Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray Quarter: Value, Mintage and Errors
The 2024 Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray quarter is worth 25 cents in circulated condition. 354,200,000 were struck, 168,400,000 at Philadelphia and 185,800,000 at Denver. Released on 2 January 2024, it was the first coin of 2024 and the eleventh in the program. The reverse places Murray's face inside the word HOPE, with a line from Murray's poem "Dark Testament": "A SONG IN A WEARY THROAT."
What this coin looks like
The reverse frames the eyeglass-framed face of Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray inside the shape of the word HOPE. The Mint describes the design as symbolizing Murray's belief that meaningful social reform was possible when it was rooted in hope. An additional inscription, "A SONG IN A WEARY THROAT," is a line from Murray's poem "Dark Testament" that, in the Mint's words, characterizes hope.
Artistic Infusion Program designer Emily Damstra created the design, and U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Joseph Menna sculpted it. The Mint began shipping the coin on 2 January 2024, making it the first of the five 2024 American Women Quarters and the 11th coin in the program overall. Like every coin in the series, it pairs this reverse with Laura Gardin Fraser's obverse portrait of George Washington.
The reverse inscriptions read:
- UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
- 25ยข
- THE REVEREND DR. PAULI MURRAY
- E PLURIBUS UNUM
- A SONG IN A WEARY THROAT
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 Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray quarter an error?
No error unique to this coin is documented. The one thing people ask about is the so-called "Hope quarter." It is not a separate coin, a mystery or an error: Emily Damstra framed Murray's face inside the word HOPE as the design. Any listing selling a "Hope quarter" at a premium is selling an ordinary 2024 Pauli Murray quarter.
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) | 168,400,000 |
|---|---|
| Denver (D) | 185,800,000 |
| Total | 354,200,000 |
| Rank in the series | 9 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 Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray 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 Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray?
Anna Pauline Murray was born on 20 November 1910 in Baltimore, Maryland. After Murray's mother, Agnes Fitzgerald Murray, died in 1914, the young child was sent to Durham, North Carolina, to be raised mainly by maternal aunts and grandparents. Murray's father, William H. Murray, who had been committed to Crownsville State Hospital in Maryland, was killed there by a guard in 1923.
At 16 Murray moved to New York City, finished high school there in 1927 and graduated from Hunter College with a B.A. in English in 1933. In 1938 the University of North Carolina rejected Murray's application to its graduate program in sociology because of race. In March 1940 Murray and a friend, Adelene McBean, were arrested in Petersburg, Virginia, after refusing to move to the back of a segregated bus.
Murray entered Howard University's law school in 1941 as the only woman in the class and coined the term "Jane Crow" for the combined weight of racism and sexism. In 1942 Murray joined the Congress of Racial Equality and worked on the defense of Odell Waller, who was executed on 2 July 1942. Murray graduated first in the law class in 1944, but Harvard refused Murray's application for graduate study because it did not admit women. After earning a Master of Laws at the University of California, Berkeley, Murray passed the California bar in 1945 and in January 1946 became the state's first Black deputy attorney general.
In 1950 Murray published States' Laws on Race and Color, a survey and critique of state segregation laws that Thurgood Marshall called the "bible" of the civil rights movement. The family history Proud Shoes followed in 1956. Murray taught at the Ghana School of Law in 1960 and 1961, served on President John F. Kennedy's Presidential Commission on the Status of Women, and in 1965 became the first African American to receive a Doctor of Juridical Science degree from Yale Law School.
In 1966 Murray co-founded the National Organization for Women with Betty Friedan and other activists, and with Dorothy Kenyon won White v. Crook, which established women's right to serve on juries. When Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the ACLU brief in Reed v. Reed (1971), the case that extended the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to women, she added Murray and Kenyon as coauthors. Murray taught at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1973, and the poetry collection Dark Testament and Other Poems appeared in 1970.
In 1973 Murray left academia for the Episcopal Church, earning a Master of Divinity from General Theological Seminary in 1976. On 8 January 1977, at Washington National Cathedral, Murray became the first African American woman ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. Murray died of pancreatic cancer on 1 July 1985 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2018 the Episcopal Church made Murray a permanent part of its calendar of saints, commemorated on 1 July.
She was selected as a poet, writer, activist, lawyer and Episcopal priest who, in the Mint's words, fought against racial and sex discrimination and is regarded as one of the most important social justice advocates of the 20th century.
The design
| Reverse designer | Emily Damstra, U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program |
|---|---|
| Reverse sculptor | Joseph Menna, U.S. Mint medallic artist |
| Obverse | Laura Gardin Fraser, designed and sculpted, 1931 |
| Released | 2 January 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 Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray 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 Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray quarters were made?
- 354,200,000 in total: 168,400,000 at Philadelphia and 185,800,000 at Denver.
- When was the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray quarter released?
- It entered circulation on 2 January 2024.
- Who designed the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray quarter?
- The reverse was designed by Emily Damstra of the Mint's Artistic Infusion Program and sculpted by U.S. Mint medallic artist Joseph Menna. The obverse, shared by all 20 coins, is by Laura Gardin Fraser.
- What is on the back of the Pauli Murray quarter?
- The reverse shows Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray's eyeglass-framed face inside the word HOPE, with the inscription "A SONG IN A WEARY THROAT," a line from Murray's poem "Dark Testament." Emily Damstra designed it and Joseph Menna sculpted it.
- Why does the Pauli Murray quarter say "A song in a weary throat"?
- The line comes from Murray's poem "Dark Testament," published in the 1970 collection Dark Testament and Other Poems. The Mint chose it because it characterizes hope, the theme of the whole design.
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 Reverend Dr. Pauli Murray on January 2
- U.S. Mint: Historic Change: Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Reverend Doctor Pauli Murray
- U.S. Mint: 2024 American Women Quarters Program Honorees Announced
- Wikipedia: Pauli Murray
- Archives of the Episcopal Church: The Reverend Pauli Murray, 1910-1985
Last verified: October 2026. Mintage figures are final.