The Standing Liberty Quarter design has a complicated history with nudity: when Hermon MacNeil's original 1916 design depicted Liberty with a bare breast, public outcry — possibly orchestrated, possibly genuine — led the Mint to add chain mail to the figure partway through 1917. The 2016 centennial gold restrike was the first time the original exposed design appeared on a U.S. government issue since that modification, and the 2026 Semiquincentennial version continues that rehabilitation. Whether MacNeil himself approved the 1917 alteration remains disputed among scholars of the series.
The Standing Liberty Quarter design has a complicated history with nudity: when Hermon MacNeil's original 1916 design depicted Liberty with a bare breast, public outcry — possibly orchestrated, possibly genuine — led the Mint to add chain mail to the figure partway through 1917. The 2016 centennial gold restrike was the first time the original exposed design appeared on a U.S. government issue since that modification, and the 2026 Semiquincentennial version continues that rehabilitation. Whether MacNeil himself approved the 1917 alteration remains disputed among scholars of the series.