01
Arches & bell
The Mint identifies these elements with community.
San Antonio
Missions
Four motifs. More than one history.
The Texas reverse draws on the Spanish Colonial Real. Its four fields place a bell and arches, a lion, wheat and water in a single coin-shaped composition.
Read the reverse ⟶DenominationQuarter dollar
Weight5 troy ounces
Fineness99.9% silver
Diameter76.2 mm
Mint markNone · bullion
IssuerUnited States Mint
Reverse design anatomy
Four fields,
four attributed readings
The meanings below are attributed to the U.S. Mint’s published explanation, not inferred from the motifs. The enlarged windows keep the four elements in their original image positions.
The following close reading describes visible forms. It does not assign undocumented intentions to the artists.
02
Lion
The Mint associates the lion with Spanish cultural heritage.
03
Wheat
The Mint identifies wheat with farming.
04
Water
The Mint links water to irrigation and the San Antonio River’s resources.
The place behind the coin
Community was
lived, not abstract
NPS describes missions as places of worship, work, schooling and residence. Indigenous families formed most of their population, within a Spanish colonial system that sought religious and cultural conversion.
Labor behind the symbols
Farming and irrigation required people and work. NPS’s account of mission communities gives the coin’s formal motifs a social setting; it does not make colonial life a simple story of harmony.
NPS · mission life ↗Descendants speak
The park’s oral-history project records descendants’ family connections and their reflections on mission life. These are situated voices, not one account imposed on every Indigenous community.
NPS · mission descendant stories ↗- 1700sSpanish colonial mission communities
- 1978National historical park established
- 2019Texas design issued
The four motifs are not a map of four buildings. Official design meanings and descendant testimony are different kinds of evidence.
Same design. A larger canvas.
From pocket change
to a statement in silver
The 2019 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: Chris Costello; sculpt: 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.