01
The foreground form
The large lower form establishes the nearest part of the coin’s aerial view.
Effigy Mounds
A place read from above. Connections that continue.
The Mint identifies an aerial view of the Marching Bear Group on Iowa’s reverse. These are representations of earthworks in a cultural landscape, not wildlife moving through a forest.
Read the reverse ⟶DenominationQuarter dollar
Weight5 troy ounces
Fineness99.9% silver
Diameter76.2 mm
Mint markNone · bullion
IssuerUnited States Mint
Reverse design anatomy
Read the ground,
not a wildlife scene
The aerial composition places mound forms among trees and textured ground. These enlargements remain views of the coin; they are not an archaeological plan, a scale map or an explanation of ceremonial meaning.
The following close reading describes visible forms. It does not assign undocumented intentions to the artists.
02
Forms across the field
Further outlines recede through the middle field. No ceremonial relationship is assigned here.
03
The wooded edge
Trees define the far edge of this represented landscape.
The place behind the coin
Not a vanished
culture
NPS’s account of its cultural landscape report recognizes ongoing associations with present-day tribes. It explicitly revisits earlier park interpretation that treated the mound builders as disconnected from living Indigenous peoples.
Consultation changes the frame
Work begun in 2013 and completed in 2016 brought tribal consultation into landscape planning. These dates describe that report, not the creation of the earthworks.
NPS · tribal collaboration ↗A living preservation voice
The Ho-Chunk Nation’s Heritage Preservation department describes research, conservation and cultural continuity among its responsibilities. Its own account is linked here, not treated as permission to invent meanings for the coin.
Ho-Chunk Nation · Heritage Preservation ↗- 1949National monument established
- 2016Cultural landscape report completed
- 2017Iowa design issued
No ritual, spiritual symbolism, precise mound map or claim to speak for a tribal nation is supplied by this page.
Same design. A larger canvas.
From pocket change
to a statement in silver
The 2017 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: Richard Masters; sculpt: Renata Gordon.
- 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.