The United States Mint recently unveiled candidate designs for the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Presidential Medal as part of the review process required for the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC).
Every U.S. President has been honored with a Presidential Medal, which has a rich history dating back to the nation’s founding. Such medals were frequently awarded as "Peace Medals" to Native Americans. More recently, the U.S. Mint has produced bronze Presidential Medals for sale to the public. Starting in 2018, the U.S. Mint also began producing and selling 1-ounce, .999 fine Presidential Silver Medals, with the most recent one featuring James A. Garfield, released on April 30.
For the latest medal, the U.S. Mint collaborated with a liaison at the White House to develop the designs, which were then presented May 20 for CCAC review. The CCAC is tasked with advising the Secretary of the Treasury on themes and designs pertaining to all United States coins and medals.
The medal’s obverse features a portrait of President Biden, his signature, and the inscription "JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR."
The reverse depicts the White House with the U.S. Capitol in the background. The pairing of the buildings is imagined—not a real view of them together—as they are meant to represent Biden’s journey from the Senate to the White House.
At the top of the design, the inscription "NOTHING HAS BEEN GUARANTEED ABOUT DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA" is bordered on both ends by "46." The bottom features the inscription "EVERY GENERATION HAS HAD TO DEFEND IT. PROTECT IT. CHOOSE IT." This statement is from remarks made by President Biden on Nov. 2, 2022.
While giving their stamp of approval for the designs, members of the committee recommended a change to the medal’s reverse, replacing the first two periods in the bottom inscription with bullet points as delimiters and removing the last period ("EVERY GENERATION HAS HAD TO DEFEND IT • PROTECT IT • CHOOSE IT").
While those are great words on the Reverse, I would have put the latter part in a different sequence to more accurately convey the order of the admonition :
“NOTHING HAS BEEN GUARANTEED ABOUT DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA.
EVERY GENERATION HAS HAD TO CHOOSE IT – PROTECT IT – DEFEND IT”
The divine eBay silver Kennedy PCGS seller from yesterday responded to my questions that they acquired the coins from another eBay seller. My guess would be that it was from a Chinese site and these are fake.
It would be nice if treasury would buy one, crack it out and test it for silver content and send PCGS the results and publish the findings in Coin World plus a news release
Completely agree.
I’ll third that for vote to crack it out, purity test it, and publish the findings for the public to view. I Completely agree as well. Spot on.
Crack those counterfeits out and crack down on whoever is selling them.
Great idea! But frankly PCGS should want to weigh on this as well right now — it doesn’t take cracking any coin out as they should know right now if they certified them or not. And, if not, they should be issuing a warning to the coin-buying community ASAP — and informing the Secret Service about the counterfeits, and eBay to shut them down.
You got that right, Major D; it should never have gotten this far. I wonder who all got a wad of big bills slipped into their back pockets for them to look the other way!
DAVESWFL, Once I was able to locate the “Divine” whatever company (operating off and on as seems to be the case according to public records) online, it didn’t take much effort or time to ascertain that they looked to be fishier than a salmon farm. We’ve long been aware that hte likes of these ever more ubiquitous Chinese merchandising marauders come in all manner of clandestine shapes (well, actually, only one as they’re in fact all crooked) and sizes and clearly avail themselves of every conceivable manner of entry into the U.S. market that reveals itself. In the “it takes… Read more »
I know the LCS used the PM scanner to test Pd bars I sold, but sealed in soft pvc type plastic. Anyone know if the metal scanner/@nalyzer can go thru a PCGS slab. ?.
I don’t know that one JQ, but it would be nice to know. Maybe then we can finally put this fake coin theory to bed.
Fake coin, fake theory, or both? 😉
Rick, Good day ALL, I was wondering if you could/would give me your opinion on your Lib/Brit Au that was graded by PCGS and we bought from the same Ebayer on a PreSale. Even tho my will be shipped FedEx, 2 day delivery, I can guarantee it’ll take 3-5 days at least. It’ll get shipped to (Los) Anchorage by FedEx, then FedEx has to turn it over to USPS and then it’ll be flown to Juneau and from there it’ll be flown into My Village by Bush Plane!! It’s a “thing” for us to get mail where I live on… Read more »
I Like Joe’s smile, I always have and I’m being sincere. I’ll leave it at that. No Medal either. I did buy the Lincoln, but that was it. I will say however, that a full set in Bronze or Silver would be a great sight to behold! Man you really do live in the Boonies Bob! I have left my L&B Mint delivered coin in the sealed box, same with the Silver. I may leave it that way sealed up for a few/several years? Similarly to my recent OGP dump & slab job on some of my past Mint purchases..… Read more »
And the Reverse!
