1999-S 25C Delaware, DCAM PR70DCAM Certification #15810386, PCGS #96042

This was the first coin of the US Mint’s new 50 State Quarters Series, released on Jan. 4, 1999. The legislation that authorized the state quarter program in 1997 was introduced by Delaware Representative Mike Castle. Each state’s governor was responsible for submitting concepts to the mint, but they had leeway on how they came to those selections. Delaware’s Governor asked residents to submit ideas to the Delaware Arts Council for review. Once the US Mint finalized three potential designs for the reverse, Delawareans were asked to vote on their favorites. Of the 1,519 votes cast, the Caesar Rodney reverse, engraved by William Cousins and based on artist Eddy Seger’s submission, received 948. Both the final design and the original submission were based on James Edward Kelly’s sculpture of Caesar Rodney that stood in Wilmington’s Rodney Square between 1923 until 2020. Mr. Seger taught at art at Caesar Rodney High School in Camden, DE at the time. When he learned that Delawareans were being asked to submit ideas for the new coin, he made it an art project. Of the 340 submissions to the Arts Council, 39 came from his students. The ceremonial first strike of the new series took place at the Philadelphia Mint on Dec. 7, 1998, the anniversary of the state’s ratification of the Constitution.

Jaime Hernandez

This is the first year of the very popular State Quarters Program. The program started in 1999 and honored each state with a quarter design, up until 2008 when the program was sucessfully completed. The 1999-S Delaware Proof Quarter is easily obtainable as it costs about a few dollars raw each. Only in PR70 Deep Cameo does it command a significant premium. Most examples appear to range from about PR67-PR69 Deep Cameo condition.