2023 Quarter With a Woman on the Back: Who She Is, What It Is Worth, and Which Errors Are Real
images: > Five US Mint reverse images from Wikimedia Commons (Public domain, US government work): File:2023 Jovita Idar Womens Quarter.jpg, ...Bessie Coleman..., ...Edith Kanakaʻole..., ...Eleanor Roosevelt..., ...Maria Tallchief Womens Quarter.jpg; local copies in assets/2023-quarter-with-woman-on-back/, resized to 1000px.
Words written across her dress? That is Jovita Idár, the coin most people mean when they search for the lady on the back of the 2023 quarter. There are four others that year: Bessie Coleman, Edith Kanakaʻole, Eleanor Roosevelt and Maria Tallchief. All five come from the American Women Quarters, which Congress set up to run from 2022 through 2025, up to five women a year. Pulled from change, any of them is worth a quarter. CoinWeek has tracked uncirculated examples selling for about $1.50 to $4 apiece, and the one 2023 striking error we found documented in the trade press is a clashed die on some Philadelphia Kanakaʻole quarters, not the "In Cod We Trust" coins all over eBay. The series ended with the 2025 coins, and 2026 quarters carry the Semiquincentennial designs instead, which Pure lists by the 100-coin bag.
The rest of this is a field guide: which one you have, what the uncirculated ones fetch, and how to check yours without wasting a grading fee.
Which woman is on your 2023 quarter
Every 2023 quarter has the same front, George Washington facing right, and one of five backs. The honoree's name is on every reverse, so read the inscription first. On a worn coin, go by the picture.
Reverse design | What you see | Inscription that confirms it |
|---|---|---|
Bessie Coleman | A pilot suiting up for flight | BESSIE COLEMAN and 6.15.1921 |
Edith Kanakaʻole | A woman with long flowing hair | EDITH KANAKAʻOLE, "E hō mai ka ʻike", and 25¢ instead of QUARTER DOLLAR |
Eleanor Roosevelt | A portrait beside the scales of justice | ELEANOR ROOSEVELT and UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS |
Jovita Idár | A woman, hands clasped, words across her body | JOVITA IDAR plus TEACHER, NURSE, JOURNALIST and newspaper names |
Maria Tallchief | A ballerina in a spotlight | MARIA TALLCHIEF and her Osage name in Osage orthography |
The Idár design is the one that confuses people, because the inscriptions are part of the figure. The words on her dress name her newspapers (La Crónica, El Progreso, Evolución among them) and her causes, which is why a "quarter with writing on the lady" search lands on this coin. Every inscription is listed in CoinWeek's design announcement, which also credits the artists. Chris Costello drew Coleman and Eric David Custer sculpted her. Emily Damstra and Renata Gordon did Kanakaʻole, Don Everhart and Craig A. Campbell did Roosevelt. John P. McGraw both designed and sculpted the Idár. Tallchief is Ben Sowards' design, sculpted by Chief Engraver Joseph Menna.
They came out in that order, spaced through the year. Coleman first, on January 3. Kanakaʻole March 27, Roosevelt June 5, Idár August 14. The Tallchief quarter closed the year on October 23.
Why Washington faces right on the 2023 quarter
Flip the coin over and Washington is looking right, the opposite of every quarter from 1932 to 2021. That is not an error either. The portrait is Laura Gardin Fraser's, and it waited ninety years for this. The Commission of Fine Arts recommended it for the first Washington quarter in 1932. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon overruled them and picked John Flanagan's left-facing bust, the one you grew up with. Fraser's Washington got a single outing on the 1999 gold $5 commemorative, and then in 2022 it became the front of every American Women quarter. Her initials, LGF, sit in the truncation of Washington's neck on the left.
What a 2023 quarter is worth
Are 2023 quarters worth money? From change, no. Twenty-five cents. The production numbers explain why: per CoinNews, Philadelphia and Denver together struck about 619 million Colemans and 741 million Kanakaʻoles, 556 million Roosevelts, and even the two smallest runs, Idár at 379 million and Tallchief at 371 million, are enormous. The Tallchief coin was the lowest of the series to that point, with Idár close behind, and neither is scarce in any sense a collector would use.
Uncirculated is a different coin, if only slightly. A roll-fresh Idár goes for about $1.50 on eBay according to CoinWeek's collector guide, and the Kanakaʻole for $1.50 to $4. Once a coin is graded, the grade is what sells. A PCGS MS66 Kanakaʻole made $18.99 in October 2024. Higher-grade Colemans run about $7. And one NGC MS69 Idár brought $645 in January 2024, a number CoinWeek expects to fall as more coins grade that high. That $645 coin is a high-grade coin with no error on it, the kind of sale that sits behind the "Jovita Idar quarter worth hundreds" headlines. We could not find a documented sale of any 2023 quarter at the $35,000 figure that shows up in search results.
