Release 28 of 50 · 2004
A Lone Star sits over Texas's outline while a rope lariat closes the composition around state identity, cattle history, cowboy imagery, and frontier spirit.
Last verified:
Public Law 105-124 ordered state reverses by constitutional ratification or admission. Texas entered the Union on December 29, 1845 as the twenty-eighth state, so its quarter became the program's twenty-eighth coin and third 2004 release. One reverse could not represent Indigenous nations, Spanish and Mexican rule, the Republic, annexation, slavery and emancipation, borderlands, ranching, oil, agriculture, cities, migration, civil rights, spaceflight, or every community. The issued design chose three broad symbols rather than one event or place.
U.S. Government Publishing OfficeUnited States Mint
Texas's modern outline grew from a borderlands history involving Indigenous homelands, Spanish and Mexican governance, the Republic of Texas, annexation, war, treaties, and later boundary settlement. A single star served Texas flags before and after statehood and THE LONE STAR STATE became the official nickname. Cattle raising and long-distance drives became powerful public images of Texas, although ranching also depended on Tejano, Black, Indigenous, Mexican, and Anglo workers, changing land tenure, railroads, markets, and environmental conditions. The coin presents unity and frontier confidence while omitting those conflicts and communities.
The large five-pointed star is the visual center. Official Texas history traces Lone Star use through the Republic era, and the nickname now formally identifies the state. The coin does not reproduce the Texas flag; it isolates the star as a compact emblem.
The state outline supplies instant geographic recognition. A stippled interior separates land from the smoother field, while the star covers the north-central map. The outline is symbolic cartography, not a survey boundary or county map.
A rope lariat forms an almost complete circle. The Mint explicitly connects it to cattle, cowboys, and frontier spirit. It is a looped working rope, not a decorative border, whip, snake, state seal, or proof of one named ranch, trail, rider, or cattle drive.
World Coin Book reads the lariat's enclosure as visual unity: map, star, and nickname are gathered into one bounded Texas identity. That is editorial interpretation; the Mint's documented explanation is specifically cattle, cowboy history, and frontier spirit.
The design's clarity depends on omission. It leaves out people, cities, landscapes, industries beyond cattle, Indigenous and Tejano histories, slavery, emancipation, border conflict, oil, agriculture, music, and spaceflight. Its broad symbols communicate recognizability more than historical completeness.
Texas Senate Bill 100 authorized the governor to create a 15-member Texas Quarter Dollar Coin Design Advisory Committee. At its first public hearing on September 12, 2000, members debated an entirely open process versus selected artists, discussed a public theme vote, and created subcommittees for criteria, outreach, and schedule.
The eventual statewide contest drew nearly 2,600 candidate concepts. The Texas Numismatic Association selected 17 finalists; the advisory committee reduced those to the five designs it considered most emblematic. This was substantial public participation through submissions, but reviewed records do not document a binding statewide popular vote on the final five.
Federal review did not produce one unanimous preference. The CFA accepted the state's preferred design but favored candidate No. 2, a dominant large star, asking that its tiny state outline be removed. The CCAC favored a simple state outline, star, and THE LONE STAR STATE; its report says the Treasury Secretary approved that candidate and four similarly themed designs.
Texas then submitted its preferred candidate from the five: one border outline, a textured interior, THE LONE STAR STATE, and an encircling lariat. Governor Rick Perry submitted the preference and the Secretary of the Treasury approved it. The reviewed record does not identify a separate public vote total or establish that advisory preferences were binding.
The original concept came from Arlington resident Daniel Miller; the Mint credits Norman E. Nemeth as reverse designer and sculptor of the issued coin. The surviving official sources do not preserve a complete Miller-to-Mint change log, every candidate image, or every artist assignment.
Texas State SenateTexas State SenateUnited States MintU.S. Commission of Fine ArtsCitizens Coinage Advisory Committee
Procedures varied by state and changed during the program; each researched state page must document its actual path.
Five similarly themed candidates reached federal review, but reviewed primary records do not preserve public titles and complete art for all five. CFA documents candidate No. 2 as a large central star with a small state outline it wanted removed; CCAC documents a simple state-outline-and-star candidate with THE LONE STAR STATE and says four additional similarly themed candidates were also approved. The issued state preference added a textured map and encircling lariat. World Coin Book does not invent missing layouts, rankings, or candidate symbolism.
