As we celebrate the bicentennial of the War of 1812, the Philadelphia Mint is producing a 2012 Star Spangled Banner commemorative silver coin in honor of the occasion.
President Barack Obama commissioned the coin to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner.
A limited number of these coins will be produced; about 500,000 silver and 100,000 gold coins.
"We make millions of circulated coins everyday here in Philadelphia, but our specialty coins, commemorative silver dollars, are struck individually because we want them to be perfect," said Grant.
The initial research for the design of the coin began in 2010.
"We went to Baltimore to Ft. McHenry, and we took a lot of photographs and then we came back and we started sculpting this. I'm going to say it was about a year ago," explained lead engraver Don Everhart.
While the commemorative star-spangled gold coin is produced at West Point, the silver coin was designed, sculpted and engraved in Philadelphia.
"It all starts with clay and goes to a negative plaster, then positive, and I am refining it the whole time. After this is finalized in plaster, it gets scanned," said Phebe Hemphill. "We can do additional sculpting work on this digital file."
"The coins themselves actually depict the heroics of both Army and Navy forces, as well as the militia forces that fought in the War of 1812 to defend the nation," said Bill Pencek, Star Spangled 200.
The obverse side, or front of the coin, depicts Lady Liberty and the historic flag of 1812 and on the reverse side or back of the coin is our current flag.
The Philadelphia Mint, the largest in the world, began stamping and producing the coin in March.
The Star Spangled Banner Commemorative coins will be available for purchase until December 17th at 5:00 p.m.
For a closer look and more information visit http://www.starspangled200.com/
Link:
http://www.starspangled200.com/
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