Depicts a portrait of Christopher Columbus in profile along with a map of the New World. An outer ring contains the inscriptions “Liberty”, “1492”, “1992”, and “In God We Trust”, with “Christopher Columbus” positioned near the profile portrait.

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was an Italian explorer and navigator who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas. His expeditions, sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, were the first European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America.

Design T. James Ferrell

Depicts the crest of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, an honor that was bestowed upon Columbus, and a map of the Old World containing the date “1492”. The additional inscriptions read “United States of America”, “Five Dollars”, and “E Pluribus Unum”.

When the King and Queen ennobled Columbus, the symbols they chose spoke of the high esteem in which they held him. For the first and second quarter of his blazon they granted him nothing less than the royal arms of Castille and León, the castle and the lion; his third quarter was to be "a few islands and sea-waves," and the last "your arms which you used to wear."

Under circumstances that have never been fully explained, Columbus altered the original royal instructions by filling the fourth quarter, not with the colors that "he used to wear," but with the five anchors found on the blazon of the Admiral of Castille.

Desing: Thomas D. Rogers Sr.