Obverse. Photo © United States Mint
  • 1 Dollar 2011, KM# 500, United States of America (USA), Presidential $1 Coin Program, Ulysses S. Grant
  • 1 Dollar 2011, KM# 500, United States of America (USA), Presidential $1 Coin Program, Ulysses S. Grant
Description

The United States is honoring Nation's Presidents by issuing $1 coins featuring their images in the order that they served. The Program began in 2007. Four coins are to come out each year until all former presidents (non-living) have been minted. Only one depiction for each president will be made — no matter how many terms they served — with the sole exception of Grover Cleveland, who will receive a different depiction on 2 separate coins since he served 2 non-consecutive terms.

Issue date: May 19, 2011.

Obverse

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869–77). He went to West Point and fought in the Mexican War under General Zachary Taylor. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was appointed to command an unruly volunteer regiment. By September 1861, he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. President Lincoln later promoted him to major general of volunteers. After he won battles at Vicksburg, Miss., and Chattanooga, Tenn., Lincoln appointed him general-in-chief in March 1864. Finally, on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered.

As the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant was the Republican Party’s logical candidate for President in 1868. As President, he allowed radical Reconstruction to run its course in the south, bolstering it at times with military force. Under his administration, Yellowstone was established as the first national park and Congress passed a bill calling for equal pay for women and men holding similar jobs in federal government agencies. After retiring from the presidency, Grant learned that he had cancer of the throat. At the suggestion of author Mark Twain, he started writing his memoirs to help pay off his debts and provide for his family; Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant became a best-seller. The book is today considered one of the finest military autobiographies ever written.

Designer and engraver: Don Everhart (DE).

ULYSSES S. GRANT
DE
IN GOD WE TRUST 18th PRESIDENT 1869-1877

Reverse

Striking rendition of the Statue of Liberty, a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York City, in the United States. The Statue is the work of sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who enlisted the assistance of engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower.

The Statue of Liberty was completed in 1884 in France 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, it 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.

Designer: Don Everhart (DE).

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
$1
DE

Edge

Inscribed along the edge of the coin is the year of minting or issuance of the coin, the mint mark, 13 stars, and also the legends E Pluribus Unum. E Pluribus Unum — Latin for "Out of many, one" — is a phrase on the Seal of the United States. Never codified by law, E Pluribus Unum was considered a de facto motto of the United States until 1956.

Position A: edge lettering reads upside-down when the president's portrait faces up.
Position B: edge lettering reads normally when the president's portrait faces up.

★★★★★★★★★★ 2011 D ★★★ E PLURIBUS UNUM

Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Circulating)
Material Manganese Brass
Weight 8.1 g
Diameter 26.5 mm
Thickness 1.8 mm
Shape round
Alignment Coin
Mints
Denver Mint (D)
Philadelphia Mint (P)
San Francisco Mint (S)

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