S-mint coins are their own story. San Francisco struck 2023 quarters for collector products only, among them the $60 three-roll set and the $23 five-quarter proof set, and none of those went into circulation. Find an S in your change and a collector spent it.
The 2023 quarter error list: what is real and what is not
Search for 2023 quarter errors and the first thing you meet is "In Cod We Trust." The story goes that some 2023 quarters say COD instead of GOD on the front. What is actually on those coins is a weak serif on the G, the small stroke inside the letter, struck faintly or worn down. Two dealers who have written about them say it plainly: Hero Bullion calls it "not an error, at least not in the traditional sense" and values the coins at 25 cents, and JoCo Coin Shop points out that a die does not change a G into a C. As of a search on November 10, 2026, we found no grading-service attribution and no trade-press report of a Cod quarter. The four-figure prices attached to them online are asking prices, and we found no recorded sale at those numbers.
The one 2023 variety we found documented in the trade press is on the Kanakaʻole quarter. Numismatic News wrote it up in July 2023 as a major clashed die on 2023-P Kanakaʻole quarters. The two dies hit each other with no blank between them, part of the raised name on the reverse printed itself onto the obverse die, and the coins struck from that damaged die carry the letters EDETH in the middle of Washington's profile. Error writer Ken Potter called it a clash "like none I have seen in recent years." Eleven had been found when the story ran, and Potter wrote that it was too early to put a value on them.
So the 2023 quarter error list, as far as the record goes:
2023-P Edith Kanakaʻole clashed die (EDETH on Washington's profile). Documented by Numismatic News. Value not yet established.
"In Cod We Trust" on any 2023 quarter. Not an error. A weak G serif, worth 25 cents.
Die chips on Coleman's wing and struck-through Idárs. Priced on dealer blogs, with no grading-service attribution or auction record that we could find.
The third group is not fake. It means the prices are asking prices rather than recorded sales. NGC's policy is that it does not recognize minor die chips, breaks or rotations as mint errors, and for clashes and cuds its grading guide says the marks must be pronounced and unusual, with bigger die breaks worth more than small ones.
How to check the quarter in your hand
Weigh it. The spec is 5.67 grams and 24.26 mm, cupronickel over a copper core, 119 reeds around the edge, per CoinWeek. A kitchen scale that reads to a hundredth of a gram is enough to catch a wrong-planchet coin. You almost certainly do not have one, but the check costs nothing.
Then separate damage from errors. Coins pick up gouges, dents and scrapes in circulation, and most "errors" posted online are that. NGC's guide to mint errors gives the test for a clipped planchet, metal flow into the blank area, which a post-mint cut does not show. The two real errors people confuse with damage have specific causes. Struck-through means something got between the die and the blank during the strike. Off-center means the collar failed to hold the blank in place.
Then find the mint mark, on the front below the date. P is Philadelphia, so a 2023-P quarter came from the Philadelphia run of whichever design it shows. D is Denver. Either way the coin was made for circulation. S is the exception, because it means the coin started life in a collector set.
The arithmetic is unforgiving. Even the scarcest 2023 design has more than 370 million coins out there, so the one in your change is a quarter unless it never circulated or carries a documented variety. If you think you have the Kanakaʻole clash, a grading service can attribute it. The submitter pays the fee.
What came after the 2023 quarters
The women's series ended on schedule after 2025. This year's quarters are the Semiquincentennial designs for the 250th anniversary. For the quarters where date and condition genuinely move the price, the older ones, start with the list of rare quarters worth money.
Questions people ask
How much is the 2023 quarter with the lady on the back worth?
Twenty-five cents if it has been in circulation, no matter which of the five she is. For the designs CoinWeek has tracked, uncirculated coins have been selling for about $1.50 to $4 each, and graded coins sell on their grade, up to a single $645 sale of an NGC MS69 Jovita Idár in January 2024, per CoinWeek.
What is the error on the 2023 quarter with the woman on the back (Jovita Idar)?
As of November 2026 we found no Jovita Idár error attributed by a grading service or reported by the trade press. The "In Cod We Trust" coins are a weak serif on the G. Nothing is misspelled. The struck-through examples sold online carry dealer asking prices, not attributed values.
Are 2023-S quarters found in circulation?
Not by the Mint's doing. San Francisco struck 2023 quarters only for the proof sets and the three-roll sets sold to collectors. One in your change was spent by a collector.
Who is on the 2023 quarter?
Bessie Coleman, the first African American and first Native American woman pilot; Edith Kanakaʻole, the Hawaiian composer, chanter and teacher; Eleanor Roosevelt; Jovita Idár, the Mexican American journalist and activist; and Maria Tallchief, America's first prima ballerina, in the order the Mint released them in 2023.