Art historian Cornelius Vermeule said of Flanagan's quarter, "a die designer could do little wrong in having Houdon's Neoclassic image as his prototype ... Still, it might be asked whether or not it was fair to force an ideal portrait of Washington made in 1785 on an artist working in 1932. There is something cold and lifeless about the results." Vermeule suggests that the quarter started a trend of similar portrait coins issued by the United States, notably the Jefferson nickel and Franklin half dollar. The historian preferred Laura Fraser's version, and termed Flanagan's reverse "a stiff bit of heraldry amid too large a wreath and too much or too large lettering".