I've been intrigued about these coins for a while [View All]

[Art_from_Ark]

The first picture is the "Winged Liberty Head" dime (popularly referred to as the "Mercury" dime), which was designed by a German immigrant, A.A.Weinman, and first issued in 1916, a year before the United States entered WWI against Germany. The reverse ("tails") side features the rather curious design element (for an American coin) of an ancient Roman fasces, with an olive branch curled around it.



Six years after the introduction of this coin, Mussolini came to power in Italy, adopting the fasces as the symbol of his party, the Fascists. The coin below is a silver Italian 5 lira coin, which was almost exactly the same size of the US quarter dollar. The bold eagle on the reverse is perched upon an upturned fasces, which is quite similar to the one depicted on the "Mercury" dime



A few years later, in 1932, the Treasury Department held a contest to design a quarter to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of George Washington. While the citizen's committee overwhelmingly wanted Laura G. Fraser's design, they were overruled by Andrew Mellon, Herbert Hoover's Treasury Secretary , who insisted that the following design, made by John Flannagan, be adopted instead:



I am struck by the similarities of the quarter design and the Italian 5 lira design, particularly the reverse. It almost seems as if the Italian coin served as the model for the Washington quarter design.

Both the "Mercury" dime and the Washington quarter circulated during World War II. It is quite ironic that while America was fighting against fascist countries in that war, her contemporary coinage featured one, and quite likely two, coins with fascist design elements.