Lincoln Silver Dollar

Weight: 26.73 grams
Diameter: 1.500 inches
Composition: 90 percent Silver; balance Copper
Mintage Limit: 500,000

The obverse (heads) of the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Silver Dollar features an image of President Lincoln with the inscriptions LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and 2009 (the only year the coin will be minted). It was designed by United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program Master Designer Justin Kunz and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Don Everhart.

The image is symbolic of Lincoln's strength and resolve, and was inspired by Daniel Chester French's famous sculpture of the President that sits inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

The obverse of the coin contains the last 43 words of Lincoln's address as he dedicated the National Cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield.

"we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The words are encircled in a laurel wreath. Above the wreath is the inscription, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Under the wreath is a banner with Lincoln's signature incused in the center. On the banner, on either side of the signature, are the words ONE DOLLAR and E PLURIBUS UNUM. The reverse was designed and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Phebe Hemphill.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate-we can not consecrate-we can not hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

With 2009 being the Bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, the Congress also authorized a redesign of the Lincoln Penny. The Lincoln Penny was introduced in 1909, the year of the Centennial of Lincoln's birth. The reverse side of the coin featured the words "One Cent" centered between two ears of wheat. The coin was redesigned for issue in 1959 (the 150th anniversay of Lincoln's birth and the 50th anniversary of the Lincoln Cent's introduction) with a new reverse featuring the Lincoln Memorial. The Mint announced plans to issue 4 designs over the course of the Bicentennial year, with a new permanent design being struck in 2010.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The US Mint indicated in its initial publicity that only 500,000 of the Commemorative Silver Dollars would be produced. I have read reports in the last few days that the coins are "sold out," or that they are "backordered." I'll look into this in the next 24 hours and place something on the US Coin Blog!