The United States Mint began accepting orders for the 2012 Star Spangled Banner Commemorative Gold and Silver Coins on March 5, 2012 at 12:00 Noon ET. The coin program was authorized by Congress to mark the bicentennial of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. After Francis Scott key witnessed the 25-hour bombardment of American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore and saw the American flag still waving at dawn, he was inspired to write a poem, which would be adopted as America’s national anthem.
The Star Spangled Banner $5 Gold Coin carries a design for the theme “The Battles at Sea During the War of 1812.” Depicted on the obverse is a naval battle scene with an American ship in the foreground and a damaged and fleeing British ship in the background. The inscriptions read “In God We Trust”, “Liberty”, and the dates “1812-2012″. The reverse design features the opening words of the Star Spangled Banner,”O say can you see” written in Francis Scott Key’s handwriting. The words appear against a backdrop of 15 stars and 15 stripes. Inscription around the outer circumference read “United States of America”, “E Pluribus Unum”, and “Five Dollars”.
The obverse was designed by Donna Weaver and reverse was designed by Richard Masters. Joseph Menna sculpted both the obverse and reverse.
Each coin is struck in 90% gold and 10% alloy with a weight of 8.359 grams and diameter of 0.85 inches. The coins are available individually in proof or uncirculated versions, with the proof coin also included in a two coin set with the silver dollar. The maximum mintage across all product options is 100,000.
The Star Spangled Banner Silver Dollar carries a design for the theme “The Battle of Baltimore at Fort McHenry.” The obverse features a depiction of Lady Liberty waving the 15-star, 15-stripe Star Spangled Banner flag with Fort McHenry pictured in the background. The inscriptions include “In God We Trust”, “Liberty”, and “2012”. On the reverse is a depiction of a modern American flag waving. The inscriptions include “One Dollar”, “E Pluribus Unum”, and “United States of America.”
The obverse was designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill, while the reverse was designed by William C. Burgard III and sculpted by Don Everhart.
Each coin is struck in 90% silver and 10% copper with a weight of 26.73 grams and diameter of 1.5 inches. The coins are available individually in proof or uncirculated versions, with the proof coin also included in a two coin set with the $5 gold coin. The maximum mintage across all product options is 500,000.
Coins for this program are available at discounted introductory prices until April 5, 2012 at 5:00 PM ET, after which regular pricing goes into effect. The prices effective for the start of sales are $529.30 for proof gold coins, $519.30 for uncirculated gold coins, $49.95 for proof silver dollars, $44.95 for uncirculated silver dollars, and $579.30 for the two coin proof set. The pricing for gold coins will be adjusted as frequently as weekly based on the average market price of gold. Current prices are based on an average gold price within the $1,750 to $1,799.99 range.
Surcharges of $35 per gold coin and $10 per silver dollar are included in prices. These surcharges will be paid to the Maryland War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission to support bicentennial activities, educational outreach activities, and preservation and improvement activities pertaining to the sites and structures related to the War of 1812.
To place orders for the Star Spangled Banner Commemorative coins or for additional information, visit the US Mint’s website http://usmint.gov/
I received an SSB brochure from the Mint today. Here’s what it says about the still-unavailable SSB silver dollar set, which, according to a Federal Register notice at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-02-09/pdf/2012-2981.pdf, will be priced at $53.95:
COMING SOON!
2012 STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
BICENTENNIAL SILVER DOLLAR SET
The United States Mint will be offering a limited edition
collectible set. It will contain a proof 2012 Star-Spangled
Banner Silver Dollar, a reproduction of one of Francis
Scott Key’s original manuscripts of his poem ”The
Star-Spangled Banner,” the lyrics to ”The Star-Spangled
Banner,” a historical narrative about the origin of the
poem and period-appropriate, original artwork. Only
50,000 will be available!
SS6 2012 STAR_SPANGLED BANNER BICENTENNIAL
SILVER DOLLAR SET
Check http://www.usmint.gov/catalog often as we will post details as
they become available.
Another interesting tidbit from the Mint’s SSB brochure, which I received in today’s mail”
The 2012 Star-Spangled Banner Commemorative Coins are packaged in
two different colors – blue or black. The blue packaging was the United
States Mint’s standard packaging prior to a branding effort in 2010. In
order to reduce waste, we made a determination to consume all remain-
ing blue packaging before ordering the balance of the packaging in black.
We are not able to honor requests for a particular color, as fulfillment will
be random. For this same reason, returns for packaging color will not be
accepted.
That indeed is interesting Jon. I’m looking at the brochure for the Infantry Silver Dollar, which does not state the above mentioned information. I wonder if anyone received blue packaging for last year’s Commemoratives (after all, if they wanted to reduce waste you’d think they would have used up some of the blue packaging last year as well…).
Very beautiful designs for the obverse of both coins! The artists were asleep in designing the reverses however. The flag on the gold coin looks as if taken from a political video (maybe the Colbert Report?) and the redundant flag on the dollar coin looks wet & rumpled on the ground with ill-placed horizontal lettering across the bottom. That said, the good news is that there are 2 sides on any coin… bet I know which side collectors will display their pieces!
The Star Spangled Banner poem was written by Keyes in 1814. This coin should have properly been scheduled for 2014 but, ahh, that’s just history, a mere little detail.
Anyone who thinks these are great designs need to look at some of the coinage other countries are producing. I like the concept of the designs, and we’ve come a long way, but they are still amatuerish in comparison to the designs of commems from other countries. Why is that? Why can’t we create a commem design that blows people out of their chairs?
Carlo, please point out to me some of those designs. I’ve seen some designs from other countries, but I have yet to be impressed with many of them.
Carlo
I agree with you in principle but a home run isn’t hit with every at bat. Other countries do produce some very elegant and innovative designs. A great example is Canada. Yet even these countries can produce some inane and boring designs from time to time. Given the assembly line rate that new issues come out this is an inevitability. The U.S. Mint has done a very good job in the ATB series in particular with the 5 oz. coins. There are some of the very best landscape designs to be seen there and doing successful landscapes is quite difficult to achieve. Unfortunately, these have the very lame “legal tender” status of 25 cents along with the boringly redundant Washington quarter obverse.