01
Brush and easel
A raised hand meets the rectangular work surface. No painting title or material is assigned to the blank depicted surface.
Weir Farm
National Historic Site
The act of looking becomes the subject.
An easel stands between a painter and a studio. The design places making art inside the landscape that sustains it, rather than presenting a finished painting.
Read the reverse ⟶DenominationQuarter dollar
Weight5 troy ounces
Fineness99.9% silver
Diameter76.2 mm
Mint markNone · bullion
IssuerUnited States Mint
Reverse design anatomy
Artist. Studio.
A statement about art.
The Mint describes an unnamed artist painting outdoors before Julian Alden Weir’s studio. A palette, brush and easel fill the foreground. The words A NATIONAL PARK FOR ART occupy the right; the figure is not identified as Weir himself.
The following close reading describes visible forms. It does not assign undocumented intentions to the artists.
02
The studio
The roofline and tall window sit above the painter. Their identification follows the Mint’s description.
03
Art inscription
The large stacked letters balance the figure. They are part of the reverse, not a quotation from Weir.
The place behind the coin
A place of practice,
not one imagined portrait
The coin uses the site’s 2020 National Historic Site identity. NPS now calls it a National Historical Park. The later name does not change this issue’s official identity or its place in the series.
A continuing artistic lineage
NPS records Weir’s acquisition of the farm in 1882 and decades of painting there. Dorothy Weir Young, Mahonri Young, and later Sperry and Doris Andrews continued its artistic life. The unnamed coin figure does not stand as a documented portrait of any one of them.
NPS — artists and place ↗Two designation names
NPS lists establishment in 1990 and redesignation in 2021. National Historic Site is retained for the 2020 coin; National Historical Park belongs to the later site context.
NPS — establishment and redesignation ↗- 1882Weir acquires the farm · NPS
- 1990National Historic Site · NPS
- 2021National Historical Park name · NPS; after the coin
Evidence boundary: an artist working at the site is the Mint-described subject. Neither an individual identity nor the artist’s intention is supplied by this editorial composition.
Same design. A larger canvas.
From pocket change
to a statement in silver
The 2020 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: Justin Kunz; sculpt: Phebe Hemphill.
- 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.