There’s that Trifecta of Gold finishes/hue’s. The trees are cool.
The DCAM is Fantastic up top…The HR/Concavity is evident up there, just not in this photo.
I think you’ll like the Coin AK!
You too Tony@GA. Even if it takes a while, you won’t be disappointed!
Rick,
That is one super nice gold coin. Good for you for being able to acquire that! And not so incidentally, I love your exceedingly artistic decriptions of both of its beautiful sides. I would venture to say I’m not too far off the mark if I were to say that you certainly waxed numismatically poetic!
That is a nice description of the L&B, Rick. I’m not a buyer of the Biden medal either since I’ve never bought any of the presidential medals. Precious metal COIN proofs are my collecting interest. That knocks me out of the “golden” presidential coins as well since they’re not included in the Silver Proof Set. Weirdly, the only presidential-related coins I have are Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Jefferson, Eisenhower, T. Roosevelt (on Mt. Rushmore dollar & National Park quarter reverse), Madison (on the Bill of Rights coins), Jackson (on the reverse of Jackson Liberty), Tyler (on the reverse of… Read more »
Ditto on never having bought any of the Presidential Medals, REB. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like the way most of them look (some more so than others) but I”ve never been much of a medal collector and therefore I too would prefer to spend my money on actual silver coins instead.
REB, I bought an entire set of 3-inch US Mint presidential bronze in OGP with holders and description paper and still sealed (well, up to Bill Clinton’s 1st term, but missing Carter) paying around $12 per medal including postage at auction. No one else bid on them. I wasn’t into them before and bought on a whim really because of the current $160 the Mint is now charging- it looked to be easy flip. But it turned out that I really like them! Most are flawless or with very minor spot toning. I especially like the detail on the reverse… Read more »
Major D,
So you paid all of $12 per medal for an item that the Mint charges $160 each for. Now that is one heck of a bargain if I ever saw one!
Congrats, Rick and other L&B owners! A stellar looking coin!
AKBob,
I’m only asking this because I have a heart condition and get nervous if I get too far away from a major hospital. How do you deal with serious medical emergencies there?
Well, we have Life Flight and Guardian or Airlift, I forget now who’s with who but we have two different Companies in case of a Life threatening situation comes up, they fly a jet into our small air strip and rescue folks and of course we pay for that, once a year we pay the Premium for my entire family. In case the weather is bad, which happens 50% of the time in the Winter months, the US Coast Guard flies in for the rescue!! Thank the Good Lord for the Coast Guard Helicopters and their Crews!! They can fly… Read more »
AKBob, Thank you kindly for that very informative explanation about how medical emergencies are handled up there in your extremely remote (to say the least) neck of the woods in the great State of Alaska. As a matter of fact, I’ve long wondered how such geographically isolated communities as yours manage to deal with exactly that sort of event. It’s more than obvious that the pilots and medical personal who provide this service are a rather special lot; certainly there aren’t that many people who would be willing to put their own lives on the line like that in order… Read more »
ok so i’m not trying to be political but why do we need presidential medals – bronze and silver – when we already had presidential dollar coins? ok so sure that means you can’t issue any of the living presidents yet, but is there really that much demand for these medals for anyone other than the biggies (washington, lincoln, etc.) or those that you have been alive long enough to have voted for personally? I just don’t see anyone actually wanting to get a zachary taylor or millard fillmore presidential medal except only to have one of each president issued… Read more »
The medals seem like a money grab. I’m perfectly fine with the dollar coins, even if you have to wait for death for them.
REB, once Treasury decided to end the prez dollars as circulating coins it should have all ended as a series IMO.
Agree.
REB and Major D,
Production of all “gold”-colored dollars ought to go the way of the buggy. No one wants to use them in everyday commerce anyway.
Whose demise are we referring to here? Can only dead people buy the coins?
Totally agree with you, c_q.
c_q,
I believe you answered your own question when you said “except only to have one of each president issued”. That’s the name of the Mint’s game: sell a lot of everything!
E1 says,
“NVDA = more money for coins”
Not so much today bud. However, they are still way up for the year.
