01
The worker
A suspended figure works beside the monumental face. No individual name is inferred.
Mount Rushmore
National Memorial
The monument, seen through its making.
Workers add detail to Thomas Jefferson’s carved face. Human labor changes the familiar mountain from a finished icon into a place of work.
Read the reverse ⟶DenominationQuarter dollar
Weight5 troy ounces
Fineness99.9% silver
Diameter76.2 mm
Mint markNone · bullion
IssuerUnited States Mint
Reverse design anatomy
Human scale
against carved stone
The Mint describes a design based on photographs of men finishing Jefferson’s face. The suspended worker, working platform and sculpted eye make the process legible. This is not the four-president panorama used on the earlier South Dakota quarter.
The following close reading describes visible forms. It does not assign undocumented intentions to the artists.
02
The platform
The narrow platform makes the difference between human and sculptural scale visible.
03
The eye
The eye belongs to a face under construction, not a living portrait subject.
The place behind the coin
Labor is part
of the monument’s history
NPS dates the carving work to 1927–1941 and describes nearly 400 men and women in varied jobs. The small figure on the coin is an entry into this wider labor history, not a complete roll of workers.
Process before panorama
The coin selects the making of Jefferson’s face. Photographic inspiration establishes the subject, but does not make the relief a complete photographic record.
U.S. Mint · design ↗Many kinds of work
NPS includes drillers, blacksmiths and housekeepers in the workforce. Looking at one carving scene should not erase the less visible work that sustained the project.
NPS · the workers ↗- 1927–1941Carving period documented by NPS
- 2013Labor-focused reverse issued
This focused labor history does not claim universal agreement with the memorial or stand for the whole history of the Black Hills. No Indigenous endorsement is inferred.
Same design. A larger canvas.
From pocket change
to a statement in silver
The 2013 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 designer and sculptor Joseph Menna
- 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.