By Charles Morgan and Hubert Walker for CoinWeek Notes …..
Released on March 27, 2023, the 2023-P American Women Quarter honoring Edith Kanakaʻole was the second of five designs released in 2023 and the seventh coin in the 20-coin American Women Quarters program. Authorized by Public Law 116-330 (PDF link), the series began in 2022 and will continue through 2025, with each year seeing five new reverse designs commemorating the achievements and legacies of historically and culturally significant women. It follows the successful 50 State Quarters and America the Beautiful National Park Quarters programs and the Washington Crossing the Delaware one-year reverse type of 2021.
Who Was Edith Kanakaʻole and Why Is She on the Quarter?
Edith Kanakaʻole (“Aunty Edith”) was a Native Hawaiian hula dancer, choreographer, composer, and teacher who worked to preserve and transmit traditional Hawaiian culture. She was an important link between the independent Kingdom of Hawai’i and the resurgence of Native culture in the mid-20th century and beyond. Born Edith Kekuhikuhipu‘uoneonāali‘iōkohala Kenao in 1913, she learned traditional Hawaiian dance (hula) from her mother and music from her father. After World War II, Kanakaʻole became a composer of songs and oli, or traditional Hawaiian chants, and created hula dances to accompany them. Before the United States Territory of Hawai’i became the 50th state in 1959, she toured North America and Asia with her dance troupe, serving as an ambassador of Hawaiian culture. After statehood, she continued to teach traditional culture to future generations, ensuring the survival and nourishment of Native Hawaiian society into the 21st century.
Kanakaʻole died on October 3, 1979. She is the first Native Hawaiian woman on a U.S. coin.
On Saturday, May 6, 2023, the Mint held a release ceremony for Edith Kanakaʻole Quarters at the Performing Arts Center on the campus of the University of Hawai’i at Hilo. The video below is a recording of the event.
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Market Data and Noteworthy Specimens
The American Women Quarters series has been fairly well received by the public and collectors have been enthusiastic. The combination of interesting historical figures and solid, sometimes highly innovative (see the 2023-D Jovita Idar Quarter), designs could be responsible for this heightened level of excitement.
Besides the usual banking channels, the Mint also made the 2023-P Edith Kanaka’ole Quarter available to collectors in the 2023 American Women Quarter Set, the 2023 Uncirculated Coin Set, and in bag and roll product options. Bags containing 100 coins were sold for $45 (a $20 premium over the total face value). Rolls were sold in two-roll sets featuring quarters from the Philadelphia and Denver mints for $40 and three-roll (Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco) sets for $60. While the three-roll set goes for a $30 premium instead of the $20 surcharge of the two-roll set, collectors may still prefer the three-roll set since rolls of the 2023-S were only available in this ordering option.
As of November 2024, NGC records 561 grading events for the 2023-P quarter, most of which are certified MS66 (462) and MS67 (317). There is only one top pop MS69 specimen listed and 60 coins graded MS68.
PCGS records 578 total grading events, with72 at the top pop of MS67. Most of the PCGS certified pieces are graded MS66 (425), and none grade lower than MS62. A PCGS First Strike MS66 sold on eBay for $18.99 on October 22, 2024, but it is important to remember that as more coins get graded, this price will come down – as it does for almost all recent modern issues.
CAC Grading has neither stickered nor certified any 2023-P Edith Kanakaʻole Quarters.
Uncirculated coins in raw form have sold recently on eBay for about $1.50 to $4.00.
Top Population: PCGS MS67 (72, 11/2024), NGC MS69 (1, 11/2024), and CAC N/A (0:0 stickered:graded, 11/2024).
- PCGS MS66: eBay, October 22, 2024, Lot 405263034686 – $18.99. First Strike American Flag label.
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Coin Design
Obverse:
Instead of a version of John Flanagan’s bust of George Washington that has been on the front of the quarter since 1932, the common obverse of all American Women Quarters depicts a right-facing portrait of Washington originally sculpted by artist Laura Gardin Fraser to mark Washington’s 200th birthday. Though her work was a recommended design for the 1932 quarter, then-Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon ultimately selected the familiar Flanagan design.
The word LIBERTY wraps clockwise around the rim above Washington’s head. The motto IN GOD / WE / TRUST is divided in three lines to his left, and the date 2023 and P mintmark are below his chin in descending order. Laura Gardin Fraser’s initials LGF are in the truncation of Washington’s neck on the left.
Reverse:
Edith Kanakaʻole’s face is on the right of the quarter’s reverse, wearing a lei poʻo or head lei that merges along with her hair into the volcanic landscape of her native Hawai’i. The lei is a garland of flowers, sometimes fruit, that are strung or woven together and given to people for a variety of reasons that a generally honorific. Like hula, lei are part of the complex matrix of objects and meaning in Native Hawaiian culture. A river or waterway winds through the island toward the mountain on the left side of the coin.
Between her face and the river is her name, EDITH KANAKA’OLE. Above the reverse design, in something of an “exergue” on the top is the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA divided into two lines. Below the landscape is the denomination 25¢, and beneath that is the Hawaiian inscription E hō mai ka ʻike, which translates to “Granting the Wisdom”. The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM is titled along the left side of the design.
Artistic Infusion Program designer Emily Damstra created the design; her initials ESD are to the right of E PLURIBUS UNUM. Mint Medallic Artist Renata Gordon engraved the design; her initials RG are below Edith Kanakaʻole’s face.
The following is a video from the United States Mint discussing the 2023 American Women Edith Kanakaʻole Quarter:
Edge:
The edge of the 2023-P Edith Kanakaʻole Quarter is reeded with 119 reeds.
Designers
Laura Gardin Fraser was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1889. After receiving an education at the Columbia University and later at the Art Students League of New York, where she studied under her future husband James Earle Fraser. Laura Gardin Fraser died in 1966. In 2022, the portrait of George Washington that she submitted for the Washington Quarter replaced John Flanagan’s long-running portrait (submitted in the same competition) for the duration of the American Women Quarters Program.
Emily Damstra has worked as a freelance science illustrator in a variety of media. She has a Masters in Fine Arts in Science Illustration from the University of Michigan and has designed several coins for the Royal Canadian Mint (View Designer’s Profile).
A graduate of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Medallic Artist Renata Gordon created several designs for the First Spouse and America the Beautiful Quarters programs (View Designer’s Profile).
2023-P American Women Edith Kanakaʻole Quarter Coin Specifications
| Country: | United States of America |
| Year of Issue: | 2023 |
| Denomination: | Quarter Dollar (25 Cents USD) |
| Mintmark: | P (Philadelphia) |
| Mintage: | 372,800,000 |
| Alloy: | .750 copper, .250 nickel outer layer, bonded to pure copper inner core |
| Weight: | 5.67 g |
| Diameter: | 24.26 mm |
| Edge: | Reeded |
| OBV Designer: | Laura Gardin Fraser |
| REV Designer: | Emily Damstra | Renata Gordon |
| Quality: | Business Strike |
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