I believe the Cagster would say that anyway?
Besides, Tomorrow will be a new, fresh start!(positively speaking of course!)…
Rick, I do t know if it was E1 but someone on the blog pushed ever to buy NVDA about 2 years ago, what a call…..whoever. Didn’t get nearly enuf. Put it all on GameStop
JQC,
Waiting for NVDA’s 10:1 forward split on June 6th. Not too sure why the price has been falling this week. Also, finally got that C3 Jenny. PF 85 MNH OG.
E 1,
I once owned a rather stellar stamp collection with one of the highlights being an absolutely pristine Adolf Hitler Birthday First Day Cover my Austrian grandfather picked up on the occasion of his being a policeman standing guard along the Der Fuehrer’s parade route in Vienna. Unfortunately my brother sold the entire thing for a few West German Marks for beer money while I was away at college. Such can be the collector’s life.
In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, “D’OH!”
I couldn’t have put it better myself!
Kaiser,
Yes, the one’s that got away. Too many in my case.
Cheers
E 1,
Funny you should say that, since in my earlier and many times more careless and foolish days I actually did manage to sell two coin collections for what I in retrospect realize was likely no more than a tiny fraction of their value each. I can only wish that I had access to the advice “Never go full tin foil hat” back then, but alas and alack, such was indeed not the case.
Kaiser,
What to know how I was able to stop selling at a loss?
I just stopped selling.
Cheers
E 1,
Sage advice indeed, my friend, which I absolutely intend to heed.
L&B Gold description/thoughts… Well AK you did ask? And thanks for feedback everyone! Trust me, it took awhile for me to figure that description out! And since I got a C- in English, it feels pretty good lol ! I had imagined much of what I described in my mind beforehand, due to the poor rendering on the Mint page. This is what led me to make the move. Imagination & speculation. I am surprised with the “sales figures” Major D! Let’s watch that one. I was never a fan of Liberty with the wild Medusa-like hairdo, but the rest… Read more »
AKBob,
No, I did not order a graded Silver L&B. I picked up two of them along with the Gold on day one per order limits. Let us know when you get yours from FL!
My E1 2023 1C Extra “V” Report conversation follow-up… Around two weeks ago E1 says, “Rick, The key takeaway on that MS-69 Extra V, “No Spots.” I have a raw one that I picked up that is spotless. Paid $55 for it from an eBay guy in Upstate NY about 6 months ago. I have it parked in a Dansco for now.” That is all too familiar to me E1, as I have had an experience much like that one. I took my situation a bit further because the circumstances at the time allowed for it. I’ll elaborate..In mid-Feb(3.5 mos.… Read more »
Well, PCGS Top Pop that is, but you get my drift!?
So yes, under high clarity magnification, I see a few spots. But not bad, and not in an area that will distract. I hadn’t noticed the off centering before, so let’s see how it looks in the Holder. Later…..
Rick,
What a great deal on that extra V! It’s a beauty.
L&B is much nicer than I thought it would be – B&W mint rendering certainly did not do it justice!
Thanks Dave! I didn’t know how the “V” would play out. My initial guess was a conservative MS65RD though, and I’m not a grader guy..yet lol.
The Mint L&B rendering being so poor, whether purposeful or not may have turned this one into a mini-sleeper? As anything, there are risks involved and the story in not complete with these Coins, lest we forget the Medals. They have the 3 layers of Silver finishes/hues as well!
Rick,
Money in the bank bro. Nice score. My Extra Vs are on ice for the next 10-20 years. Waiting for Dansco to add the coin to the 8104 album. The coin is also deserving of a slot in the next edition of “100 Greatest Modern U.S. Coins.”
Cheers
E 1,
If I had the notion of putting any of my coins away for 20 years I suspect the next place they would be available for viewing would be an address with the likes of the name Forest Lawn.
Funny, but true for many of us….Oak Lawn, Willow Lawn, Pine Lawn, Rose Lawn….but then, lawn reminds me of cutting grass- the last thing I would want to be “resting” around!
Funny now, not so funny then. We are talking Dirt Nap Village.
Kind of like what My Mom used to say when I’d call her and say, “how are you doing”, and she’d always say the same thing, “Well, I must be doing alright cause I didn’t wake up with dirt in my mouth”, lol!. I figured you’d like that one!
Well, as always, Good Luck ALL!!!
What a great saying and one to hold onto for future employment!
Keep it.