Gettysburg Campaign Commemorative Coins Proposed

Newly introduced legislation seeks to commemorate the 1863 invasion of Pennsylvania, the Battle of Gettysburg, and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address with proof and uncirculated 50-cent clad, $1 silver and $5 gold coins.

Rep. Todd Platts of Pennsylvania and Rep. Steve Israel of New York introduced on Monday the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign Act, H.R. 2123, which would authorize the United States Mint to issue up to 750,000 clad, 500,000 silver and 100,000 gold coins. The coins would be minted in 2013, which is the 150th anniversary of the battle and Lincoln’s speech at the National Cemetery in Gettysburg.

The design for each coin would be "emblematic of the history and memory of the Gettysburg campaign and President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address."

The reverse or tails side of this year’s Lincoln Bicentennial Silver $1 Coins already pay tribute and feature the final words of Lincoln’s historic Gettysburg Address — the individual coins sold out at the US Mint, and are commanding significant premiums in the secondary market. Whether the success of the Lincoln $1s helped foster the idea of H.R. 2123 is unknown. It would seem a difficult task to replicate their popularity with different coins bearing a similar design theme just a few years later.

With passage of H.R. 2123, the Army Heritage Center Foundation and the Gettysburg Foundation would split surcharges for each coin sold — $35 per gold coin, $10 per silver coin and $5 per half dollar.

For coin legislation to become law, it must pass both in the House and Senate, and get signed by the President.