Standing Liberty Quarters - THE RISE OF A SUPERPOWER

Standing Liberty quarters were minted from 1916 to 1930, but the design of these coins relates to issues “in the news” in 2024 and beyond. Indeed, an interesting and not well understood aspect of Standing Liberty Quarters is their reflection of then-recent changes in the foreign policy and military power of the United States.

- GREG REYNOLDS

Events from 1898 to 1918 foreshadowed later foreign policy and military actions throughout much of the 20th century and in the present.

From the 1890s until President Wilson’s decision in 1917 to ask Congress to declare war on Germany, the whole approach of the United States toward the world and the role of military policy changed dramatically. The foreign policy and military reach of the United States was no longer limited to the Americas. The U.S. had become a world power with a military presence in various parts of the globe. An aggressive foreign policy in combination with an expanded military was used to defend democracy and to fight regimes abroad that engaged in wrongdoing.

Before the 1890s, such a foreign and military policy framework would have been considered unthinkable in the United States. Even in 1916, it was extremely controversial. I am here communicating my interpretations of history, coin designs, the spirit of the nation and events. In politics and history, different analysts “see” the same phenomena in different ways. Of course, some people will disagree with my interpretations of coin designs and U.S. history. I maintain, however, that the conception of the nation in the minds of many U.S. citizens changed from the 1890s to 1917, and that the advancing, armored Miss Liberty and flying eagle on Standing Liberty quarters relate to these changes.