Depicts the standing figure of Liberty Liberty on guard against attacks within the opening of a small gate adorned with thirteen stars. She holds a shield in her left hand and an olive branch in her right. The word LIBERTY appears above and the date below. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST is split over both sides of the gate.

Mintmark (if any) appears to the right of the lowest of the left-hand column of stars (to the left of Liberty's feet). The small M that appears to the right of the date is the designer's initial.

Depicts an eagle in flight with five stars to the left and to the right, three stars below the eagle. Beneath the eagle is the denomination QUARTER DOLLAR, with the remaining inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and E PLURIBUS UNUM in the field above the eagle.

13 stars represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and became the first states in the U.S.