Description

2004 Iowa State Quarters
Obverse Side
The obverse will continue to bear the familiar restored 1932 John Flannagan image of George Washington.
Reverse Side
The Reverse side design contains a depiction of a one-room schoolhouse and a teacher and students planting a tree, with Grant Wood’s name below. The quarter is inscribed Foundation in Education. Iowans have had a commitment to education since the state’s earliest days. When Iowa became a state in 1846, it already had a number of rural country schools in each of its counties. Iowa established its first high school in the 1850s though, generally, high schools did not become widespread until after 1900. Private and public colleges also quickly took root in the new state. Though Iowa has long been a leader in agriculture, the state is unique in being the only one whose east and west borders are completely formed by rivers—the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.