Information about effigy: Walking Liberty by Adolph Weinman

This image of Liberty (variously also called Miss Liberty or Lady Liberty) was created by Adolph Weinman in 1916 for the obverse of the "Walking Liberty Half Dollar". The design depicts the female personification of liberty as a young woman seen in profile, walking to left, carrying branches of laurel and oak which represent civil and military glory. She wears sandals and is draped in the folds of the American flag, which billows behind her, and her right arm is extended forward in a gesture of bestowing freedom. Below left, the rising sun towards which she is walking, as a symbol of a new day and hope. Below right, the designer's monogram.

The half dollar using this image was discontinued after 1947. The depiction was then re-introduced on the American Silver Eagle bullion range, initially without the designer's monogram. The WA monogram was added to the silver eagles in 2021 in parallel with their reverse re-design.