Jack L. Ahr designed the drummer reverse used on the 1976 Bicentennial quarter, a famous predecessor to America250 coinage. His design shows a colonial drummer beside a victory torch and thirteen stars.
The quarter carried the dual date 1776–1976 rather than a single year. Ahr’s design won a national competition judged by the Treasury Department, and the circulating coin became one of the most recognizable U.S. commemoratives.
Frank Gasparro designed the obverse portrait of George Washington used on the Bicentennial quarter. The coin’s reverse was shared across circulating commemorative quarters struck by the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints.