2024-S Pauli Murray Proof

San Francisco struck 800,000 clad proof Pauli Murray quarters in 2024 for inclusion in the United States Mint's annual proof sets and the dedicated America the Beautiful style proof packaging carried over to the American Women program. Murray, whose life resists easy summary, was a lawyer, poet, theologian, and activist whose work threaded through Brown v. Board of Education, the President's Commission on the Status of Women under John F. Kennedy, the founding of the National Organization for Women, and the Episcopal Church's first ordinations of women in 1977. Her 1965 Yale Law Journal article "Jane Crow and the Law," co-authored with Mary Eastwood, gave courts and litigators the analytical tools that drove the sex-discrimination jurisprudence of the next decade. The 800,000 proof figure reflects the steady erosion of collector proof demand from the heights of the 1990s but remains comfortably above subscription floors.

The reverse design by Artistic Infusion Program artist Robert Hoge, sculpted by Phebe Hemphill, gains depth in proof finish. Mirror fields surround a frosted portrait, allowing the cameo contrast to emphasize the textural work in hair, garments, and the inscribed quotation. Specifications: clad layers of 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel bonded to a pure copper core, weight 5.67 grams, diameter 24.3 millimeters, reeded edge. The San Francisco mintmark sits on the obverse below the portrait. Authentication on a 2024-S clad proof focuses on the depth and squareness of the rim, the unbroken frost on the highest design points, and the absence of die polish lines on the fields. Proof entries on this site are classified as Regular rarity; the program format, not scarcity, defines the issue.

Population reports through Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) confirm easy availability in PR69 Deep Cameo or Ultra Cameo, with PR70 commanding modest premiums. Set context appears in the Washington Quarters (American Women) series history.