Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored the rolling hills and mountain passes of Kentucky’s 2001 “Old Kentucky Home” quarter and its 2016 Cumberland Gap quarter. We looked at Kentucky’s role in the most successful modern circulating coin program (the State quarters.) We went behind the scenes with the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee’s decision process […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: “What might have been”—scenic views and a deer in the headlights
Last week we explored Kentucky’s 2016 Cumberland Gap quarter dollar, part of the United States Mint’s “America the Beautiful” coin program. Here we’ll take a look at “What Might Have Been”—the other designs considered for this coin, and what the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee had to say about them. The CCAC is a public body […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: A new Kentucky coin for the Cumberland Gap
Last week we looked at the United States Mint’s extremely popular State quarters program, which ran from 1999 to 2008. That coin program was so successful that Congress followed it up, in 2009, with similar coins for the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. Then Congress authorized a new program, called “America the Beautiful,” […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: Kentucky’s role in the most successful modern circulating coin program
The United States Mint’s State quarters program of 1999 to 2008 was immensely popular and undeniably successful. It met its educational goals of increasing knowledge of America’s history, culture, and geography. More than 3.5 million Americans participated in the design process for the State quarters, submitting ideas and voting on candidates. The Mint distributed nearly […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: The Union, the Constitution, and the freedom of mankind
This installment of “From the Colonel’s Desk” comes from the pen of Col. John Riley, Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels (commissioned 1985), a longtime numismatist who hails from the Bluegrass State. “Kentucky, my own, my native land”—so addressed deposed Confederate States president Jefferson Davis, a native of Christian County in southwestern Kentucky, in 1886. “Wherever […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: A new year for Kentucky numismatics
I hope you enjoyed our 2021 ramblings through the Bluegrass State in this column “From the Colonel’s Desk.” We explored highways and byways connecting Kentucky to the rich history of American coins, tokens, paper currency, medals, private money, and related collectibles. Some of these artifacts evoke the ups and downs of hard-working dreamers and doers […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: The Red Cross in Kentucky
Numismatists are familiar with the rich history of tokens and medals related to the Red Cross. They include small, modest American issues like a brass relief-fund token made during the First World War. There are larger pieces, too, like the impressive 1920 War Council medal designed by Daniel Chester French and co-sponsored by the American […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: Bronze tokens and Christmas cheer in a Kentucky coal town
A few weeks ago a colleague in the publishing world clued me in to a bit of good news. Ray Appen is publisher emeritus of Appen Media Group, which is based in Georgia but has a much wider sphere of influence—in this significant instance, reaching a helping hand into southern Kentucky. “There are over 200 […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: A Kentucky gold dollar for Zachary Taylor
Kentucky is known for its many connections to Zachary Taylor, the U.S. Army Mexican-American War hero who later became president. In Louisville, you’ll find his boyhood home and Zachary Taylor National Cemetery—one of America’s 171 military cemeteries—the burial ground of the president and his family. Zachary Taylor Elementary School is also in Louisville. In November […]
From the Colonel’s Desk: “What Might Have Been”—Abraham Lincoln’s Kentucky cent
(This article follows up on last week’s “From the Colonel’s Desk” article about the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial cents.) In 2008, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission had big plans for Kentucky. That February the ALBC launched two years of celebration for the upcoming bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. On the kickoff schedule were two days of festivities […]
