Celia Cruz Quarter: Value, Mintage and Errors
The 2024 Celia Cruz quarter is worth 25 cents in circulated condition. 305,800,000 were struck, 149,600,000 at Philadelphia and 156,200,000 at Denver. Released on 5 August 2024, it was the fourth coin of 2024 and the fourteenth in the program. The reverse carries Cruz's catchphrase "¡AZÚCAR!" (Spanish for "sugar!"), making it the only 2024 American Women Quarter with a Spanish inscription.
What this coin looks like
The reverse is a dynamic depiction of Celia Cruz flashing her wide smile while performing in a rumba-style dress. Her signature catchphrase, "¡AZÚCAR!," is inscribed on the right side of the design, alongside her name.
This reverse is not an Artistic Infusion Program design: U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill both designed and sculpted it. "I knew I had to make the design for superstar Celia Cruz as dynamic as she was," Hemphill said in the Mint's release, explaining that she watched Cruz perform in her famous rumba dress and tried to reflect her vitality in the design. The Mint began shipping the coin, the fourth of the 2024 American Women Quarters, on 5 August 2024.
The reverse inscriptions read:
- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
- E PLURIBUS UNUM
- 25¢
- CELIA CRUZ
- ¡AZÚCAR!
The obverse is the same on all 20 coins in the series: George Washington facing right, with LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, the date and the mint mark. The mint mark is to the right of Washington's neck, below the date. P is Philadelphia, D is Denver, S is San Francisco and appears only on proof and collector issues.
Is my Celia Cruz quarter an error?
No error or variety unique to this coin is documented in the grading-service and variety sources this site checks. That is the normal situation: only five of the 20 designs (Sally Ride, Wilma Mankiller, Edith Kanakaʻole, Bessie Coleman and Mary Edwards Walker) have a documented error or variety.
What people most often bring to this coin are the three claims that attach to every coin in the series: a faint G in IN GOD WE TRUST (not an error, it is the typeface), flat shiny doubling on the lettering (machine doubling, not a doubled die), and small raised lumps from die chips. The errors page has nine tests that separate a genuine mint error from damage, and the short list of errors that are actually documented in this program.
What is it worth?
| Found in change | 25 cents |
|---|---|
| Uncirculated, from a Mint roll or bag | $1 to $2 |
| Certified mint state | A few dollars, rising to roughly $86 at the top of the population for the series |
| Clad proof (S mint) | Typically less than the cost of grading it |
| Silver proof (S mint, .999 fine) | A floor set by the silver price, plus a small premium |
Values as of October 2026. The full reasoning, including the four cases where a coin in this series is genuinely worth more, is on the value page.
How many were made
| Philadelphia (P) | 149,600,000 |
|---|---|
| Denver (D) | 156,200,000 |
| Total | 305,800,000 |
| Rank in the series | 5 of 20 by mintage, lowest first |
| San Francisco (S) | Not published by the Mint |
San Francisco (S) figures are not shown because the Mint has never published per-design mintages for S-mint American Women Quarters. Any S figure published elsewhere is a secondary-source estimate, and the two most commonly cited sets contradict each other.
See the full mintage table for all 20 designs, or the key date page for where this coin sits in the series.
Collector versions
Besides the Philadelphia and Denver coins in circulation, the Mint sold three San Francisco versions of the 2024 Celia Cruz quarter directly to collectors. None were released into circulation.
| 2024-S uncirculated | Only in the 2024 three-roll set (40 P, 40 D, 40 S), $60.00 at issue |
|---|---|
| 2024-S clad proof | In the 2024 American Women Quarters Proof Set, $23.00 at issue, 51,916 sets sold |
| 2024-S silver proof | In the 2024 American Women Quarters Silver Proof Set, $80.00 at issue, 35,010 sets sold |
Set sales are as reported by CoinNews on 21 October 2026. Details on the proof and silver proof sets and the Mint rolls and bags.
Who was Celia Cruz?
Celia Caridad Cruz Alfonso was born on 21 October 1925 in the Santos Suárez neighborhood of Havana, Cuba. She sang from early childhood, at school and with a neighborhood group, and as a teenager she studied at Havana's Normal School for Teachers, planning to teach literature. As a young singer she won a prize on a Havana radio amateur program.
From 1947 she studied music theory, voice and piano at Havana's National Conservatory of Music while singing in cabarets such as the Tropicana. In 1948 she toured Mexico and Venezuela with the dance troupe Las Mulatas de Fuego, making her first recordings. She debuted as lead singer of La Sonora Matancera on 3 August 1950 and stayed with the band for 15 years, recording 188 songs with it. In 1957 she made her first trip to the United States to receive a gold record for "Burundanga" and to perform at St. Nicholas Arena in New York.
