Release 6 of 50 · 2000
A student-selected image of Concord’s armed farmer places Massachusetts’s Revolutionary memory inside the state outline.
The Minute Man statue and Massachusetts outline
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United States MintUnited States MintCommonwealth of Massachusetts
Public Law 105-124 placed Massachusetts sixth because it ratified the Constitution sixth, on February 6, 1788. A single reverse could not represent the Commonwealth’s Indigenous nations, maritime economy, abolition, immigration, industry, education, landscapes, cities, or the full complexity of Revolution. The selected design chose one already familiar memorial image to make citizen readiness and the state’s Revolutionary role legible at coin scale.
U.S. Government Publishing OfficeUnited States Mint
Massachusetts calls itself a Commonwealth, while THE BAY STATE is a longstanding nickname rather than its constitutional name. The quarter links Boston, marked by a star, with Concord’s North Bridge, where colonial militia and minute companies confronted British regulars on April 19, 1775. The map unifies those places, but the statue is an 1875 centennial memorial—an ideal figure created a century after the fighting—not a portrait of one documented combatant.
United States MintNational Park Service, Minute Man National Historical Park
French’s statue stands near Concord’s North Bridge, where provincial forces returned British fire on April 19, 1775. Unveiled for the battle’s centennial in 1875, the bronze was cast from Civil War cannon. French represented an ideal farmer-citizen-patriot: musket in one hand, the other resting on a plow, coat left on the implement, and body poised to move from ordinary labor to communal defense.
The quarter greatly simplifies that monument. Thomas D. Rogers retained the advancing figure but omitted the plow, coat, pedestal, bridge, river, Emerson inscription, and surrounding battlefield. The result reads more immediately as an armed Minuteman, yet loses French’s strongest visual statement that the citizen has just left civilian work. It also compresses Lexington, Concord, militia, minute companies, and the broader Revolution into one male martial emblem.
World Coin Book interpretation: the figure overlaps the map so memory becomes geography, while Boston’s star balances a Concord monument with the state capital. THE BAY STATE broadens the image from one battlefield to statewide identity. What remains outside the frame includes women, free and enslaved Black residents, Indigenous communities, Loyalists, noncombatants, and the long political consequences of Revolution. The coin is a selective civic memory, not a complete social history.
National Park Service, Minute Man National Historical ParkNational Park ServiceUnited States Mint
Cellucci’s Executive Order 402 made every public, private, and parochial elementary school eligible to submit one design by June 1, 1998. Each school could choose its own internal process, but student-generated ideas and study of Commonwealth history and culture were required. This was structured school participation, not a statewide popular vote.
The order created a ten-member advisory panel: representatives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Massachusetts Art Commission, Department of Education, and Secretary of the Commonwealth; one elementary history teacher; and five regionally diverse residents. It had to evaluate submissions and recommend designs to the governor. The Mint later reported more than 100 school entries and five concepts after panel review.
The U.S. Mint credits seventh-grader Xander Kotsatos and sixth-grader Kathleen Raughtigan with submitting the winning Minuteman concept and says Cellucci and Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift announced it in June 1999. Under the federal process, the Mint converted state concepts into coinable designs, advisory bodies reviewed them, the state made its final choice, and the Treasury Secretary held final approval. The reviewed records do not publish the five finalist subjects, scores, vote, or a step-by-step concept-to-relief file.
Commonwealth of MassachusettsUnited States MintU.S. Department of the Treasury
Procedures varied by state and changed during the program; each researched state page must document its actual path.
Official sources establish five concepts after advisory-panel review but do not name or reproduce the four rejected concepts. No authenticated finalist gallery, ranking, or tally was located. World Coin Book therefore does not repeat unsourced lists or treat ordinary school submissions as official finalists.
Official explanation: The Mint identifies the figure as the Revolutionary War Minuteman based on Daniel Chester French’s Concord statue.
Historical context: French’s statue is an ideal farmer-citizen, not a portrait; the coin removes the original plow and coat.
World Coin Book interpretation: The forward stance and diagonal musket dominate the field, making readiness—not farming—the coin’s immediate message.
Official explanation: The figure stands before the state outline; a star marks Boston, the capital.
Historical context: The represented statue itself stands at North Bridge in Concord, not at the star.
