Ahr was accused of copying his drummer from a 1973 stamp by the stamp's designer, William A. Smith; he denied it. According to numismatic historian Walter Breen, "both obviously derive from Archibald Willard's 1876 painting "Spirit of '76"," a painting which numismatic author David L. Ganz suggests that both undoubtedly saw sometime in their lives. Ahr, however, stated that his son had been the model for the drummer. Brooks, in a letter to Smith, stated that the design for the quarter was "sufficiently original" to impress the National Sculpture Society. Weinman later deprecated the winning designs: