The United States Mint placed the James Garfield Presidential Dollar Coin Cover on sale Thursday, December 29, 2011 for a price of $19.95. It is the Mint’s final product release for the 2011 calendar year.
It is also the final of four 2011 releases in the American Presidency $1 Coin Cover Series and the twentieth since the covers were introduced for the Presidents in 2007.
The limited edition cover features two James Garfield Presidential $1 coins from the first day of production. One coin, struck on September 1, is from the U.S. Mint facility in Denver, and the other, minted on September 8, is from Philadelphia. The $1 coins are framed within a display card featuring a portrait of the President.
A 44-cent Flag postage stamp with a postmark of November 17, 2011, Mentor, OH also graces the front of the card. The dollars were ceremoniously released into circulation and the Mint began offering them in $25 rolls on that day.
Sales Expectations
As mentioned earlier, the Garfield Presidential Dollar Coin Cover is a limited edition. The United States Mint will only accept orders up to 22,000 with no household limits.
Per earlier sales in the series, the product has a strong collector base. As an example, the United States Mint reported that its sales figures for the Hayes Covers was 15,299, as of December 27, 2011, and that cover has only been available since October 4. The Grant and the Johnson Coin Covers have sold more, with totals of more than 17,000 each.
Dollar Coin Designs
The obverse or heads side of the $1 features a portrait of Garfield, designed and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill, and the inscriptions "JAMES GARFIELD," "IN GOD WE TRUST," "20TH PRESIDENT" and "1881."
On the reverse of all of the Presidential $1 coins is Don Everhart’s design of the Statue of Liberty. Inscriptions include "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" and "$1."
The mint mark, year, and the inscription, "E PLURIBUS UNUM," are incused in the edges of the coins.
James Garfield: 20th President, 20th in Presidential $1 Coin Series
Garfield, the 20th U.S. President, was born in a log cabin in 1831 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. After graduating from Williams College in Massachusetts, Garfield started an academic career at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later Hiram College) in Ohio as a classics professor and soon became its president.
He later changed careers when he was elected to the Ohio state senate in 1859. By 1862, supporters elected him to Congress where he served for the next 18 years.
Finally, during 1880 Garfield won the Presidential election and was inaugurated in March of 1881. On July 2, however, a disgruntled attorney, who sought a consular post and did not get it, shot the President as he waited at the railroad station in Washington D.C. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, tended to Garfield and tried to find and remove the bullet, but he was unable. On September 19, 1881, the President died from an infection and internal hemorrhage.
Past US Mint Presidential Dollar Product Releases
The first four Presidential Dollars to start the series in 2007 were for George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The next four $1 coins released in 2008 honored James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren.
The 2009 coins depicted William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk and Zachary Taylor. The 2010 $1 coin honored Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and Abraham Lincoln. The three previous three dollar coins in 2011 featured Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes.
Garfield $1 Mintages
To date, the Mint produced 74.2 million circulation quality Garfield dollars, which is only 3% of the more than 2.3 billion Presidential dollars struck. It was recently announced that production is suspended for the circulating Presidential $1 coins due to the lack of public usage. Future coins will be limited, therefore, to collector products and sold directly to the public by the United States Mint.
Order Coin Cover from US Mint
Orders may be placed at the Mint’s 2011 James Garfield $1 Coin Cover online at:
United States Mint Product page
The covers may also be purchased through the Mint’s toll-free number, 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Hearing and speech-impaired customers may order by calling 1-888-321-MINT (6468). A $4.95 shipping and handling charge will be added.
Rolls of the dollars are available directly from the United States Mint as well. The special Mint-wrapped $25 rolls containing either Denver or Philadelphia strikes have a price of $39.95, plus shipping and handling.