On 15 July 1960 Cruz left Cuba for Mexico with La Sonora Matancera, and she never lived in Cuba again. In 1962 she bought a house in Queens, New York, and on 14 July 1962 she married Pedro Knight. In 1961 she gave a solo recital at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Her mother died on 7 April 1962; the Cuban government had refused her request to return to see her. Cruz later became a U.S. citizen.
In 1965 Cruz left La Sonora Matancera for a solo career, with Knight as her representative, arranger and musical director. She recorded with Tito Puente's orchestra beginning in 1966, and in 1973 began her long association with Fania Records and the Fania All-Stars. Her 1974 album with Johnny Pacheco, Celia & Johnny, produced the hit "Quimbara," and that year she performed with the Fania All-Stars in Kinshasa, Zaire. She became one of the most influential artists in salsa, a genre the Smithsonian describes as male-dominated.
Cruz won her first Grammy Award in 1990, for Best Tropical Latin Performance, for Ritmo en el corazón with Ray Barretto. She won again in 2003 for La negra tiene tumbao (Best Salsa Album) and posthumously in 2004 for Regalo del alma (Best Salsa/Merengue Album), and she also won several Latin Grammy Awards. President Bill Clinton presented her with the National Medal of Arts in 1994. That year she was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame. The Smithsonian credits her with 23 gold albums.
Cruz was treated for cancer in 2002 and had surgery for a brain tumor that December. She died at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on 16 July 2003, at age 77. More than 200,000 fans paid their respects at a vigil in Miami, a funeral Mass was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, and she was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. In 2016 the Recording Academy gave her a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award.
She was selected as a Cuban American singer known as "The Queen of Salsa," whom the Mint calls one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century.
The design
| Reverse designer | Phebe Hemphill, U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program |
|---|---|
| Reverse sculptor | Phebe Hemphill, U.S. Mint medallic artist |
| Obverse | Laura Gardin Fraser, designed and sculpted, 1931 |
| Released | 5 August 2024 |
Specifications
| Composition, circulating | 91.67% copper, 8.33% nickel (pure copper core, copper-nickel outer layers) |
|---|---|
| Composition, silver proof | .999 fine silver |
| Weight | 5.670 g clad, 6.343 g silver proof |
| Diameter | 24.26 mm |
| Thickness | 1.75 mm |
| Edge | reeded, 119 reeds |
| Mints | Philadelphia (P) and Denver (D) for circulation; San Francisco (S) for proof and collector issues |
No American Women Quarter was struck in 90% silver. The Mint moved its silver proof sets to .999 fine silver with the 2019-dated issues, before this program began.
Frequently asked questions
- How much is the Celia Cruz quarter worth?
- Twenty-five cents in circulated condition. An uncirculated example from a Mint roll or bag trades for one to two dollars.
- How many Celia Cruz quarters were made?
- 305,800,000 in total: 149,600,000 at Philadelphia and 156,200,000 at Denver.
- When was the Celia Cruz quarter released?
- It entered circulation on 5 August 2024.
- Who designed the Celia Cruz quarter?
- The reverse was designed by Phebe Hemphill of the Mint's Artistic Infusion Program and sculpted by U.S. Mint medallic artist Phebe Hemphill. The obverse, shared by all 20 coins, is by Laura Gardin Fraser.
- What is on the back of the Celia Cruz quarter?
- The reverse shows Celia Cruz smiling as she performs in a rumba-style dress, with her catchphrase "¡AZÚCAR!" inscribed on the right. Phebe Hemphill designed and sculpted it.
- What does "¡Azúcar!" mean on the Celia Cruz quarter?
- "Azúcar" is Spanish for "sugar." It was Celia Cruz's signature catchphrase, and the Mint inscribed it on the right side of the reverse.
Sources
- Mintage figures: U.S. Mint circulating coin production dataset.
- Designer and sculptor credits: U.S. Mint, cross-checked against the artists' initials on the coin.
- Coin photograph: United States Mint image.
- U.S. Mint: United States Mint Announces Designs for 2024 American Women Quarters Program Coins
- U.S. Mint: United States Mint Begins Shipping 2024 American Women Quarters Honoring Celia Cruz on August 5
- U.S. Mint: 2024 American Women Quarters Program Honorees Announced
- Smithsonian: Snapshot, Celia Cruz
- Recording Academy (GRAMMY.com): Celia Cruz
- Wikipedia: Celia Cruz
Last verified: October 2026. Mintage figures are final.