Andrew Jackson 2008 US Presidential One Dollar Coin
The Andrew Jackson Presidential Dollar was released on August 14, 2008. This was the seventh coin in the Presidential Dollars series and the third release of 2008.
Andrew Jackson fought in the Revolutionary War and was a hero in the War of 1812. As President, he worked to strengthen the executive branch of the government, vetoing more bills than the prior six presidents combined. He served two terms as the 7th President of the United States from 1829-1837.
The official launch ceremony for the Andrew Jackson Presidential Dollar was held at the Hermitage near Nashville, Tennessee. This was President Jackson’s former home. The United States Mint Deputy Director Andrew Brunhart and the past regent of the Hermitage Board of Directors Richard Cowart were in attendance. A ceremonial “coin pour” of new Andrew Jackson Dollars took place. The public was invited to exchange their paper dollars for new dollar coins.
The obverse of the Andrew Jackson Presidential Dollar features a portrait of the President, while the reverse features a rendition of the Statue of Liberty. The obverse was designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Jim Licaretz. The reverse was designed and sculpted by Don Everhart.
The obverse includes the inscriptions “Andrew Jackson,” “7th President,” and the years of his presidential term “1829-1837.” The reverse inscriptions include “United States of America,” and the denomination “$1.” The date and mint mark are located on the edge inscription of the coin along with the mottoes “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum.”
The Philadelphia mint produced 61,080,000 coins. The Denver mint produced 61,070,000 coins. The total was slightly greater than overall circulating coin production figures for the prior coin honoring John Quincy Adams. Notably, this coin broke the streak of declining production figures for Presidential Dollar coin releases.
Andrew Jackson Presidential Dollar Coin Specifications:
Diameter: 26.5 mm
Weight: 8.1g
Thickness: 2.0 mm
Edge: Lettered
Composition: 88.5% copper, 6% zinc, 3.5% manganese, 2% nickel
Mintage: 61,080,000 Philadelphia, 61,070,000 Denver
Presidential $1 Coin — Lady Liberty Reverse Statue of Liberty, 1886
She is the work of sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who enlisted the assistance of engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower, to help him solve some of the structural challenges presented by creating a statue of such magnitude.
The Statue of Liberty was completed in 1884 and shipped to the United States in June 1885, having been disassembled into 350 individual pieces that were packed in over 200 crates for the transatlantic voyage. In four months’ time, she was re-assembled in New York Harbor, standing just over 151 feet from the top of the statue’s base to the tip of the torch her right hand holds high above the waters of New York Harbor.
Originally intended as a gift to celebrate the American Centennial in 1876, the Statue of Liberty was given to the United States as a symbol of the friendship forged between the new American government and the government of France during the American Revolutionary War.
The tablet she holds in her left hand carries the inscription "July IV MDCCLXXVI" in reference to the July 4, 1776, signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the Nation.
There are 25 windows running the length of Lady Liberty’s crown, which is topped by seven rays, meant to convey both the light of the sun and the seven seas and continents of the world.
For millions of Americans, the Statue of Liberty was the first sight that their ancestors saw as they arrived in America after having left their homes in search of a better life for themselves and for their families.
To celebrate her 100th anniversary, the Statue of Liberty was featured on a United States commemorative coin in 1986. In 1997, a close-up image of the Lady Liberty was chosen for the obverse of the new American Eagle platinum coins.
Presidential $1 Coins
Presidential Dollar Coins feature larger, more dramatic artwork, as well as edge-incused inscriptions meant to revitalize the design of United States coins and return circulating coinage to its position as an object of aesthetic beauty.The U.S. Mint launched the Presidential $1 Coin Program in 2007. The 10-year initiative includes one dollar coins featuring obverse designs honoring the Presidents in the order in which they served in office.
Read less Image of Presidential $1 Coins
The U.S. Mint produces and issues four Presidential Dollar coins per year, each with a common reverse design featuring a striking rendition of the Statue of Liberty. The program was authorized by the Presidential $1 Dollar Coin Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-145).
