Bill Jones' Type Set
25C WASHINGTON, STATEHOOD, CLAD (1999-2008)

Owner Comments:

I selected the Delaware coin for the state quarter slot in my type set because I was born and raised in the state. The design for this piece was inspired by a statue of Caesar Rodney that is located in Wilmington, Delaware. That statue was inspired by Rodney’s heroic ride during the vote for independence early July 1776. The Delaware delegation to the Continental Congress consisted of Caesar Rodney, Thomas McKean and George Read. On the evening of July 1 the Continental Congress was voting on the issue of American independence. Rodney was absent because he was investigating the activities of British loyalists in southern Delaware. When the vote for independence was taken, McKean voted for it but Read voted against it. McKean sent a desperate message to Rodney that his voted was needed to break the tie in the Delaware delegation. Riding all night through a violent thunder storm and stopping only to change horses, Rodney arrived in Philadelphia in time to case the deciding vote for the Delaware delegation. Rodney’s act was particularly heroic because he was suffering from cancer at the time. Cancers on his face had left him seriously disfigured, and no actual portraits are known of this American patriot. The disease would claim his life in 1784.