TO SOME MODERN COLLECTORS the Standing Liberty quarter dollar of 1916 through 1930 is generally known for only one thing, the ‘indecent’ design that was used in 1916 and 1917. This controversy has been around for some years, obscuring the fact that the true history of this interesting coin is to be found in the politics of the time and especially World War I.
Woodrow Wilson was elected president in 1912 and took office in March 1913. He had been in office little more than a year when World War I erupted in August 1914. The United States was officially neutral but tended to side with the Allies against the Imperial German Government.
As time progressed the Germans felt increasingly threatened; they then turned to open submarine warfare against the neutral shipping that was keeping England and France in the war. American ships were sunk on the high seas and the ill-fated Zimmermann telegram of 1916, in which the Kaiser, William II, offered part of the U.S. to Mexico, caused an enormous uproar when it was stolen and made public.
In early 1916 the election battle started in earnest, with the President defending his policies of non-intervention.
The slogan “He kept us out of war” was heard with more and more frequency. His opponent in the fall election, Charles Evans Hughes, was a gifted orator who made strong inroads into the President’s popularity
