2023 American Women, Jovita Idár quarter dollar from the United States Mint wins Best Circulating Coin award

The 2023 American Women, Jovita Idár quarter dollar from the United States Mint was recognized during the April 27 to 29 Mint Directors Conference

The 2023 American Women, Jovita Idár quarter dollar from the United States Mint was recognized during the April 27 to 29 Mint Directors Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, as the Best Circulating Coin.

The coin was the ninth in the four-year, 20-coin America Women Quarters Program launched in 2021 and scheduled to end later in 2025.

The reverse subject’s depiction was designed and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw, whose designer’s initials, JPM, appear on her arm, to the left of Idár’s clasped hands.

McGraw’s design illustrates the Mexican-American journalist, activist, teacher and suffragist with her hands clasped in front of her. Within her body outline, inscriptions representing the causes she fought for and the regional newspapers to which she contributed are sized and positioned so as to also represent the position of her arms and the construction of her blouse.

The inscriptions, progressing across her blouse from the viewer’s right to left, are QUARTER DOLLAR, TEACHER, MEXICAN AMERICAN RIGHTS, JOVITA IDÁR, NURSE, EVOLUCIÓN, ASTREA, EL HERALDO CRISTIANO, LA CRUZ BLANCA, JOURNALIST, LA CRÓNICA, EL PROGRESO, LA LIGA FEMENIL MEXICANISTA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Idár was born Sept. 7, 1885, in Laredo, Texas, and died June 15, 1946, at age 60 in San Antonio, Texas.

McGraw’s reverse design is paired with the portrait of George Washington facing right that is the common obverse for all the coins in the American Women Quarters Program.

That obverse design was submitted in the previous century, by American sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser for a public design competition seeking art for the Washington quarter dollar to be released in 1932. Fraser’s designs were recommended by the Commission of Fine Arts but the CFA’s choice was overruled by Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon in favor of a left-facing design by sculptor John Flanagan. Flanagan’s Washington portrait graced the quarter dollar from 1932 until temporarily replaced at the start of the 20-coin American Women program in 2022.

Mint Directors Conference

The MDC awards recognize industry achievements in the design, production, packaging and distribution of commemorative and circulating coins worldwide. The winners were chosen from a total of 112 nominations and adjudicated by the members of the Mint Directors Association.

Held in Cape Town, South Africa, the 32nd MDC Coin Awards, sponsored by MingFeng Packaging, were presented during the MDC Gala Dinner at Cape Point Vineyards in Cape Town.