01
The kivas
Two round structures organize the foreground.
Chaco Culture
National Historical Park
Masonry, space, and living connections.
The architecture of Chetro Ketl gives this reverse its rhythm of circles and walls.
Read the reverse ⟶
DenominationQuarter dollar
Weight5 troy ounces
Fineness99.9% silver
Diameter76.2 mm
Mint markNone · bullion
IssuerUnited States Mint
The illustrated edition
Illustrated: P-mint-mark five-ounce uncirculated edition. The standard bullion edition has no mint mark.
Official U.S. Mint gallery ↗Reverse design anatomy
Circles within
a built landscape.
The reverse depicts two elevated kivas at Chetro Ketl and its north wall. Circular openings contrast with the long, horizontal courses of masonry.
The following close reading describes visible forms. It does not assign undocumented intentions to the artists.
02
The north wall
Horizontal masonry stretches behind the circular forms.
03
The masonry
Small courses convey the texture of built stone.
The place behind the coin
An ancestral place.
Continuing connections.
Chaco Canyon was an important regional center between about 850 and 1250 CE. Its great houses and engineered spaces preserve evidence of ancestral Puebloan building and community life.
Chaco remains significant to Indigenous communities today. Architectural description must not turn that continuing relationship into a story of a vanished people.
- 850–1250 CERegional center
- Chetro KetlDepicted architecture
- Living connectionsIndigenous communities
Synthetic context · not the artist’s source view.
Same design. A larger canvas.
From pocket change
to a statement in silver
The 2012 design also belongs to the circulating quarter. At 76.2 mm, the five-ounce silver coin is 3.14 times wider by diameter—not 3.14 times heavier.
The quarter is a measured outline: an exact authorized quarter photograph is not bound for this page. It is not a miniature bullion image.
Collect with context
Know the design.
Know the object.
Reverse design: Donna Weaver. Sculptor: Phebe Hemphill. Obverse: John Flanagan.
- Standard bullion
- No mint mark · Authorized Purchasers · incuse edge weight and fineness.
- Collector five-ounce
- P mint mark · special finish · a separate object. Collector totals are not bullion mintages.