U.S. Commission of Fine ArtsCitizens Coinage Advisory Committee
Official explanation: The Mint identifies a star superimposed on the Texas outline.
Historical context: The five-pointed Lone Star is Texas's primary emblem and anchors its official nickname.
World Coin Book interpretation: Its size and central placement make identity, rather than a person or place, the principal subject.
Official explanation: The Mint identifies Texas's distinctive state outline; the CCAC record describes a textured surface within it.
Historical context: The outline records the modern state as a symbol, not the changing boundaries of every historical Texas polity.
World Coin Book interpretation: Stippling gives the map visual weight while leaving the star smooth and prominent.
Official explanation: The Mint says the lariat symbolizes Texas cattle and cowboy history and frontier spirit.
Historical context: Rope work belonged to cattle handling, but cowboy labor crossed ethnic and cultural lines omitted by the generic symbol.
World Coin Book interpretation: The nearly closed loop gathers the central symbols and separates them from the rim inscriptions.
Official explanation: The inscription appears inside the outline and names Texas's official nickname.
Historical context: Texas formally designated the long-used phrase as its official nickname in 2015.
World Coin Book interpretation: The words make the star's identity explicit and fill the map beneath it.
Official explanation: The inscriptions give state, admission year, issue year, national motto, and Norman E. Nemeth's initials.
Historical context: The Mint credits Nemeth as reverse designer and sculptor.
World Coin Book interpretation: Rim text fixes chronology while NE records the Mint artist who translated the selected concept into relief.
Five-pointed emblem of Texas identity and its official nickname.
Modern state silhouette used as the design's geographic identifier.
Looped rope symbolizing cattle, cowboy history, and frontier spirit.
Arlington resident credited with the original selected concept.
U.S. Mint artist who designed and sculpted the issued reverse.
Governor who submitted Texas's preferred candidate for final approval.
Republic-era Lone Star
Statehood
Cattle-drive era
Program authorization
State authorization
First hearing
Statewide contest
Federal advisory review
Final approval
Release
Launch
John Flanagan's Washington portrait, adapted and sculpted for the program by William Cousins, appears on the shared obverse. Arlington resident Daniel Miller originated the selected Texas concept. The Mint credits U.S. Mint sculptor-engraver Norman E. Nemeth as reverse designer and sculptor; his NE initials appear near the lariat. Nemeth translated map, star, typography, stippled land, and rope strands into shallow production relief. Reviewed records do not preserve every change from Miller's submission through five Mint candidates to Nemeth's final model.
| Issue | Finish | Catalog mintage |
|---|---|---|
| 2004-P | Circulation | 278,800,000 |
| 2004-D | Circulation | 263,000,000 |
| 2004-S | Clad proof | 2,740,684 |
| 2004-S | Silver proof | 1,769,786 |
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 a large star over Texas's stippled outline, THE LONE STAR STATE, and an encircling rope lariat. P, D, or S appears on the obverse beside Washington's hair ribbon. P and D are circulation strikes; S issues are proofs. The clad proof normally shows a copper-colored core at the reeded edge and weighs 5.67 g; the 90% silver proof lacks that stripe and weighs about 6.25 g.
Inspect star points and center, panhandle and coastline edges, map texture, lariat loop and twisted strands, THE LONE STAR STATE, dates, motto, and NE. First wear dulls the broad star and exposed map and rope relief and breaks luster. Soft rope strands, map stippling, letters, or star points may remain lustrous from weak strike or die state rather than wear.
Open fields around the star and outside the rope show contact marks, scrapes, residue, and cleaning. Check proofs for hairlines, haze, spots, fingerprints, frost breaks, and reduced cameo. Compare normal examples before calling an extra rope strand, doubled star point, missing map texture, filled letter, or altered NE a mint error.
Worn P and D examples usually occupy the face-value design-set tier. Better circulation coins attract interest through full luster, clean fields, sharp star points, complete map outline and texture, separated rope strands, clear inscriptions, and visible NE. Clad proofs form a collector-product tier; silver proofs add 90% silver as a separate composition tier. Texas identity and the statewide contest add interest, not automatic rarity. World Coin Book gives no live price promise: compare dated references for exact mint, finish, grade, strike, and surfaces.
One Texas 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: