weighing 5.67 grams across a 24.3 millimeter reeded planchet. The distinguishing characteristics are the mirrored fields and frosted devices produced by laser frosted dies struck twice on specially polished blanks. The S mintmark sits below IN GOD WE TRUST on the obverse. Authentication examination should confirm the proof finish extends fully into the recessed letter spaces and that the rim shows the squared profile characteristic of multiple strikes. Renata Gordon's sculpting of John P. McGraw's design renders Walker's Medal of Honor with crisp definition on properly struck examples, with cameo contrast appearing strongest on coins pulled directly from original government packaging.

Collectors pursuing the deep cameo designation from Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) or the ultra cameo equivalent from Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) typically find PR69 grades plentiful and PR70 examples accessible at modest premiums for first year of issue holders. The proof series complements circulation strikes in any complete set. Full program context resides in the Washington Quarters (American Women) series history.