The last 2013 release of the US Mint’s America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin™ Program will be the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Silver Uncirculated Coin. The reverse of this Mount Rushmore Silver Uncirculated Coin will contain a design emblematic of the national memorial in South Dakota. No release date for the Mount Rushmore strike was known at the time of this posting.
This series of five ounce uncirculated coins is struck as the numismatic versions of the Mint’s America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins™ Program, which themselves are struck as larger versions of an associated quarters series. Accordingly, all three program feature similar imagery on both their obverse and reverse sides.
However, whereas the quarters are typically struck in clad to a diameter of only 0.955 inches, the Mint produces both the silver bullion and this silver uncirculated coin series from five ounces of silver with a diameter of three inches. In addition, the quarters have a reeded edge whereas the larger silver counterparts have an edge inscription of .999 FINE SILVER 5.0 OUNCE indicating their weight and fineness.
Struck to resemble the quarters, the obverse of each Mount Rushmore Uncirculated Coin contains the John Flanagan portrait of George Washington, the first President of the United States. The Mint first used this portrait of Washington on the circulating quarter in 1932 and it has appeared on the quarters in one form or another ever since. Around Washington are the inscriptions of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and QUARTER DOLLAR.
The reverse will contain the design emblematic of Mount Rushmore. That design will be surrounded by the inscriptions of MOUNT RUSHMORE, SOUTH DAKOTA, 2013 and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota
The idea of Mount Rushmore National Memorial was originally established by South Dakota historian Doane Robinson. He brought artist Gutzon Borglum to the Black Hills of South Dakota to convince him to carve likenesses of famous western figures in granite pillars found in the region currently known as the Needles.
That idea was scrapped by Borglum who instead pushed for the idea of carving likenesses of former Presidents of the United States on the mountain known as Rushmore. Construction on the massive project began in 1927 and ended in 1941 with Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln all placed on the sculpture.
