Harpers Ferry Quarter

The Harpers Ferry Quarter is a 2016 United States 25-cent piece from the America the Beautiful (ATB) quarters program, which honored national parks and sites across the country. This issue represents Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. Its distinctive design side depicts John Brown's Fort, the small brick armory building at Harpers Ferry, with the inscriptions HARPERS FERRY, WEST VIRGINIA, and the date 2016.

The obverse carries the familiar left-facing portrait of George Washington, the standard quarter obverse used since 1932. The coin is copper-nickel clad: outer layers of 75% copper and 25% nickel bonded to a pure copper core, which shows as a coppery stripe along the reeded edge. It measures about 24.26 mm across and weighs roughly 5.67 g, identical in size and metal to every other circulating clad quarter.

The America the Beautiful Quarters Program ran from 2010 through 2021, releasing five new reverse designs each year to honor a national park or historic site in each state, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories. Harpers Ferry National Historical Park was the West Virginia honoree and the third of the five quarters issued in 2016.

Harpers Ferry sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers and is closely tied to abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid on the federal armory. The building shown on the coin, popularly known as John Brown's Fort, was the armory's fire engine and guard house where Brown and his men made their final stand. The reverse design places this landmark front and center. As with all ATB quarters, circulating coins were struck in copper-nickel clad; the U.S. Mint also produced silver proof versions for collectors and separate three-inch five-ounce silver bullion coins bearing the same design.

The quickest identifier is the design side showing John Brown's Fort: a squat brick building with a small cupola, arched doorways, and the surrounding grounds, ringed by the inscriptions HARPERS FERRY at the top, WEST VIRGINIA and the date 2016 below, along with E PLURIBUS UNUM. This is the reverse of the coin. Any quarter naming Harpers Ferry, West Virginia is this 2016 ATB issue.

The obverse is the standard America the Beautiful Washington portrait: a left-facing bust of George Washington with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, and QUARTER DOLLAR. Note that on ATB quarters the denomination QUARTER DOLLAR and the country name appear on the Washington side, leaving the park side free for the design and the state name.

Physically the coin is copper-nickel clad, about 24.26 mm in diameter, roughly 5.67 g, with a reeded edge that shows a copper stripe between silvery faces. Mint marks appear on the obverse near Washington's ponytail: P for Philadelphia, D for Denver, and S for San Francisco proof and collector strikes.

Circulated Harpers Ferry Quarters from Philadelphia and Denver are common and generally worth their face value of twenty-five cents. They were struck in the hundreds of millions for circulation and still turn up in everyday change, so ordinary worn examples carry no premium.

Modest premiums attach to a smaller subset: high-grade uncirculated coins, San Francisco (S) collector and proof strikes sold in Mint sets rather than released into circulation, the separate 90% silver proof versions, and any recognized mint errors. The five-ounce silver bullion version is a distinct, much larger product valued mainly on its silver content. Treat any dollar figures as general context only — condition, whether a piece is clad or silver, and third-party grading determine which examples are worth more than face value.