Benjamin Harrison 2012 US Presidential One Dollar Coin
The series of $1 coins honoring the former Presidents of the United States continued with the issuance of the 2012 Benjamin Harrison Presidential Dollar. This was the third release of the year and the twenty-third release overall.
Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States, who famously served for only thirty days. Benjamin spent his professional life as a lawyer prior to serving in the Senate. In the 1888 Presidential election, he lost the popular vote, but won the electoral college, becoming the 23rd President of the United States.
The obverse design for the Benjamin Harrison Dollar was designed and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. The portrait of the former president was surrounded by the required inscriptions indicating his name, the motto “In God We Trust”, the order of the Presidency, and the dates of the term.
On the reverse of the coin was an image of the Statue of Liberty. The design by Don Everhart has been used in common for each release of the series, creating a unifying element.
As with the other 2012-dated releases of the series, the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Dollars were not released for general circulation, but only struck in limited quantities and sold at a premium to face value within numismatic products offered by the United States Mint. This was the result of the Treasury Department decision to suspend production for circulation due to a build up of $1 coins held in storage.
On August 16, 2012, the US Mint began sales of circulating quality examples of the coins within 25-coin rolls, 100-coin bags, and 250-coin or 500-coin boxes. Each product type was available either with coins bearing the “P” mint mark for Philadelphia or the “D” mint mark for Denver. Sales of these products drove an overall mintage of 9,840,001 circulating quality coins produced across the Philadelphia and Denver Mint facilities.
Benjamin Harrison 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: 5,640,001 (Philadelphia), 4,200,000 (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.
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| Benjamin Harrison 2012 One Dollar Coin Cover |
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| Benjamin Harrison 2012 Presidential One Dollar Coin & First Spouse Medal Set |
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
2009 Presidential Dollars
2010 Presidential Dollars
2011 Presidential Dollars
2012 Presidential Dollars
Chester Arthur Grover Cleveland, First Term Benjamin Harrison
2013 Presidential Dollars
2014 Presidential Dollars
2015 Presidential Dollars
2016 Presidential Dollars
Benjamin Harrison (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was the 23rd President of the United States (1889–1893); he was the grandson of the ninth President, William Henry Harrison. Before ascending to the presidency, Harrison established himself as a prominent local attorney, Presbyterian church leader and politician in Indianapolis, Indiana. During the American Civil War, he served the Union as a colonel and on February 14, 1865 was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a brevet brigadier general of volunteers to rank from January 23, 1865. After the war, he unsuccessfully ran for the governorship of Indiana. He was later elected to the U.S. Senate by the Indiana legislature.
A Republican, Harrison was elected to the presidency in 1888, defeating the Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland. Hallmarks of his administration included unprecedented economic legislation, including the McKinley Tariff, which imposed historic protective trade rates, and the Sherman Antitrust Act; Harrison facilitated the creation of the National Forests through an amendment to the Land Revision Act of 1891. He also substantially strengthened and modernized the Navy, and conducted an active foreign policy. He proposed, in vain, federal education funding as well as voting rights enforcement for African Americans during his administration.
Due in large part to surplus revenues from the tariffs, federal spending reached one billion dollars for the first time during his term. The spending issue in part led to the defeat of the Republicans in the 1890 mid-term elections. Harrison was defeated by Cleveland in his bid for re-election in 1892, due to the growing unpopularity of the high tariff and high federal spending. He then returned to private life in Indianapolis but later represented the Republic of Venezuela in an international case against the United Kingdom. In 1900, he traveled to Europe as part of the case and, after a brief stay, returned to Indianapolis. He died the following year of complications from influenza. Although many have praised Harrison's commitment to African Americans' voting rights, scholars and historians generally regard his administration as below-average, and rank him in the bottom half among U.S. presidents.