The Gettysburg National Military Park Silver Uncirculated Coin will be the first 2011-dated release in a series of five ounce collectible coins from the United States Mint. It honors the military park in Pennsylvania. The US Mint has provided a release date of September 22, 2011 with an initial price point of $279.95
A maximum mintage of 35,000 was established for this coin, which was significantly higher than the previous five strikes of the series which each had a mintage of only 27,000. Those previous five strikes were released earlier in 2011 despite having actually been struck the previous year.
Each uncirculated coin in the series is struck from five ounces of .999 fine silver just like the companion America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin™ Program, also from the Mint. The main differences between the two programs is that silver uncirculated coins feature an uncirculated finish and contain a "P" mintmark indicating their production at the US Mint facility in Philadelphia. The bullion coins are only struck to bullion quality and contain no mintmark, although they are also produced in Philadelphia. In terms of intentions, a bullion coin is produced for investors while an uncirculated coin is struck for coin collectors.
Both silver series are large versions of the Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters® Program which honors selected sites from around the United States and its territories.
This silver uncirculated coin represents Gettysburg National Military Park with a design on its reverse of the 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry Monument found within the park. It is the work of United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) Master Designer Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Phebe Hemphill. Also shown are the inscriptions of GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, 2011 and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
The obverse includes the inscriptions of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and QUARTER DOLLAR surrounding a portrait of George Washington, the first President of the United States. This portrait was originally designed by John Flanagan and first used on the circulating quarter dollar in 1932. It has appeared on the quarter in one form or another ever since.
Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania
Gettysburg National Military Park was started by a group of individuals who privately funded the Soldier’s National Cemetery in order to properly bury the Union dead from the Battle of Gettysburg. This battle was the deadliest in the American Civil War and resulted in over 7,000 killed in action, but also marked the turning point of the war in favor of the Union forces.
President Abraham Lincoln was present at the dedication of the cemetery and offered perhaps his most famous speech, known today as the Gettysburg Address. An excerpt of the speech follows:
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this."
The military park was established on February 11, 1895, when President Grover Cleveland signed legislation directing the War Department to create the park. Care of the site transferred to the National Park Service in 1933.