World Coin Book interpretation: Overlapping figure and map turns one Concord memorial into a statewide emblem, while the star anchors political geography.
United States MintNational Park Service, Minute Man National Historical Park
Official explanation: The Mint lists THE BAY STATE among the reverse inscriptions and describes it as the state nickname.
Historical context: The nickname broadens the reverse beyond the inland Concord monument.
World Coin Book interpretation: The phrase acts as a civic caption, joining martial memory, map, capital, and statewide identity.
Official explanation: The inscriptions identify the state, federal ratification year, issue year, national motto, and Thomas D. Rogers’s initials.
Historical context: 1788 marks constitutional ratification, not the 1775 battle or 1875 statue unveiling.
World Coin Book interpretation: Three historical layers—Revolution, centennial memorial, and statehood sequence—share one compact field.
French’s 1875 ideal farmer-citizen memorial at Concord’s North Bridge, adapted for the reverse.
Massachusetts-associated sculptor who created the represented statue; he did not design the quarter relief.
Students officially credited with submitting the winning Minuteman concept.
Governor who created the contest and panel and made the state selection.
U.S. Mint sculptor-engraver officially credited as reverse designer and sculptor.
Federal park preserving the North Bridge landscape and represented statue.
Provincial militia and minute companies confront British regulars at Lexington and Concord
Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution
French’s bronze Minute Man is unveiled at Concord’s North Bridge
Public Law 105-124 authorizes the 50 State Quarters program
Executive Order 402 creates the school contest and advisory panel
Deadline for one design from each participating elementary school
Cellucci and Swift announce the winning Minuteman concept
The Mint releases Massachusetts quarters to the Federal Reserve system
John Flanagan’s Washington portrait, adapted by William Cousins, appears on the shared obverse. Daniel Chester French created the 1875 statue that supplied the reverse’s visual source; students Xander Kotsatos and Kathleen Raughtigan submitted the selected Minuteman concept. The U.S. Mint credits Thomas D. Rogers, Sr. as reverse designer and sculptor. These are different roles: memorial sculptor, concept submitters, and Mint relief artist. The reviewed record does not identify the makers of all five federalized concepts or document each production refinement.
United States MintUnited States MintNational Park Service, Minute Man National Historical Park
| Issue | Finish | Catalog mintage |
|---|---|---|
| 2000-P | Circulation | 628,600,000 |
| 2000-D | Circulation | 535,184,000 |
| 2000-S | Clad proof | 4,020,172 |
| 2000-S | Silver proof | 965,421 |
P and D are circulation issues. Both S issues were sold in proof products; the silver proof is a distinct 90% silver composition. Mintages are established catalog figures retained with an explicit source-audit limit.
Identify the reverse by the armed figure over the Massachusetts outline, Boston star, and THE BAY STATE. The P, D, or S mint mark is on the obverse to the right of Washington’s hair ribbon. P and D are circulation strikes; S coins are proofs. A clad proof shows a copper stripe at the reeded edge; the 90% silver proof lacks it and weighs about 6.25 g rather than 5.67 g.
On circulated pieces, inspect the face, chest, forward thigh and knee, forearm, and musket relief for first smoothing. Confirm wear through broken luster across several high points. A flat hand, weak musket, or incomplete coastline can instead reflect strike pressure, die wear, or grease.
The open fields inside and around the map show contact marks readily; the hand, fingers, face, musket, star, coastline, and small letters are vulnerable to weak definition. Proofs should be checked for hairlines, haze, spots, fingerprints, impaired mirrors, and diminished frost rather than cameo contrast alone.
Worn P and D examples usually occupy the face-value design-set tier. Better circulation coins can gain collector interest from full luster, clean map fields, a well-defined face and hand, complete musket, crisp coastline, and readable inscriptions. Clad proofs form a collector-product tier; silver proofs add 90% silver content as a separate composition tier. World Coin Book gives no live price promise: compare dated references for the exact mint, finish, grade, strike, and surfaces.
One Massachusetts reverse, any circulation mint.
Both circulation facilities.
P, D, clad proof, and silver proof.
Official law and U.S. Mint records establish program facts and image identity. World Coin Book separates official explanation, historical analysis, and editorial interpretation.
Official descriptions, historical context, and World Coin Book interpretation are labeled separately. No live prices are asserted. Last verified: