Thomas Jefferson’s portrait appears on the obverse of the 2026 Semiquincentennial quarter honoring the Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson is associated with the document because he served as its principal drafter. He was a Virginia delegate to the Second Continental Congress and worked with the drafting committee before the text was debated and revised by Congress.
The quarter’s reverse features the Liberty Bell, creating a pairing of author and national symbol. That design choice connects the person most closely associated with the draft to the Philadelphia setting of the Continental Congress and the document’s public memory.
Jefferson did not act alone, and the Declaration was not a document written and approved by one person without alteration. Congress edited the draft before adopting it. The coin honors Jefferson’s central drafting role, not sole authorship of the final text.