Obverse. Photo © Monetnik.ru
  • 1 Dollar 2023, KM# 776, United States of America (USA), American Innovation $1 Coin Program, Ohio
  • 1 Dollar 2023, KM# 776, United States of America (USA), American Innovation $1 Coin Program, Ohio
Description

The 56-coin American Innovation $1 Coin Program started in 2018. The program mandates that the Mint will issue four noncirculating dollar coins annually for 14 years.

One coin will be issued for each of the 50 states in the order in which each state ratified the U.S. Constitution or entered the Union. Following the states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories in order, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands all would also present an innovator from their area.

The Ohio American Innovation $1 Coin honors the Underground Railroad.

Obverse

Depicts the Statue of Liberty in profile with the inscriptions “IN GOD WE TRUST” and “$1.” In 2019, a privy mark was added under "WE TRUST".

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.

Artist: Justin Kunz
Engraver: Phebe Hemphill

$1
IN GOD
WE TRUST
PH
JK

Reverse

Depicts two strong hands grasped together, the upper arm pulling the lower arm upward, representing the support and strength required by both parties on the Underground Railroad. A chain fastened to a rustic shackle around the lower arm's wrist snaps and fragments, alluding to the hope of freedom.

The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. The network was assisted by abolitionists and others sympathetic to the cause of the escapees. The enslaved persons who risked escape and those who aided them are also collectively referred to as the "Underground Railroad". Various other routes led to Mexico, where slavery had been abolished, and to islands in the Caribbean that were not part of the slave trade. An earlier escape route running south toward Florida, then a Spanish possession (except 1763–1783), existed from the late 17th century until approximately 1790. However, the network now generally known as the Underground Railroad began in the late 18th century. It ran north and grew steadily until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln. One estimate suggests that by 1850, approximately 100,000 enslaved people had escaped to freedom via the network.

The National Park Service recognizes over a dozen routes through Ohio which stand as monuments to fleeing slaves and those who helped them along their way. Other states had active lines within the informal Underground Railroad network, but Ohio’s role was pivotal. Ohio was the southernmost free-state that bordered the northernmost slave states of Kentucky and (then) Virginia. It had an estimated 3,000 miles of trails throughout the state with safe houses, or “stations,” that aided the runaways’ flights to freedom.

Designer: Beth Zaiken
Sculptor-Engraver: Stephen Layne

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
OHIO
BZ
SCL
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD

Edge

Inscribed along the edge of the coin is the year of minting, the mint mark, and also the legend "E Pluribus Unum" (Latin for "Out of many, one")

2023 P ★★★ E PLURIBUS UNUM ★★★★★★★★★★

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

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