The Effigy Mounds National Monument Silver Uncirculated Coin will be issued by the US Mint in 2017. It will appear as the first of five 2017 strikes of the America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin™ Program and will feature a reverse emblematic of Effigy Mounds National Monument located in the state of Iowa. A release date for the silver uncirculated coin was not known at the time of this posting.
Coins of this series are struck as the numismatic versions of the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin™ Program. Like those related bullion coins, each of these are also composed of five ounces of .999 fine silver and feature a diameter of three inches.
Each also carries similar obverse and reverse imagery to those related coins including reverses emblematic of sites of national interest from around the United States and its territories. A total of fifty-six different sites will have been honored by the America the Beautiful programs when they are completed in 2021 with one site from each state, the District of Columbia and the five US territories.
Both the bullion coins and these uncirculated coins actually take their designs from a series of circulating quarter dollars. This includes an obverse portrait of George Washington which will be seen on all of the America the Beautiful related coins. The portrait will be surrounded by the inscriptions of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and QUARTER DOLLAR.
The reverse is reserved for the image emblematic of the selected site of interest. For instance, the reverse of this coin will contain a design showcasing a portion of Effigy Mounds. The design will also included the inscriptions of EFFIGY MOUNDS, IOWA, 2017 and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa
Congress created Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa on October 25, 1949 to protect over 200 mounds located at the site which were built hundreds of years ago by Native Americans of the region. The mounds may have been used for many different purposes but their proximity to each-other make them one of the best locations remaining in the nation to view such structures.
Of the 200-plus mounds, 31 are in the shape of animals, birds, amphibians, etc. This led to the name of the facility – effigy.
