Description

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, the US Mint produced commemorative Half Dollars, Silver Dollars, and Half Eagles ($5 gold pieces) with special designs inspired by the famous icon. The Half Eagle was the first such coin of the $5 denomination since 1929.

The Statue of Liberty, a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York City, 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.