2007 Presidential Dollars
2008 Presidential Dollars
James Monroe John Quincy Adams Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren
2009 Presidential Dollars
2010 Presidential Dollars
2011 Presidential Dollars
2012 Presidential Dollars
2013 Presidential Dollars
2014 Presidential Dollars
2015 Presidential Dollars
2016 Presidential Dollars
Andrew Jackson Presidential $1 Coin — Seventh President, 1829-1837
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh President of the United States (1829–1837). A citizen of Tennessee, Andrew Jackson was the first president elected from west of the Appalachian Mountains. He was born near the end of the colonial era, somewhere near the then-unmarked border between North and South Carolina, into a recently immigrated Scots-Irish farming family of relatively modest means. During the American Revolutionary War Jackson, whose family supported the revolutionary cause, acted as a courier. As a boy, he fought in the Revolutionary War. Jackson gained national prominence as a hero of the War of 1812, and was nicknamed “Old Hickory” for his firm discipline as commander of his troops. He was captured, at age 13, and mistreated by his British captors. He later became a lawyer. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and then to the U.S. Senate. In 1801, Jackson was appointed colonel in the Tennessee militia, which became his political as well as military base. Jackson owned hundreds of slaves who worked on the Hermitage plantation which he acquired in 1804. He killed a man in a duel in 1806, over a matter of honor regarding his wife Rachel. Jackson gained national fame through his role in the War of 1812, most famously where he won a decisive victory over the main British invasion army at the Battle of New Orleans. In response to conflict with the Seminole in Spanish Florida, Jackson invaded the territory in 1818. This led directly to the Adams–Onís Treaty, which formally transferred Florida from Spain to the United States.
After winning election to the Senate, Jackson decided to run for president in 1824. He narrowly lost to John Quincy Adams, supposedly by a "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Speaker of the House Henry Clay, who was also a candidate. Jackson's supporters then founded what became the Democratic Party. Jackson ran again in 1828 against Adams. Building on his base in the West and new support from Virginia and New York, he won by a landslide. Jackson blamed the death of his wife, Rachel, which occurred just after the election, on the Adams campaigners who called her a "bigamist."
As president, Jackson faced a threat of secession from South Carolina over the "Tariff of Abominations" which Congress had enacted under Adams. In contrast to several of his immediate successors, he denied the right of a state to secede from the union, or to nullify federal law. The Nullification Crisis was defused when the tariff was amended and Jackson threatened the use of military force if South Carolina (or any other state) attempted to secede. In anticipation of the 1832 election, Congress, led by Clay, attempted to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States four years before the expiration of its charter. In keeping with his platform of economic decentralization, Jackson vetoed the renewal of its charter, thereby seemingly putting his chances for reelection in jeopardy. However, Jackson, by portraying himself as the defender of the common man against wealthy bankers, was able to defeat Clay in the election that year. Jackson thoroughly dismantled the bank by the time its charter expired in 1836. Jackson's struggles with Congress were personified in his personal rivalry with Clay, whom Jackson deeply disliked, and who led the opposition (the emerging Whig Party). Jackson's presidency marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the "spoils system" in American politics. Jackson is also known for having signed the Indian Removal Act, which relocated a number of native tribes in the South to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
Jackson supported his vice president Martin Van Buren, who was elected president in 1836. He worked to bolster the Democratic Party and helped his friend James K. Polk win the 1844 presidential election.
President Jackson authorized three southern branches of the United States Mint in 1835 – New Orleans, Charlotte, and Dahlonega.
Coinage Legislation under President Andrew Jackson
— Act of June 25, 1834 — This Act regulates the legal-tender value of certain foreign silver coins.
— Act of June 28, 1834 — This Act regulates the legal-tender value of certain foreign gold coins.
— Act of June 28, 1834 — This Act sets the standard weight of U.S. gold coins, sets the standard for payment for gold or silver deposited for coinage, sets the rate at which gold coins shall be receivable, and directs the setting apart of gold coins for assay.
— Act of March 3, 1835 — This Act establishes a branch of the United States Mint for the coinage of silver and gold at New Orleans, Louisiana, and branches for the coinage of gold at Charlotte, North Carolina and Dahlonega, Georgia.
— Act of January 18, 1837 — This Act:
- sets forth the duties and increases the salaries of the officers of the United States Mint, with the Director earning $3,500 per year including travel expenses;
- sets forth the composition and weight of gold and silver coins;
- mandates that each coin struck at the United States Mint shall have on one side an impression emblematic of liberty with an inscription of the word “Liberty” and the year of the coinage; and that the reverse of gold and silver coins shall have the representation of an eagle with the inscription “United States of America.” The figure of the eagle shall be omitted from the reverse of the dime, half dime, cent, and half cent;
- makes provisions for gold and silver bullion that is brought to the Mint for coinage.
United States Mint Directors appointed by President Jackson
— 1835 Robert Maskell Patterson, M.D — Sixth Director of the United States Mint